UN-HABITAT, Coca-Cola team up for clean water in South Asia

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) signed an agreement today with the soft drink conglomerate Coca-Cola to collaborate on projects to improve community access to water and sanitation in India and Nepal.

Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director UN-HABITAT, described the deal with Coca-Cola, India as “an innovative example of how public-private-community partnerships can help meet the challenge of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).”

The Goals are a series of eight targets for reducing social and economic ills – including the halving of the number of people without access to clean water and adequate sanitation – by 2015.

Today’s agreement includes the setting up of demonstration projects to increase water supply through rainwater harvesting and to better conserve and store water in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. In West Bengal state, 150 schools will be provided with safe drinking water and sanitation. Coca-Cola has also pledged to improve water management and sanitation in selected urban slums and rural areas in neighbouring Nepal.

Mrs. Tibaijuka, who signed the agreement with Coca-Cola, India at a ceremony in Nairobi, UN-HABITAT’s headquarters and the site of this week’s session of its governing council, said “clean water and sanitation can make or break human development.”