P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program Provides Two Billionth Liter of Clean Water

CINCINNATI, March 31, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) announced today that it has provided its two billionth liter of clean drinking water through the P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program (P&G CSDW). With the help of World Vision, P&G was able to distribute the two billionth liter in the town of Dichato to Chilean earthquake survivors. The first billionth liter of clean water was provided in April 2008 in Lagos, Nigeria following more than five years of effort by CSDW.  

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"This is a fulfillment of P&G's purpose as a company, which is to touch and improve lives for now and generations to come," said Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer Bob McDonald. "We are helping to save lives. The P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program has provided two billion liters of clean drinking water through a variety of strong partnerships and emergency relief efforts around the world. P&G is committed to work with our partners to provide billions more liters of clean drinking water and help address the crisis of children dying needlessly as we aim to touch and improve more lives, in more parts of the world."

The P&G CSDW Program is a not-for-profit program founded by P&G as part of its global cause – Live, Learn and Thrive™ – aimed at improving life for children in need. P&G CSDW provides clean drinking water in the developing world. P&G works with more than 80 partners globally and has committed to provide four billion liters of clean drinking water by 2012, using the PUR water purification packets. Since the launch of the program in 2004, P&G and its safe drinking water partners have distributed 200 million packets of PUR Purifier of Water in 57 countries to provide two billion liters of clean water.  

The PUR packets contain a water-purifying technology developed by P&G and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to help reduce sickness and death resulting

from drinking contaminated water. One small PUR packet quickly turns 10 liters of dirty, potentially deadly water into clean, drinkable water.  

Disaster Relief at P&G

Disaster relief is a major part of P&G's corporate citizenship commitment. P&G is focused on efforts where it can uniquely add value. Depending on the needs and circumstances at hand, the efforts include providing safe drinking water through PUR sachets and partnerships, donating P&G products, and contributing our expertise. In Chile, Haiti and other places around the world, P&G has seen that access to clean drinking water is one of the most important needs after disasters.

Since the earthquake struck Chile, P&G has provided more than 225,000 packets of PUR to the affected region (enough safe drinking water for over 35,000 people for a month), and is partnering with World Vision and Chilean non-governmental organizations to reach the earthquake victims. In addition to PUR packets, P&G's total product, cash and employee contributions to the Chilean relief efforts totals nearly $700,000 U.S. dollars.

"P&G is honored to work with our partners including World Vision, PSI, CARE, CDC, USAID, and many others to reach this milestone of two billion liters of clean water," said Dr. Greg Allgood, Director of the P&G CSDW Program. "In Chile our P&G colleagues worked with a strong group of international and local partners to reach people in need of clean water. We are working to improve our preparedness in the region. On World Water Day we launched work with USAID, Catholic Relief Services, and Abt Associates to improve preparedness in Latin America by creating depots of the PUR packets in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua and training partner organizations on how to respond in disaster situations."

About the P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program

P&G is committed to improving the lives of people around the globe, saving children's lives and providing clean drinking water to as many people as possible. The P&G CSDW Program is the focal philanthropic initiative of the Company's overall cause effort -  Live, Learn and Thrive™ - which aims to help 300 million children in need from birth to age 13 by 2012.  Live Learn and Thrive™ has improved life for more than 200 million children around the world with more than 100 programs taking place in over 60 countries. To learn more about the P&G CSDW program, visit www.csdw.org.

About Procter & Gamble

Four billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers®, Tide®, Ariel®, Always®, Whisper®, Pantene®, Mach3®, Bounty®, Dawn®, Gain®, Pringles®, Charmin®, Downy®, Lenor®, Iams®, Crest®, Oral-B®, Duracell®, Olay®, Head & Shoulders®, Wella®, Gillette®, Braun® and Fusion®. The P&G community includes approximately 135,000 employees working in about 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.

SOURCE The Procter & Gamble Company

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