Coca-Cola India has entered into a partnership deal with country’s leading NGO SOS Children’s Village to develop rain water harvesting plants across 39 SOS locations across the country. The proposed collaborative project, a part of company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), will witness an outlay of USD 585,000 of which USD 391,920 has been granted by the Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Foundation. The project will be completed in the next one year and will facilitate the lives of around 6,000 children growing up in SOS villages.
Atul Singh, president and CEO, Coca-Cola India, said, “Our sustainability as a business demands a relentless focus on efficiency and prudence in our use of natural resources. Water is fundamental to all communities and water stewardship remains a priority for Coca-Cola India. At our end, we pursue a 3R programme of water conservation that include reduced use of water, recycling of water and replenish the water. This partnership will not only create sustainable water resources for children but will also raise awareness among them and play a leading role for water conservation .”
“Business must not play a constructive role alone, but a leading role for development. We have also established a Coca-Cola India foundation, which will take a lot of such initiatives in future in and around our bottling plants and office complexes. We have already developed 320 rainwater harvesting centres in different parts of the country and some more projects will be operational soon,” added Singh.
He further said, all the industries put together uses only around 7 per cent of water resources where as agriculture alone consumes 35 per cent water. “We at Coca-Cola have also been working on projects to come up with new technology so that our farmers can get better yield using less water,” concluded Singh.
Other CSR activities of the company include organising awareness campaign for the use of bio fuels and providing educational scholarships, besides funding schemes for making available potable drinking water to 20 schools in Chennai and 150 schools in various parts of West Bengal.
— Sarimul Islam Choudhury
