Yemisi Izuora
Coca-Cola Africa is partnering with African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa to gather critical inputs and insights from leaders in the water sector to help understand how the Company and other corporates can address Africa’s water security.
The partnership is in line with Coca-Cola’s approach to continually engage the right stakeholders to ensure the company is responsive and collaborative in its water stewardship strategy.
“The Company has made significant strides in improving its water-use ratio over the past ten years, and recently announced that 3 million more people across Africa have improved access to safe water under its Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) – the largest public-private partnership focused on water in Africa,” explains Dorcas Onyango: Head of Sustainability for Coca-Cola Southern & East Africa.
Coca-Cola Africa continues to fulfil its global goal of safely returning an amount of water equal to what it uses in its finished beverages and their production to communities and nature.
Through collaborative action with over 140 partners, RAIN is in over 2 750 communities across 41 African countries. In addition to benefitting 3 million people across Africa, RAIN has economically empowered 23 000 youth and women and replenished nearly 9 billion litres of water to communities and nature annually.
For instance, in Ghana, Malawi and Mali, the RAIN-supported CARE Water Smart Agricultural project is empowering women smallholder farmers through improved agricultural practices. At least 40 000 women will benefit from increased production and improved food and water security for themselves and their families.
“However, we have much more to do, particularly as water demand and climatic challenges add pressure to managing this precious resource. We believe in solutions based on collective thinking and collaboration, which is why it is so important that we work with partners like African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa to find solutions that corporates can meaningfully contribute to,” Onyango said.
Talking about the partnership, Annemarie Roodbol, senior communications manager for African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa said “no one company or organisation can solve the world’s water issues alone. But through innovative partnerships that leverage the corporate ability to develop employment and entrepreneurship opportunities related to water access and watershed protection, we can sustainably protect and manage this vital resource.”