Healthy hair for ‘Pur’ water

Friday, January 27, 2012 00:00
Written by : Euden Valdez staff writer


(From left to right) P&G Corporate Communications team member Anama Dimapilis, event host Issa Litton, Dr. Greg Allgood, P&G External Relations Leader Clint Navales, World Vision Philippines Executive Director Elnora Avarientos and World Vision Senior Director for Global Corporate Partnerships Keith Kall

WITH all the technological advancements that are supposed to make life easier, it remains a sad fact that there are still many remote and poor communities around the world who do not even have access to basic services such as safe and clean drinking water.


This lack of potable drinking water has resulted to numerous water-borne diseases and led to the deaths of more than a million children each year.

For the past years, Procter & Gamble (P&G) has been fighting this problem through its long-term global advocacy called Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program.

This year, the CSDW Program received extra support from P&G Philippines leading hair care brand Pantene as it launched on January 11 at the AIM Conference Center in Makati City the “Healthy Hair for Healthy Water” Campaign.

With the aim of providing more children safe drinking water, Pantene gives Filipinos a chance to donate one day of clean drinking water through online pledges at the Pantene Facebook page (www.facebook.com/PantenePhilippines).

Through these pledges, the Healthy Hair and Healthy Water campaign can provide CSDW Program’s water purification packets in the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

“Up to 25,000 people can benefit from Pantene’s campaign,” shared by Dr. Greg Allgood, director of the P&G CSDW Program, during the event. He elaborated that this is equivalent to 17 million days of drinking clean water or that’s 34 million liters of clean water during the next year.

P&G’s External Relations Leader, Clint Navales echoes Dr. Allgood’s sentiments. He shares, “Our goal is to be able to get 10,000,000 pledges all over Asia so we would like to invite Filipinos to support our campaign by visiting the Pantene Facebook page and giving their pledge.”

‘Pur’ water
The P&G CSDW Program was launched in 2004 using a powdered water-purification technology—called Pur—developed in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One small packet quickly turns 10 liters of dirty, potentially deadly water into clean, drinkable water.

According to Allgood, Pur contains “disinfecting chemicals that kill pathogens and bacteria responsible for water-borne diseases like cholera.” He identified the chemicals as chlorine bleach and iron sulfate that act like a magnet for dirt and other harmful particles.

Helping ‘Sendong’ victims
The P&G CSDW Program works with more than 120 partners globally to respond to the greatest needs and has provided safe drinking water in over 65 developing countries.

In the Philippines, P&G’s CSDW was able to donate clean water to communities hit by Typhoon Sendong. Done in partnership with World Vision, P&G was able to distribute 600,000 water purification packets to Sendong survivors, including more than 500 families in Mandulog and nearby communities, which was one of the areas hardest hit by the typhoon in Iligan.

World Vision Philippines executive director Elnora Avarientos identified Mindanao to have the most need for clean water.

She said, “5 million people in Mindanao has no access to clean water.”

But with the help of CSDW Program and Healthy Hair for Healthy Water campaign, Avarientos is confident that this will be addressed.