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Friday, March 29, 2024

Company agrees to reduce cost of drinkable water in PH

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The unreasonably expensive cost of clean and potable water in the Philippines has pushed a multinational consumer goods company to team up with people’s organizations to reach out to poor families and bring down the price of drinkable water.

Unilever Philippines vowed to make potable water an inexpensive basic necessity for all households.

“This a commitment we are more than glad to offer Filipinos. It is a responsibility we are happy to take on,” says Brian Duruin, head of Pureit Philippines, a unit of Unilever.

The company signed a memorandum of agreement with Tulay sa Pagbabago Inc., a non-government organization that provides financing to poor Filipino families, so that they will have access to purified water right in their own homes.

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The agreement is the ninth partnership Unilever has forged, and the biggest so far,  since it introduced Pureit in the Philippines in 2014.

TSPI is a micro-financing organization with over a hundred members. “We are preparing to have this product available  in all of our 147 branches. We service 187,000 clients. I must way this a good start to scale up the program,” says TSPI executive director Eduardo Mendoza.

All members of the TSPI are given a 10-percent price cut on every unit based on loan term payment from TSPI. A family is given the opportunity to buy a PureIt unit with the capacity to purify 1,500 liters to as much as 3,000 liters.

“They do order because of the savings they get. It is 50-percent cheaper than every gallon of water you buy,” says Unilever Philippines vice president for corporate affairs Ed Sunico.

“We are actually pushing this for the rural areas. Right now, there are so many refilling stations. There are several in just a block. Right at every corner, there is one. But what we are not really sure of is how safe the quality of water they deliver. These water stations can claim theirs is safe but what is more safe, I dare say, is the water we ourselves and you yourselves filtered and purified at our own homes,” says Sunico.

Sunico says when PureIt was launched in the Philippines, most of the buyers were from the upper middle to the upper income groups.

“This had very limited social impact. So we looked for ways to penetrate a bigger, wider base. That’s when we decided to tap NGOs and people’s organizations to assist us in delivering this very sound product to families who are more in need of this. There are millions who have access to piped in water, but not potable water,” Sunico says.

Government data show that 7.5 million Filipinos do not have access to clean water, compared to the private sector’s estimate of at least 20 million Filipinos.

Unilever, in its Vision 2020, targets to bring Pureit to at least 20 million households and protect 10 million lives.

In about two years since its introduction, Pureit has sold about 40,000 units as of July 2016, with at least 100,000 lives protected.

A study by Verify Market shows that PureIt is the world’s largest seller of in-home drinking water treatment systems based on unit shipment sales in 2011.

The world’s best selling water purifier is available at online selling platforms such as Lazada and mortar and brick stores such as Abenson’s and select groceries and home and appliance stores.

“The PureIt advantage is that you’re sure and in control. No one else touches or transports your water. You’re safety is not up to strangers. You see it working – no tricks here. You see for yourself how water is purified. And you get it when you want. That means saying goodbye to running out of water and waiting for delivery,” Duruin says.

Unilever India is the sole manufacturer of Pureit. The technology was developed at the company’s R&D facility in Port Sunlight, the United Kingdom in 1999. In 2004, the unit was tested in Chennai, India where manufacturing for the global market started. 

Pureit does not only filter solids  and other imperfections from the water, it also takes away free-radicals such as bacteria, viruses and parasites, according to Unilever. All Pureit models meet US Environmental Protection Agency’s microbiological safety standards.

Unilever says it adheres to the UN Millennium Development Goals of 2000 to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Globally, there are 2 billion people who do  not have access to clean and safe drinking water. And about 80 percent of diseases in developing countries are water-borne with as many as 1.5 million children, mostly below five years dying from water-borne disease.

“Our vision is to double the size of the business while reducing our environmental footprint and increasing our positive social impact. By 2020, we will help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being. We aim to protect 500 million lives. While doing this, we also want to build a 1-billion-euro business. Unilever’s global initiative to help poor communities have access to clean potable water is enabling enterprises to earn while doing good,” Duruin says.

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