5) Description of health product/service offering: P&G has worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) since 1995 to develop reliable, cost- effective, clean water technologies. This collaboration has produced PUR®, a simple, affordable, in-home system for delivering clean water (a combination coagulation/flocculation/disinfection system). This product has potential for helping to address Millennium Development Goal 4- Reduce child mortality; and Millennium Development Goal 7.

P&G has devised a market-based strategy to bring safe drinking water to low-income populations in developing countries. Work on this strategy has been underway for several years in Latin America and Asia, including clinical studies in Guatemala by CDC, learning-markets in rural villages, and testing of consumer acceptance at the village level. We have expanded to large-scale marketing efforts in several countries using a social market-based approach with the assistance of our partners Population Services International (PSI – www.psi.org ).

The Product - PUR® was developed based on tests with thousands of consumers in developing countries. These consumers consistently said that they wanted visible signals that water was cleaner, at-home control of the process and affordability. The process is simple. Purification of drinking water using PUR® involves simple implements that consumers have in their homes. The contents of one small sachet are added to a 10 litre bucketful of water and mixed. The combined flocculation/ disinfection technology separates the dirt and other contaminants from the water within 5 minutes. The water is then filtered through a cloth to separate the floc. Clear water is ready to drink after a total of 30 minutes to allow for disinfection. Storage in a suitable container is recommended to prevent recontamination.

6) Description of innovation: PUR® has developed an innovative approach to the provision of clean, safe drinking water. Neither of the conventional methods of supplying drinking water, piped-treated or well water guarantee clean and safe supply. The PUR® model combined with safe storage has the advantages of cost, availability, distribution & shelf life. In both the short & long term this point of use approach is complementary to the development of piped infrastructure. P&G have provided R&D skills to deliver an effective, affordable product & the ability to manufacture it in the volume required, but the PUR® project is not just about developing the product. It is a strategy to deliver the product to those that really need it. To achieve this P&G have looked at an alternative marketing & product delivery option. The ‘regular’ P&G marketing model, refined from years of providing products to consumers in the developed world, just does not always meet the requirements of the developing world. The regular marketing model relies on pre-existing infrastructure of transportation, retail outlets & ‘traditional media’ - to get out educational messages etc. This structure frequently does not exist in many countries & as such a new approach was needed. Social marketing combines education to motivate healthy behaviour with provision of needed health products and services to lower-income persons. PSI is helping us to establish distribution systems & sell PUR® through the local wholesale & retail network; primarily to lower- income persons. P&G and PSI are working closely with a variety of other organisations; teachers, nurses doctors, church leaders & humanitarian organisations to educate local populations about the need for safe water & demonstrating PUR®. The social model is proving to be a very effective method of distributing PUR® in remote areas & helping boost the local economy & reduce the occurrence of diarrhoeal illness & other waterborne disease.

7) Operational model: P&G is an international company, marketing more than 300 branded products in more than 160 countries. We have on- the-ground operations in 80 countries. According to P&G's "10K filing", over 20% of P&G’s business is conducted in emerging markets. To ensure that PUR® is delivered to the end consumer, with minimal cost, we have worked with partners such as PSI to develop a social marketing model. Social marketing combines education to motivate healthy behaviour with the provision of needed health products & services to lower- income persons. PSI is helping to establish distribution systems & sell PUR® through the local wholesale & retail network; primarily to lower-income persons. Neither P&G nor PSI add any ‘profit’ to the sale of PUR® - thereby ensuring that the final cost of PUR® is as low as possible. PUR® is also ideal for use in emergency situations. An emergency relief model has been developed to help address the millions of people who every year lack access to safe drinking water because of natural disasters or because of armed conflicts. This emergency relief model involves product distribution along with education materials, typically by a relief agency. PUR® has several potential advantages for emergencies including long-term stability, ease of transport & robustness to treat even very turbid surface waters. Simple education materials in multiple languages have been developed for the combination system to allow for rapid deployment. P&G provides PUR® to global relief agencies, including UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Rescue Committee, AmeriCares, Samaritan's Purse, CARE, Population Services International and others so they can provide drinking water in emergency situations. PUR® has been used in more than 14 countries and more than 200 million liters of safe drinking water have been provided for emergency relief. PUR® is made available at cost to international relief agencies.

8) Human resources: Approximately 100 people in total - counting P&G staff and our partners. These include technical R&D experts, marketing specialists, sales representatives, scientists in water treatment, emergency relief coordinators, and behaviour change communication experts.

9) Key operational partnerships: P&G has joined the US Agency for International Development, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs, CARE, & Population Services International to create the Safe Drinking Water Alliance & help make drinking water safe in three separate countries. UNICEF and P&G have formed an alliance to provide safe drinking water in the developing world. Joint programs will focus on three main areas: supporting UNICEF's drive to bring safe water to schools, helping families in emergency situations & reducing household exposure to arsenic-contaminated water. UNICEF and P&G will initially be working together in eight countries - Haiti, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Uganda, Kenya, & Pakistan. P&G is a founding member of the WHO's Network to Promote Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage. The mission of the Network is to contribute to a significant reduction in waterborne disease, especially among vulnerable populations, by promoting household water treatment & safe storage as a key component of water, sanitation & hygiene programmes. The Network will accomplish this mission through advocacy, communication, research & implementation. P&G and PSI are working closely with a variety of other organisations; teachers, nurses (through the International Council of Nurses) doctors, church leaders, humanitarian organisations, such as CARE to to educate local populations about safe water and demonstrating PUR® in use.

10) Financial Sustainability

          • Fees charged to clients?: No

          • How do you assure affordability?: The PUR® project is run as a not for profit initiative by P&G and our partners. P&G and PSI do not put any profit on the cost of manufacturing and delivering PUR® to the end consumer. The only time profit is placed on PUR® is when it reaches the local shop owner / distributor. This enables PUR® to reach the end consumer at minimal cost and still enables the local shop owner / distributor to make a small profit and thereby maintain a viable business.

          • Earned incomes as a percentage of operating costs: 0%

          • Other funding sources: The USAID and UK governments DFID have both provided funding to help set up a PuR® social market it Haiti.

          • Strategy for long-term sustainability: The PUR® project is run as a not for profit initiative by P&G and our partners. P&G and PSI do not put any profit on the cost of manufacturing and delivering PUR® to the end consumer. The only time profit is placed on PUR® is when it reaches the local shop owner / distributor. This delivers PUR® to the end consumer at minimal cost, but helps the local economy by enabling local business men and women to maintain a profitable business.

11) Current and Future Impact

          • Total number of clients: 2,700,000

          • Clients in the past year: 1,650,000

          • Percentage of low-income clients: 90%

          • Impact: An initially unforeseen impact of PUR® has been the critical role it can play in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps and for people with HIV, and malnourished children. There are a growing number of stories that show how PUR® can help in this specific area e.g. Jemima Odo, in Nyanza Province, western Kenya has HIV/AIDS. “For people with HIV,” she says, “we are prone to stomach problems. Since I’ve used PUR®, the stomach problems have gone.” With her strength returned, Jemina now raises 7 orphans who lost their parents to AIDS & visits churches & youth groups to teach about HIV & safe drinking water. To support the orphans, she buys PUR® at low cost from the Society for Women and AIDS and sells it at a small profit.

          • Overall "market": Based on the estimated 1 billion people without access to safe clean water, and the premise that we can acquire 10% of that - then the potential market for PUR® is in the region of 500 million people. The largest market share is expected to be in sub-Saharan Africa, where people particularly need PUR®, because much of the available waters are turbid. We also believe there's a potentially large market in parts of Asia.

12) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Scaling Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: We will continue to provide PUR® for emergency relief use; this will continue to grow as PUR® becomes better- known. PUR® also has a critical role to play in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps, for people with HIV/AIDS, and malnourished children. Therefore the potential for providing it for humanitarian relief is quite large. For sustained social markets, we initially started with two countries. The intention is to expand to 10 countries by the end of 2006. In the next 3 years we expect that this will increase to 15 countries in total. The largest market share is expected to be in sub-Saharan Africa, where people particularly need PUR®, because much of the available waters are turbid. We also believe there's a potentially large market in parts of Asia.

13) Policy change: There needs to be a greater emphasis on addressing water quality to tackle the immediate public health crisis of over 4,000 children dying a day. There should continue to be investment in providing infrastructure, but this is happening too slow. Even if we meet MDG goals, we'll still leave half of the needy and likely the most-needy, behind. Point-of-use or household treatment is now a proven, cost-effective, and scalable method of providing safe, clean water. It's time for larger investments from donor organizations.

14) Origin of the initiative: Working on a laundry product at the P&G technical centre in Newcastle, U.K., Phil Souter, in collaboration with Jean Wevers and his group in Belgium, had an idea: Could not the same technology used in almost every laundry product act as a “dirt magnet” for drinking water? This technology is frequently employed in municipal drinking water treatment plants. So why not develop a simple, effective, and affordable in-home treatment product? Thus, PUR® Purifier of Water was developed. The striking visual results from the first prototype further convinced Phil and the PUR® team that this little sachet could be a successful consumer product. The compelling nature of the test results, coupled with the clear-cut consumer and humanitarian needs, gave them all the encouragement needed to overcome any hurdles encountered along the way.

Contact Information:
Chris  Smith
Manager - Corporate Sustainable Development
The Procter & Gamble Company
(Business)
Cobalt 12A, Silver Fox Way, Cobalt Business Park, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE27 0QW, UK
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 191 297 6243
Fax: +44 191 297 6296
Email: smith.cw.3@pg.com
Website: www.pghsi.com/safewater