Coca-Cola to `give back` 18.5b litres of water

Posted on : Saturday, 6th September 2014

Beverages maker Coca-Cola has announced an ambitious plan to ‘give back’ an equivalent of 18.5 billion litres of water it uses globally every year in its products and production process by 2020. The firm said the plan is to replenish water used in its products and to support healthy ecosystems and watersheds in local communities in which it operates. By 2020, Coca-Cola plans to have improved water efficiency by 25 per cent as well as treating all waste water from its manufacturing processes. The firm also plans to replenish 100 per cent of the water used in its finished beverages back to communities and nature through the support of healthy watersheds and community water programmes. “We are also working with our bottling partners to assess the quality and quantity of our water sources and develop and implement comprehensive source water protection plans,” said Susan Mboya, Coca-Cola Africa Foundation president during the announcement of a Sh12.75 million support to the Nairobi Water Fund which will go towards the protection of the Upper Tana water catchment. The Tana catchment is the source of water for most of Nairobi, providing 90 per cent of the city’s drinking water and for Coca-Cola bottlers in the Mount Kenya region. It also supplies five major dams that provide water for power generation and irrigation. The Nairobi Water Fund is the first by the Nature Conservancy in Africa and seeks to raise Sh1.3 billion by 2018.