Raise Awareness of Water Access and Conservation
Access to clean drinking water and sanitation is a human right, yet according to the United Nations, 663 million people worldwide have no access to improved drinking water sources, and millions of people in Central and West Africa still depend on unsafe drinking water and lack access to basic sanitation.
Lack of access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene can cause illness or death, impair productivity, and restrict markets for some products and services. We believe there is a compelling economic case for businesses to show leadership in this area.
We are working with local partners and non-governmental organisations in the region, such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), by contributing funding, operational support and training to community water management schemes.
Our progress
In 2014, we renewed our long-standing partnership with the IFRC, in which we have committed to contribute CHF 5 million over five years to improve sustainable access to water, sanitation and hygiene services in cocoa-growing communities in Côte d’Ivoire and in Ghana.
Since 2007, more than 285,000 people have benefitted from water and sanitation facilities in Côte d’Ivoire. In addition, more than 240,000 have benefitted from hygiene awareness training.
In 2015, an independent initiative led by the Community was introduced to encourage villagers in about 30 Nestlé Cocoa Plan communities in the country to voluntarily improve their surrounding living areas.
The ‘Total Clean Up’ initiative was so successful that the communities were recognised by the Ivorian government for their sanitation work in surrounding areas.
In 2015, Nestlé and the IFRC extended the partnership to Ghana, where in both urban and rural areas, improved sanitation is available to a small proportion of the population. The project is expected to improve access to sustainable WASH services for about 90,000 people in cocoa-growing communities. In 2015, a baseline household survey to assess the access to water, sanitation and hygiene services was carried out in 52 sites in the Ashanti and Eastern regions.
In Nigeria and Cameroon, we provide more than 26,000 litres of free clean water per day to the communities around our Agbara and Douala factories.
We also constructed boreholes in the Orile Imo community near our Flowergate factory in Nigeria, impacting on more than 10,000 people.
Nestlé’s partnership with the IFRC
• In 2002, the Nestlé and IFRC collaboration was formally established.
• In 2006, the partnership was extended for another four years, supporting projects related to the IFRC’s Global Water and Sanitation Initiative (GWSI).
• In 2010, the collaboration was renewed for three years, with a focus on building more resilient rural communities in Côte d’Ivoire.
• We renewed our collaboration again in 2014 for five years, with a focus on improving rural communities’ access to water. We also extended our partnership to Ghana.
• Our work with the IFRC in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana is linked to the Nestlé Cocoa Plan.