AB InBev with Jaldhaara Foundation and WaterHealth India to provide clean water to 20K people
Hyderabad: Anheuser Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s leading brewer on Thursday, inaugurated its first WaterHealth Centre (WHC) in Sangareddy, Telangana, in association with Jaldhaara Foundation and WaterHealth India. The WaterHealth Centre, located near AB InBev India’s Crown Brewery, was inaugurated by Smt. M. Vijayalakshmi, Chairman – Sangareddy Municipality, in the presence of B. Chandrasherkar, Commissioner – Sangareddy Municipality and Ali Baig, Manager – Sangareddy Municipality. This launch reinforces the company’s efforts to achieve its 2025 global sustainability goals on water stewardship and enhances water access and security across regions. It also builds on AB InBev India’s existing partnership with Jaldhaara Foundation and WaterHealth India to provide clean and safe drinking water to rural, peri-urban, urban underserved communities in the region.
Smt. M. Vijayalakshmi, Chairman – Sangareddy Municipality at the inauguration, said, “We commend AB InBev, Jaldhaara Foundation and WaterHealth India for coming forward to support us in providing clean and safe drinking water at Sangareddy. We will provide the necessary support in making this a success.”
The Sangareddy WaterHealth Centre will provide safe and portable drinking water at 70% lower cost than the prevalent market prices for a 20 litre can. With a purification capacity of 1,000 Litres per Hour, the WHC can dispense up to 10,000++ litres of safe drinking water per day. The money collected will be used for sustaining the regular maintenance and upkeep of the system installed. WaterHealth India will carry out the general operation and maintenance for a period of 25 years. By providing access to safe drinking water, the community will be largely protected from incidences of water-borne diseases in the area, which will lead to lower cost of public health expenditure and improved economic impact.
“Mitigating growing water challenges across our communities and supply chain has always been a key focus area for AB InBev. Innovative solutions such as water health centres are the need of the hour as water scarcity, of both availability and access, continues to be a growing problem, and smart partnerships can augment their effectiveness to drive awareness. Our intervention in this underserved community will provide clean and safe drinking water access to around 20,000 people. Through our partnership with the Jaldhaara Foundation and WaterHealth India, we are catalysing collective action to address specific challenges in high-water stressed areas in the communities where we operate”, said Ashwin Kak, Head – Procurement & Sustainability, India & South East Asia, AB InBev.
To improve the communities understanding of the correlation between the use of safe water and improved public health, periodic social marketing and education programs will be conducted to influence social norms and individual behaviours. These programs will help spread awareness on the importance of using safe and clean drinking water to prevent health hazards and unhygienic practices. A specialized team will also conduct social awareness drills periodically across schools, anganwadis, women-help groups, etc., to educate them on safe water usage and improved public health. These activities will help drive clean and safe drinking water adoption through the WHC and other preferable WASH practices.
Increasing access to clean water is an essential priority for AB InBev as it works towards achieving its purpose of Bringing People Together for a Better World. The brewer spearheads water conservation within its operations by deploying effective watershed management programmes in its facilities. This includes improving water efficiency within breweries by adopting a rigorous water management program and state-of-the-art technologies. By recycling wastewater to potable standards and reusing this for non-production purposes such as at cooling towers, for floor cleaning and gardening as per the company’s global water usage standards, its breweries have reduced water consumption by 20-30% over the last few years.
