A precious resource
Twenty year-old Sharla used to spend hours every day walking to her village's open well, waiting in line and then struggling home with three pitchers of water balanced on her head.
Her daily task to fetch water ended when Unilever helped fund a pump in her remote village of Godi in south-eastern Pakistan. Now she has a kitchen garden and can grow vegetables, providing her family with food whilst saving money and time.
"My life has changed since the hand pump was installed; I don't have to travel miles in the heat and wait for hours. Other women have also started their own kitchen garden after visiting my garden, and they are now spreading around the village," she says.
Sharla's story is repeated across Tharparkar, a region of the Thar Desert in eastern Sindh province (south-eastern Pakistan), where Unilever has contributed to installing over 370 hand pumps since 2001. The ongoing scheme is a partnership with the Thardeep Rural Development Project (TRDP), a local NGO that installs the pumps.
Unilever Pakistan covers 82% of the cost of the pump (approximately PKR 30 000 or around €1 500 per pump) and the local communities pay the rest. So far, over 40 000 people have gained access to clean water through the hand-pump programme.
Rainwater harvesting
Unilever Pakistan has launched several other initiatives in Tharparkar since the project began in 2001. Working with TRDP, we have funded three rainwater harvesting reservoirs. These can store water for six months at a time, supplying animals and crops. We have also tested a windmill in a bid to make clean water available to surrounding villages all year round.
Combating water-borne diseases
Water-borne diseases are prevalent in Tharparkar. In an attempt to combat these diseases, we have teamed up with the Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE), an international NGO, to pilot a water filter system designed to purify drinking water.
We started by installing 100 Bio-Sand Filters in the village of Chibriyan. The filters are made locally, are affordable and easily available. By reducing the bacterial contamination in the water, we hope to see a drop in the number of water-borne diseases in the area.
A hygienic Lifebuoy
Through our Lifebuoy soap brand, we partner with LEAD Pakistan, a local NGO, to educate people living in the remote Khaipur and Sukkur districts of Sindh Province about the importance of good hygiene practices.
The team recruited local Sindhi-speaking residents to get first-hand information about the problems people face. They discovered that people don't wash their hands properly because they don't have a continuous supply of clean water. The result is diseases such as diarrhoea and gastro-enteritis.
Children are the most common victims of poor handwashing habits, so Lifebuoy has donated 20 hand pumps to 20 under-privileged and water-deprived rural schools in the districts. The team has taught over 5 000 students, teachers and community members about the importance of hygiene and handwashing with soap.
Forging partnerships
We work with Acumen Fund, a non-profit global venture capital fund that supports health, housing, water and energy services in low-income markets. One of Acumen Fund's investments is Micro Drip, a drip irrigation company set up by the TRDP to provide low-cost systems to poor farmers in arid regions of Sindh Province. We have been a core supporter of the company, providing funding and training for demonstration projects in the Thar Desert.
Volunteer programme
Unilever further supports Micro Drip by encouraging employees to volunteer through the Unilever-Acumen Fund Volunteer Programme. Volunteers provide human resources, sales and marketing, supply chain, finance, compliance and operational expertise.
The programme is part of Unilever's "InLuv" (Integrated League of Unilever Volunteers) initiative. InLuv gives our employees a challenging opportunity to use their skills and experience to help social enterprises, while Acumen Fund businesses benefit from their professional skills. Businesses the fund invests in provide Acumen with a needs assessment, and we provide volunteers with the right skills.
Water use in our factories
As Pakistan's largest fast-moving consumer goods company, we have a responsibility to ensure that our own water use is as efficient as possible. One early step we took was to install effluent treatment facilities at all our factories. After it has been treated, the water can be used to irrigate nearby farms.
Our factories are also required to develop additional projects and to create awareness of careful water use as part of our company-wide water reduction strategy. For example, our Walls ice cream factory in Lahore is one of the few factories in Pakistan that has sustained zero water discharge for almost seven years. The factory re-uses treated water to irrigate its fruit and vegetable gardens.
A Thari experience
The Thar Desert is the seventh-largest in the world, and covers the eastern Sindh province and the south-eastern portion of Pakistan's Punjab province. In 2006, Unilever Pakistan launched a book on the region, written by Margery Rehman with photography by Arif Mahmood. It is a visual journey that documents the daily trials and triumphs of the Tharis. All proceeds from the book are reinvested in Thar water initiatives.
