News Release

ACC and USAID Unite to Bring Clean Water to West Africa

Program goal is to provide chlorine-based household disinfection to nearly 3 million people

ARLINGTON, VA (June 10, 2008) – The American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have joined forces to help provide safe drinking water to Ghana, Mali and Niger.  

The groups announced a new two-year, $1.3 million partnership to implement household-based drinking water programs in communities facing some of the most severe poverty and health challenges in the world.  The USAID-led programs use chlorine-based disinfection and safe water storage techniques to help reduce waterborne disease and improve quality of life.  Working with local partners in each country, the programs are aimed at reaching an estimated three million people over two years.

“Clean water is essential to life,” said USAID Acting Deputy Administrator Jim Kunder. “USAID has played a strong role internationally in promoting household water treatment and safe storage and handling to reduce water borne disease. We welcome ACC’s commitment to this important public-private alliance to expand efforts to bring safe water to the people of West Africa”

“We are pleased to join in this important partnership,” said ACC President and CEO Jack N. Gerard. “This year, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of drinking water chlorination in the U.S., we want to help others around the world gain sustainable access to safe drinking water.  This partnership highlights the important contributions chemistry makes to society.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrheal disease caused by unsafe water and inadequate sanitation kills nearly two million people each year, mostly children under the age of five.  However, simple techniques to disinfect and safely store water in individual households can dramatically improve water quality and reduce diarrheal illnesses in vulnerable populations by 50 percent.  In addition, a recent study by the WHO found that household-based chlorination is the most cost-effective way to reduce these waterborne illnesses.

Visitors to a special ACC website, www.americanchemistry.com/100years, can take the Clean Water Challenge Quiz to help support the partnership.  For each correct answer, ACC and its global industry partners will contribute the cost of enough chlorine tablets to disinfect 100 liters of water.  ACC’s goal is to help provide 100 million liters of safe household drinking water. To that end, ACC members are committing $200,000 to this $1.3 million partnership which is aimed at improving the quality of life for 3 million people over the next two years.  Members of ACC’s Chlorine Chemistry Division, including Arch Chemicals, The Clorox Company, Dow Chemical, Olin Chlor Alkali Products and Occidental Chemical, have joined with ACC to support this important effort.

This effort builds on the ACC, USAID and the World Chlorine Council’s longstanding commitment to the West Africa Water Initiative (WAWI), a partnership of 13 organizations working to increase access to water supply and sanitation as the entry point for human development and advancing public health.  Over the last five years, WAWI partners have invested over $50 million for programs designed to create healthier lives and sustainable development.

Learn more about chlorine.

www.usaid.gov
USAID is the principal U.S. federal agency providing development and humanitarian assistance.  The agency’s Global Development Alliance links U.S. foreign assistance with the resources, expertise and creativity of the private sector as well as non-governmental organizations.  Since it was launched in 2001, the Global Development Alliance has changed the way U.S. international development projects are financed and implemented.  By cultivating more than 600 public-private alliances with over 1,700 individual partners, it has allowed USAID to leverage an additional $5.8 billion in private funds and contributions from an original investment of $2.1 billion in public funds.