Safe drinking water – Sri Lanka

The availability of safe drinking water is a major concern for many communities, particularly in rural areas. According to World Bank studies, currently only about 10% of all Sri Lankan households has water on tap and every fifth person relies on rivers, streams and other unprotected water sources for their drinking water. In order to help rural communities by providing access to drinking water, Nestlé is financing clean drinking water facilities in villages located near its manufacturing operations.

For exampIe, the Company recently inaugurated two drinking water facilities at the Sandalanka District Hospital and Pannala National School, in the vicinity of the Nestlé Lanka Kurunegala factory. The hygienic facilities are built by drilling deep bore wells and installing water tanks to store the clean water. The Nestlé drinking water facility is situated on the main sports grounds of the school of over 3,000 students.

During the inauguration at the Sandalanka District Hospital, the District Medical Officer Dr. Jayasekera said, “The Nestlé water facility has solved a serious problem: the hospital has enough water but the water is not safe and is not suitable for human consumption. Furthermore, not only has Nestlé built this valuable water facility but it has also been involved in tarring our internal roadway, landscaping our hospital premises and upgrading our children’s park.”

Nestlé Sri Lanka has been recognised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce as one of the 10 Best Corporate Citizens in the country for 2006 as well as 2005, and also received the Category Award for Best Employee Relations for 2006.