• SM, UNICEF launched “Drink for 2″ Program to bring clean water to Capiz communities

  Sep 18

  Water is a very important necessity in order for humans to survive. Being a scarce item, not all of us have access to clean and safe drinking water. That is why SM Supermalls and UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, has recently launched their “Drink for 2” program. It is an effort to provide clean drinking water to disadvantaged communities to the children of Capiz.

  Announced recently at the SM Mall of Asia, this year SM Supermalls pledged to donate at least two million pesos to UNICEF’s Water Sanitation and Hygiene or WASH Program, which aims to bring safe drinking water to over 1,000 children in the province of Capiz.

  The SM-UNICEF project continues to offer anyone a chance to help save a child’s life by giving them access to clean water, basic sanitation facilities and promoting better hygiene practices. For every bottle of SM distilled water sold, 25 centavos will go to UNICEF’s water and sanitation program, enough to provide two children access to safe drinking water for one day in Capiz.

  An estimated 82,000 children in the Philippines die before reaching their fifth birthday and UNICEF has highlighted inadequate and unsafe water, poor access to and low use of sanitary toilets and improper hygiene behaviours as the underlying causes of child under nutrition, illnesses and even death.

  In Capiz, 8% of children die before their fifth birthday, while 37% of children suffer from malnutrition. Almost 40% of households have no access to clean water or basic sanitation facilities. The goal of the program is to help improve health and nutrition of children and mothers through integrated WASH interventions such as providing improved sources of drinking water, constructing basic sanitation facilities and promoting basic hygiene practices such as handwashing with soap.

  SM Supermalls first joined UNICEF’s WASH program last year, where the “Drink for 2” program targeted poor communities in Masbate. In 2008, 100 households and six elementary schools were given access to improved drinking water, basic sanitation facilities and basic hygiene education.

  Both SM and UNICEF hope that the “Drink for 2” Program will be able to achieve its objective in Capiz, which is to provide three public schools and two daycare centers an improved source of drinking water and sanitation facilities and help 100 households build and use sanitary toilets, garbage pits and soakage pits.

  In a global report, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) say that more than one billion people, most of them in Asia, are still without improved drinking water sources while almost three billion live without improved sanitation.

  While the Philippines is noted to have achieved rapid progress in ensuring access to clean drinking water and better waste disposal systems, an estimated 20 million Filipinos still do not have access to improved sanitation facilities. UNICEF is focusing its efforts on reaching the poor and those in remote, rural areas, whose deprivation is hidden behind national averages.

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