The Coca-Cola Foundation says its Replenish Africa Initiative (RAIN) has improved access to clean water for more than 4,000 communities across 41 African countries.

Some of the countries, according to the foundation, include Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Uganda, Swaziland, Egypt, South Africa.

The RAIN project, which was launched in 2009, is the foundation’s flagship clean water programme in Africa, with a goal of improving access to clean water for six million people.

The project is contributing to helping countries across the continent achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on clean water and sanitation (SDG six).

Natural disasters, increased pollution, and a lack of resources are all driving forces of the water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa.

‘RAIN is a testament to the power of collective action. Working with our partners, RAIN’s transformative impact can be felt today in 4,000 African communities’, Chair and President, the Coca-Cola Foundation, Bea Perez, said.

‘This programme drives impact for the sustainable development goals and our focus on people, communities, and the environment’.

The foundation noted that RAIN, through the collective effort of more than 300 international and local public, private and civil society partners, has also enhanced access to hygiene and promoted better hygiene behaviours.

For example, in Kenya, with support from the foundation, the Kenya Upper Tana River Basin Water Fund was established to address threats to water supply security for nine million people living in this watershed.

The programme has also enabled the economic empowerment of people by creating opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship, and skills generation.

Also, the project has helped several African utilities in coping with the rapidly growing water demand in cities, and delivered essential hygiene items and personal protective equipment to help slow the spread of Covid-19.

Furthermore, Africa, it is understood, has been warming progressively since the start of the last century, and in the next five years, according to the UN World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), northern and southern Africa are likely to get drier and hotter, while the Sahel region gets wetter.

‘The Coca-Cola Foundation is committed to working with communities and governments to enhance climate change adaptation and help address the challenges that urbanisation creates for the delivery of clean water and sanitation throughout the continent’, President for The Coca-Cola Company’s Africa operating unit, Bruno Pietracci, said.

Source: The Coca-Cola Foundation

Photo source: World Bank Photo Collection