PepsiCo Foundation & Pandit Jagat Ram Memorial FORCE Trust partners to expand safe water access program

Mumbai: With a focus on three priority campaigns of Government of India - the Jal Jeevan Mission, Jal Shakti Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission – the PepsiCo Foundation announced that it will invest $ 400,000 in partnership with Pandit Jagat Ram Memorial FORCE Trust to expand its safe water access and sustainable sanitation program in Uttar Pradesh.

As part of the program, the PepsiCo Foundation and Pandit Jagat Ram Memorial FORCE Trust will help provide improved access to fresh water for drinking and domestic purposes, impacting more than 20,000 people and 3,000 children across 13 villages in Mathura district over a period of three years.

The Safe Water Access program will promote water as a fundamental human right and focus on three key aspects of safe water access – conservation, distribution and purification - to help advance access in water risk communities in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh. Another important focus for the program is the development of a sustainable system to enable groundwater recharge of 20 million liters of harvested rainwater in the area.  

PepsiCo India president Ahmed ElSheikh said, “Water is the gateway for human dignity, health, economic prosperity and gender equity. Our partnership with Pandit Jagat Ram Memorial FORCE Trust will accelerate our pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) efforts to improve water security in the region while empowering local communities in Mathura. This investment is a natural extension of our global goal to be Net Water Positive by 2030, helping replenish more water than we use and is a key pillar of our purpose program.”

The partnership will also create WASH awareness (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) focusing on sanitation, solid waste management, and hygiene practices with water quality, safety and personal health behaviors impacting 50,000 people and 3000 children. As part of the WASH efforts, the program will identify 400 women and girls as Menstrual Hygiene Management Guides and 400 youth as WASH guardians to create a strong support ecosystem in their communities.

PepsiCo Foundation president C.D. Glin said, “Over the last 15 years, PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation have helped reach more than 80 million people with access to safe water. By expanding our efforts in India through this new partnership with Pandit Jagat Ram Memorial FORCE Trust, we hope to drive lasting and local impact in the community at the intersection of providing critical safe water access and driving economic empowerment in the process.”

FORCE president Jyoti Sharma said, “Despite safe water, sanitation and environmental sustainability being acknowledged as basic human rights, marginalised communities across the globe continue to live a life of struggle, disease and economic distress because of lack of access. We are grateful to PepsiCo Foundation for the opportunity to alleviate the distress of some such village communities in Mathura.  Through convergence with government plans, capacitation and empowerment of communities – particularly women and youth – we hope to create model Water and WASH secure villages that become an inspiration for all. We are excited and raring to go!”

Since August 2021, PepsiCo and the PepsiCo Foundation have created more than a dozen new programs to reform the company’s water-use efficiency, replenishment, and safe water access efforts. PepsiCo has also piloted an N-Drip’s high-efficiency drip irrigation system in India, Vietnam, and the U.S., and the program is witnessing improved crop yields, reduced fertiliser usage, and 50 per cent less water consumed compared to flood irrigation with an aim to help farmers adopt the technology across 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) by 2025.