Procter & Gamble Co. has teamed with a non-profit group to distribute water purification systems in the Dominican Republic, in its continued effort to help eliminate disease in poor countries.
The arrangement, with Population Services International (PSI), will combine P&G’s commercial distribution system with PSI’s network of community groups to bring PUR water purification sachets to consumers. The sachets will sell for about 13 cents each, or five Dominican pesos.
The sachets, each about the size of a ketchup packet, include the ingredients used to treat water in the United States. When mixed into a 10-liter container of water, the sachets force contaminants and dirt to the bottom, and the water can then filtered through a cloth.
“In these times when the public feels that large corporations concentrate mostly on their own profits, PUR demonstrates that there are corporations who care much more about the health of citizens than the benefits they can obtain,” Hans Hertell, the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, said in a statement.
Through the partnership, P&G and PSI will launch a social marketing campaign for PUR. Procter and Gamble’s distributor in the DR, Corripio, will provide free airtime on its four affiliated television stations as part of this humanitarian effort and P&G’s pharmaceutical distributor, Daniel Espinal, will put PUR donation containers in its mid- and high-end stores.