Coca‑Cola Pakistan Donates Solar-powered Water Filtration Plants for Türkiye Quake Relief
[Karachi, 9th July 2023]: In a hand-over ceremony at the Karachi port, Coca‑Cola Pakistan has donated solar-powered water filtration boxes for the earthquake-affected communities in Türkiye. This is in an effort to transfer learnings from the humanitarian disaster after 2022 floods in Pakistan to Türkiye.
Humanitarian relief efforts usually focus on immediate short-term assistance but several communities remain impacted for years, especially in the infrastructure-torn rural regions where power distribution challenge take a long time to rebuild and the access to clean drinking water is difficult. This project is a model of business-to-business and government-to-government collaboration between Coca‑Cola Pakistan and Coca‑Cola Turkey as well as between the regulatory and diplomatic channels of the two allied nations.
The water plants were handed over to the Turkish Consulate General at a ceremony in Karachi attended by Vice Consul Oguz Kozanli, Acting Turkish Consul General Ali Fuad Erkurt and other donor organizations.
Speaking at the event to journalists, Fahad Ashraf, Vice President, Coca‑Cola Pakistan said, ‘We’re happy to be doing our small part in providing practical solidarity to our brothers and sisters in Türkiye by assisting them in post-disaster recovery and replicating the same sustainable solutions that we set up for the communities in Thatta as part of our flood relief efforts in Pakistan. We hope it makes the same positive impact on the lives of the affected communities and women in Türkiye that it did in Pakistan.”
The donated solar water plants have cutting edge sustainability innovation design incorporated: Each of the five water plants will provide 10,000 liters of clean drinking water to affected communities daily and will help mitigate the health risks associated with waterborne diseases.
Vice Consul Oguz Kozanli said, “This is a reflection of the deep ties that exist between the people of Türkiye and Pakistan. Coca‑Cola’s generous donation, particularly highlights the company’s sensitivity to disaster disruption, innovative solutions to combat climate change, and the well-being of the affected communities.”
As part of its global water security pledge, Coca‑Cola recognizes that access to safe water for drinking and sanitation is essential to the communities where they operate and across their value chain. The company replenishes 116 percent of the water it uses back to the nature in Pakistan and prioritises the resource under its flagship World Without Waste program.
The water partners for this project with Coca‑Cola are Indus Earth Trust and Boond-e-Shams.