With the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), we support Every Drop Matters, an initiative helping tackle challenges related to water supply, sanitation, water management and climate change around the world. Through this longstanding partnership between Coca-Cola Eurasia and Africa Group and UNDP, we have joined in undertaking more than 100 projects in more than 20 countries, including Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

Projects include watershed restoration, sustainable agriculture initiatives, capacity-building among government water managers, and more. In Uzbekistan, through Every Drop Matters and based on community needs, solar-powered water pumps were tested for four years with local village groups. Each solar panel and pump set is estimated to supply around 5,000 villagers, providing 470 cubic meters of safe drinking water per day. Due the program’s success, the system has been implemented in more than 25 communities, and reached 125,000 additional people in the Navoi and Samarkand regions.

In the Baunibad slum of Bangladesh, rainwater-collection systems have been installed on school roofs. These systems rely on gravity, not electric pumps, to take the water to the schools’ new drinking-water taps. In addition, small water treatment facilities were supplied to densely populated neighborhoods, reducing the pollution in local ponds. The treatment systems have airtight ‘bio-digesters,’ which produce biogas that local people can use as fuel. Communities have coordinated bio-digester management committees to keep the new systems maintained.

To date, Every Drop Matters has directly benefitted more than 1 million people in in Eastern Europe by improving access to safe drinking water or positively influencing water governance.

In 2014, we expanded our partnership with UNDP to include a new program entitled, New World. The program is focused on inclusive, sustainable human development initiatives that make meaningful long-term improvements in communities and have measurable impact. The program is set up to provide grants to countries/communities who plan to implement programs that address different areas of development outlined in the Millennium Development Goals and the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2000 and 2015, respectively. The program is focused on three areas:

1.     Community water stewardship to increase access to safe drinking water and sanitation services and adaptation to climate change and improved water resources management through inclusive and practical community based approaches

2.     Supporting active lifestyles and diseases prevention for enhanced community wellbeing

3.     Empowering women and youth through improved education and job creation for more resilient communities.

Check back for more information on New World in the next few weeks.

Learn more about our Every Drop Matters work with UNDP.