Protecting the world’s water requires partnerships on all fronts
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar. 22, 2013--
Xylem Inc. (NYSE: XYL), a leading global water technology company
addressing the world’s most challenging water issues, is commemorating
World Water Day and the United Nations’ International Year of Water
Cooperation by enhancing global partnerships to provide and protect safe
water resources in communities around the world.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 3.4 million people
die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Nearly
all of these deaths, 99 percent, occur in developing nations. Xylem,
through its corporate citizenship and social investment program, Xylem
WatermarkSM, works with leading nonprofit organizations to
provide meaningful, sustainable solutions to these global challenges.
“While water is at the center of our business, it is also one of the
most urgent challenges facing the world today,” said Angela Buonocore,
Xylem’s senior vice president and chief communications officer. “World
Water Day, specifically this year’s theme of cooperation, presents an
ideal opportunity to highlight Xylem Watermark’s ongoing focus on
creating social value in collaboration with our valued partners as we
work to bring safe water, sanitation and hygiene education to
communities in need.”
Beginning next week, Xylem Watermark and Fundación Avina, which aims to
improve and increase access to water in Latin America, will initiate the
first in a series of projects in Brazil’s Semiarid, the country’s
northeast region, which is particularly vulnerable to water scarcity.
Teams from Avina, in conjunction with their partner, ASA (Articulation
on the Semiarid), which has been working in this region since 1999, will
build water cisterns and provide water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)
education to community members. Xylem employee volunteers from the
company’s São Paulo location will also join Avina in the field.
In the Philippines, Xylem Watermark and Planet Water, an international
development organization focused on bringing clean water to the world’s
most disadvantaged communities, are supporting sustainable water access
through innovative technology and a hands-on educational curriculum. In
2013, the partners plan to complete 20 projects, building gravity-fed
water towers that will provide daily clean water for 20,000 people. In
Xylem’s Calamba location, located outside Manila, 19 employee volunteers
have joined Planet Water in the field, assisting with construction and
providing WASH education to local schools.
Through five strategic partnerships in more than 20 countries across
five continents, Xylem Watermark has strengthened the resilience of
communities by providing safe water and sanitation solutions to more
than 2 million people in the five years since the program was launched.
In support of Xylem’s mission to solve water, Watermark has responded to
more than 15 water-related disasters with clean water and new water
infrastructure. Xylem Watermark solutions are sustainable and
collaborative, combining community-based efforts with regular monitoring
to ensure projects meet local water needs for years to come.
About Xylem
Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology provider, enabling
customers to transport, treat, test and efficiently use water in public
utility, residential and commercial building services, industrial and
agricultural settings. The company does business in more than 150
countries through a number of market-leading product brands, and its
people bring broad applications expertise with a strong focus on finding
local solutions to the world’s most challenging water and wastewater
problems. Xylem is headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., with 2012
revenues of $3.8 billion and approximately 12,700 employees worldwide.
The name Xylem is derived from classical Greek and is the tissue that
transports water in plants, highlighting the engineering efficiency of
our water-centric business by linking it with the best water
transportation of all – that which occurs in nature. For more
information please visit us at www.xyleminc.com.
Source: Xylem Inc.
Xylem Inc.
Jennifer Jacob, +1-914-323-5745
Jennifer.jacob@xyleminc.com