An Opportunity To Provide Water Security ....

......For Ghanaian Households

By Kofi Thompson

A few days ago, I wrote and posted an article on Ghanaweb entitled, "?Assisting The Ghana Water Company Limited: A CSR Opportunity For Accra's Breweries?" (http://mobile.ghanaweb.com/wap/article.php?ID=281846).

I received a reply from the CSR partner manager at Lifesaver System's of the UK, which referred to the said article of mine.

I am publishing that email below, so that interested NGO's and businesses in Ghana (such as large water users like: Guiness Ghana Limited; Accra Breweries; Kasapreko; Fan Milk; Pepsi Cola; as well as the Precious Minerals Marketing Company and the small-scale gold mining companies, which together buy most of the illegally mined gold in Ghana that is responsible for the pollution of rivers and the underground water table across vast swathes of the Ghanaian countryside), can contact Lifesaver Systems directly, and work with them to help alleviate water poverty in both rural and urban Ghana, as well as provide water security to the poor in Ghanaian society. Please read on:

"Good Afternoon Kofi,

My name is Theresa Adams and I am CSR Partner Manager for a company called LIFESAVER Systems Ltd.

I have just read your very interesting article (Ghana Web) regarding Breweries and Ghana Water Company Ltd and immediately saw the synergy with what we are trying to achieve. Our main aim is to ‘break the Development Trap by providing personal water security’. The LIFESAVER solution takes disease and bacteria ridden water that would otherwise be unsafe to use and sterilises it at source for safe consumption.

The additional benefits include;

Improved maternal health and decreased child mortality due to malaria and cholera reduction

Improved Hygiene helping lower illness rates related to dirty hands or bathing

The provision of sterile water and improved health increases children’s school attendance

Sustainable solution, this is a long term, low maintenance solution that re-uses this precious resource

Environmentally we reduce the Carbon Footprint compared to plastic, land fill

Considers climate change by negating the need to boil water and thus reduces deforestation

Energy reduction in fuel for boiling water and the transport needed for other methods

We have a product family of four products that share the same ground breaking technology, as an example the Jerrycan is perfect as a home solution and will service a family of 5 for more than 2 ½ years with each member using 3.5 Litres per day. We also have a C2 (Tank) which produces 2,000,000 litres and can serve an entire community for 8 years. After the 2,000,000 litres there are filters to allow the same production again. Michael Pritchard MBE, is the LIFESAVER Systems founder and inventor was recently honoured by HRH the Queen for his technology and its use all around the world over the last 6-7 years.

As an example of some of the work we have done most recently, we are in the process of finishing a Community based project in Malaysia where we worked very closely with the Government to provide 1,500 C2 (Tanks) and have already bought over 1,000,000 people out of water poverty here alone.

As part of our new CSR / Sustainability programme we are looking to partner with an NGO and other Corporates to help us reach as many of the 1.1 Billion people still experiencing Water Poverty throughout the world. Our scheme is to basically match donations like for like, so as an example:

COMMUNITY USE - The C2 (Tank) which produces 2,000,000 litres. 1 Litre costs 0.75 pence and for every 1 Litre donated we will match each Litre, bringing the cost for each Litre down to 0.375 pence

HOUSEHOLD USE - The Jerrycan which produces 15,000 litres. 1 Litre costs 0.81 pence and for every 1 Litre donated we will match each Litre, bringing the cost for each Litre down to 0.405 pence

How we could see this working is that in the case of Ghana Water Company Ltd and Guiness, Ghana Water Company Ltd partner with an NGO, the NGO puts our C2 and Jerrycan on their website and invite donations. They approach Guiness and explain that for every donation made by them or anyone else, LIFESAVER will match litre for litre and donate our products to the most needy. The illustration above shows a Litre in a Jerrycan is .81 pence (4/5 of a penny) and for the C2 (tank) .75 pence (3/4 of a penny). The impact of this is huge as it doubles the number of beneficiaries!

We are looking to do some work in Ghana in the near future and appreciate some of the issues the country faces, it would be a pleasure to assist with this and perhaps with another Corporate involved (Guiness) we could help resolve an increasing issue.

I wondered if you would be kind enough to initially give me your thoughts on our approach and secondly if you think this is worthwhile, perhaps you could point me in the right direction for a contact at Ghana Water Company so I can make further enquiries?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

Theresa Adams

Partner Manager

Lifesaver Systems Ltd

www.lifesaversystems.com"

End of quoted email from Lifesaver System's CSR Partnership Manager.

Tel: 027 745 3109.

Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com.