Water purifier: P&G donates PuR water sachets to tsunami areas

Updated - Thursday 10 March 2005

Procter & Gamble (P&G) has shipped 28 million packets of its PuR Purifier of Water to the tsunami-affected areas of southern Asia. Initially, P&G sold the packets to aid organisations at cost, but later decided to donate them because of the enormity of the disaster. The packets contain both a coagulant (iron sulfate) to remove dirt and a chlorine salt disinfectant.

In 2004 P&G abandoned the sale of PuR packets on a commercial basis in developing countries. The packets proved relatively complicated to use and too expensive for most of the intended target group. In addition, relief workers are not keen to try out a new product during an emergency. The powder needs to be mixed with a specified amount of water, allowed to sit for several minutes before filtering through a cloth. Nevertheless, PuR packets have been used by Unicef and other relief agencies around the world. They were also being field tested by the Safe Drinking Water Alliance [1] initiative of which P&G is a member.

[1] JHSPH - Safe Water / Environment

Note: Under the same brand name P&G produces PuR household water filters for the North American market – see http://www.purwater.com/

Related news: Household treatment: PuR Purifier of Water (2), Source, 13 Jul 2004

Web site: P&G Health Sciences Institute – Safe Water

Source: Sarah Ellison, Wall Street Journal / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 24 Feb 2005