One Drop, an international water foundation has announced a partnership with international wholesale and food specialist METRO for a joint three-year project that will provide access to sustainable and safe water to about 250,000 people in India, one of the most affected areas in the world by the global water crisis.
The collaboration is part of METRO’s Water Initiative, a program that was started in 2017 to provide tips, tricks and products to customers who primarily own businesses to help them save water and money in running an everyday business.
During the partnership, a portion of products sold will support charitable projects like One Drop that are making an impact on the global water crisis.
METRO selected One Drop as their exclusive partner to support the United Nations’ International Decade for Action: Water for Sustainable Development 2018 – 2028 to help reach Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, “Clean water and sanitation for all by 2030,” one of the 17 interdependent SDGs for sustainable development of the UN’s Agenda 2030.
Established in 2007, by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, with the vision of providing sustainable access to safe water around the world, One Drop has 13 active Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in Latin America, Africa and India that will reach 1.3 million beneficiaries once completed.
With this new partnership, One Drop will match the funds raised via the METRO Water Initiative and will choose a NGO with local presence to design and execute the project in close collaboration with the Indian Governments.
It is expected that the project’s concept will be elaborated in 2018 and the collaborative design phase will kick off early in 2019 which will allow for its implementation to start in the field in June 2019.
Over the next three years, One Drop’s objective will be to ensure the sustainability of the water and sanitation system adopted by the communities through its Social Art for Behaviour Change approach.
By using social arts, One Drop will inspire, activate and maintain behaviour changes conducive to good water resources management and improved hygiene. By doing so, the project will also contribute to the reduction of waterborne diseases.