August, 2007

Last April, during our anniversary meeting for the CSIS Global Strategy Institute, we conferred the Institute’s annual Strategic Vision Award to Dr. Greg Allgood of P&G for the remarkable work that he and his company have done with PUR. In a nutshell, PUR is a water purifier that works by pouring a small sachet of powder into dirty water, stirring the contents, and then filtering the water through a cloth. What emerges is safe, drinkable water.

The product is desperately needed, especially when we remember the awful dimensions of the suffering inflicted by dirty water around the world. Think about the dimensions of the challenge this way: Current estimates suggest that some five million people die from waterborne disease every year, or the equivalent of “10 times the number killed in wars around the globe,” according to a recent BBC report. Of these people, across the world we lose an estimated 1.8 million children a year to our incapacity to provide clean water and basic sanitation. Similarly, those children who succeed in surviving nevertheless lose an estimated 443 million schools days each year as a result of water-related illnesses.