Global Water Challenge

Global Water Challenge (GWC) describes itself as "a diverse coalition of leading organizations providing creative and sustainable solutions for universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation." Its partners include "leading business, NGO [non-governmental organizations] and government organizations."

GWC has projects in Mexico, Rwanda, South Africa, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nicaragua and Tanzania.


 * Founder - Daniel Vermeer

Partners
The Global Water Challenge's partners, or members, include:
 * Acumen Fund
 * Ashoka
 * Blue Planet Run Foundation
 * CARE
 * Cargill
 * Catholic Relief Services
 * U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
 * charity: water
 * Dow Chemical Company
 * Emory Center for Global Safe Water
 * Millennium Water Alliance
 * Population Services International
 * Procter & Gamble
 * Rotary International
 * The Case Foundation
 * Coca-Cola Company
 * UNICEF
 * United Nations Foundation
 * Wallace Genetic Foundation
 * Water Advocates
 * Water for People
 * Water Partners International
 * Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council
 * WaterAid

Funding
In 2006, "Global Water Challenge (GWC) was launched with initial funding from The United Nations Foundation, The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC), The Dow Chemical Company (Dow), Cargill, and Wallace Genetic Foundation." Also in 2006, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded GWC a $9.5 million grant for work in Kenya.

In 2008, the Clinton Global Initiative "announced a 'Water and Sanitation Mega-Commitment' by an alliance that includes the Global Water Challenge (GWC), WaterPartners, and the Water Supply & Sanitation Collaborative Council." As part of the commitment, the Clinton Global Initiative gave $25 million to GWC, "to help fund new innovative projects found through the Changemakers.net competition by Ashoka."

PR for member companies
"Coca-Cola helped launch [GWC] in 2004 amid allegations that the company had depleted and polluted groundwater supplies near one of its plants in India," reported Greenwire. "Coca-Cola's commitment to water projects has increased substantially in the last few years. The company already has donated about $17 million so far this year, up from $11.3 million in 2006."

As Coca-Cola's UK and Ireland president, Sanjay Guha, explained at a 2008 marketing conference, programs like GWC allow the soda giant to claim, under the umbrella of its "live positively" corporate social responsibility program: "Just by drinking Coke, you're giving your community a helping hand."

Coke's funding of clean-water projects is "part of a broader strategy under Chairman and Chief Executive E. Neville Isdell to build Coke's image as a local benefactor and global diplomat," reported the Associated Press in 2007. "While Coke has won some praise from global water experts, others complain that it could do much, much more given the company's huge size and insatiable thirst to convert consumers in developing countries into Coke drinkers. Coke's water efforts are 'nothing more than a public-relations exercise,' scoffs Amit Srivastava, director of the India Resource Center, one of the most vociferous critics of Coke's water use in India."

Staff
As of April 2009:
 * Paul Faeth - President
 * Meg Cregger - Office Manager
 * Sweta Daga - Director of Communications
 * Tanvi Nagpal - Director of Water and Sanitation Initiatives
 * Dohini Patel - Program and Communications Intern

Board of Directors
As of April 2009:
 * William K. Reilly - Founding Partner, Aqua International Partners
 * Harriet Babbitt - Attorney
 * Peter D. Bell - Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, Harvard University
 * Steven L. Barker - CFO, VP Finance & Administration, The World Resources Institute
 * Alexandra Cousteau - Founder, Blue Legacy International
 * Neil Hawkins - Vice President of Sustainability and Environment, Dow Chemical Company
 * Shekar Kapur - Film Director
 * Jaehyang SoManager - Water and Sanitation Program

Contact details
Global Water Challenge 1001 Connecticut Ave. Suite 925 Washington DC 20036

Phone: 202-457-0960 Website: http://www.globalwaterchallenge.org/home/

SourceWatch resources

 * Ashoka
 * Cargill
 * Clinton Global Initiative
 * Coca-Cola Company
 * Corporate Social Responsibility
 * Dow Chemical Company
 * Population Services International
 * Procter & Gamble
 * Water Policy Institute