“Every 1,000 water purification devices installed lead to an avoidance of 1,500 cases of childhood diarrhoea and the avoidance of the death of one child every year.”

The inclusive business venture

HUL is the current volume leader in India in terms of table- top water purification devices with over 7 million sold since 2008. HUL now seeks to enable more urban and rural poor families obtain a Pureit device. Distribution of this product is forecast to reach 6000 people in the 1 year pilot phase and 1 million people per year once the pilot is scaled up.

Commercial drivers

Through partnerships with NGO’s, rural outreach organisations, co-operative societies and federations, HUL aims to make safe drinking water available and affordable to 500 million people by 2020. Pilot programmes have shown that such initiatives prove profitable for both HUL and MFIs making these partnerships commercially viable for each partner.

Development impacts

The project will benefit the urban and rural poor by increasing their access to safe drinking water. In turn, this will for instance reduce the spread of water-borne diseases and decrease the amount of working hours lost to illness. According to HUL, research has found that every 1,000 water purification devices installed leads to an avoidance of 1,500 cases of childhood diarrhoea and the avoidance of the death of one child every year. It will also benefit local entrepreneurs and promote the spread of information on micro-finance institutions as ways to develop poor areas.

Objectives of Facility engagement (May 2012)

BIF support will be used to create commercially viable distribution models in which HUL will partner with MFIs and non-MFI channels to distribute Pureit to untapped markets.