Our long journey with UNICEF WASH programme in India continues for 2024-2026
Our cooperation with UNICEF Finland dates back to 2007 when we started our operations in India. We wanted to support the community that suffered from water scarcity, proper sanitation facilities and hygiene knowledge. WASH stands for water, sanitation and hygiene, and it is one of the most important programmes that UNICEF runs to improve the lives of children and their families.
As we celebrate World Water Day, which aims to inspire action to tackle the global water crisis, it is good to recognise how much work is still to be done in India alone to improve water accessibility. Most of India is under high or extremely high water stress, which describes the inability to meet the human and ecological demand for water.
Over 600 million Indians will face acute water shortages in the coming years; 42% of households cannot access safely managed drinking water, and nearly half of the schools in the country lack basic handwashing facilities. These are just some severe challenges the UNICEF WASH programme aims to tackle.
The photos: copyright UNICEF
When renewing our contract for the coming years, Marja-Riitta Ketola, Executive Director of UNICEF Finland shared her thoughts about the collaboration:”We are grateful for the cooperation with Lindström. Long-term support for our work has enabled significant results for children. Lack of clean water endangers children’s health, nutrition, education, and future. The effects hit girls and disabled children particularly hard. With clean water and sanitation, more children survive, grow, and develop.”
During these years, programmes and initiatives supported by UNICEF have improved the lives of millions of people. For example, Jal Jeevan Mission provided access to safely managed water services to 20 million people, and youth-led projects such as Youth4Water helped restore a heavily polluted wetland to its natural beauty in Mangalajodi village.
“We are proud to be a part of this amazing journey with UNICEF Finland and the WASH programme in India. As a company that operates in the laundry sector, we understand the importance of water and sanitation for our customers and the communities we serve. During these 17 years, we have witnessed great progress in many water, sanitation and hygiene services, but the UNICEF WASH programme in India is not yet ready to retire. We are committed to continuing our support for the programme”, says Juha Laurio, CEO of Lindström.
The WASH programme promotes the UN Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030. Achieving this goal is not easy and can only be achieved with significant progress in India as well as in other parts of the world.
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