By Elaine Vitt, contributing writer
After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, David Fischer saw women struggling to carry water to their homes, using dirty buckets and contaminated jerry cans — a product manufactured by his company to transport fuel. He recognized Haiti as a place where he could make a difference.
Fisher is CEO of Greif, a 135-year-old company that produces industrial packaging systems, where giving back is a key part of corporate culture. Backed by his company’s expertise, Pack H2O was born, a simple but lifesaving answer to the problem. Fisher joined YPO in 2006.
More than two billion people around the world must carry water to their homes every day. Most of that heavy lifting falls to women and children, who hoist heavy buckets on their heads and walk for miles, damaging their necks and spines along the way. Once home, the contaminated water leads to illnesses and death among the most vulnerable.
Traveling to client countries around the world, Fischer watched the poor carry their water daily in contaminated containers. Great strides had been made in generating clean water sources, but no one had traveled that last mile: figuring out how to keep the water clean as it was carried home and consumed.
“Keeping clean water clean is the Achilles’ heel to the global water crisis,” says Fischer.
As a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, David knew Greif had the network in place to move quickly. In short order, they introduced Pack H2O, a light weight, collapsible backpack designed to carry water while keeping it clean, which can then be sanitized by the sun after its use. Because it weighs seven times less than buckets and jerry cans but hauls the same amount of water, adults and children can carry it on their backs or heads without causing the pain and spinal injuries they have suffered in the past.
The pack is designed to be easy to store and deploy in a disaster and was quickly embraced by several NGOs such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Habitat for Humanity International, which in 2013 announced a successful 20-countrty trial. It has begun distributing packs more broadly to disaster recovery areas in El Salvador, Haiti, the Philippines, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Demand for the pack is outpacing supply. Pack H2O is now launching microenterprises in areas of need. Greif provides the supplies, and local women produce the pack.
By witnessing need and taking action, Fischer not only created a sustainable, healthy business, but is making a global impact on some of the most impoverished individuals in the world. The benefits of Pack H2O are quickly multiplying, helping communities lift themselves out of poverty and into health.
View more Global Impact videos
The post David Fischer: Keeping Clean Water Clean appeared first on YPO.