WDF sales of One water help pump up donations to £1m

Kevin Rozario

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World Duty Free and Alpha Retail CEO Mark Riches urges more travellers to buy One

UK airport retailer World Duty Free (WDF) has helped One, the ethical bottled water brand, to reach a £1m ($1.8m) milestone in terms of donations for water projects in Africa that will give nearly 500,000 people a supply of clean and safe drinking water. Since August 2006 WDF has funded 19 roundabout PlayPumps, which pump water from deep under ground to storage tanks when children play on them, giving 47,500 people access to a sustainable water source.

WDF and Alpha Retail CEO Mark Riches said: “More than 100m people pass through the UK’s three main airports each year. If just 1% of them bought a bottle of One, we would fund 22 PlayPumps, and if every passenger bought a bottle, 5.7m Africans would have access to clean drinking water as a result. We urge all our customers, whether travelling on business or pleasure, to make One their bottled water of choice.”

Former advertising executive Duncan Goose, the brainchild behind One, added: “The way in which WDF has approached the project and shared our vision is testimony to the fact that companies and consumers are starting to see that they can make a difference to the lives of those less fortunate.” In less than a year One has gone from funding a PlayPump every 11 days to one every three days, with the ultimate aim of funding a PlayPump every day of the year.