Coke to extend 'Elixir of Life' project

Coca-Cola India, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, is extending its 'Elixir of Life' project to 1,000 schools nationally by 2010.

In the first phase, the project will benefit more than 30,000 underprivileged children from 100 primary and panchayat schools in and around Chennai, John Ustas, chief executive officer of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, told mediapersons here on Saturday.

The project, launched in March this year in association with the Rotary International to provide access to potable water to the underprivileged children, has so far covered 20 schools in Chennai.

Coca-cola has also partnered the UN-Habitat to improve access to water and sanitation including providing drinking water to 150 schools in West Bengal.

Targeting to reach 'zero water balance' with respect to ground water usage by 2009 to seek efficiencies in all areas of water use through a 4R (reducing, reusing, recycling and recharging) approach, the company has instituted the Coca-Cola Citizenship Challenge Awards.

This year, the first prize was bagged by the company's Visakhapatnam unit for its contribution towards water conservation through construction of a check dam for diverting stream water to benefit large community in Pamureli village of Paderu mandal.

"The unit's efforts helped facilitate livelihood opportunities for community through agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and seasonal crops converting 103 acres of forest land into agricultural land besides indirectly enhancing the recharge of ground water level from 16 per cent to 60 per cent. Around 132 tribal families benefited from this initiative," Deepak Kaul, regional vice-president (south), Coca-Cola India, said.

The second prize went to the Silliguri unit in West Bengal for helping conserve the environment through over 200 tonne of PET recycling, while the third prize was shared between Paud unit at Pune and Varanasi unit of Uttar Pradesh for their contribution in rain water harvesting.