The purpose of this paper is to explore a scenario that in turn is affecting the human lives and increasing health concerns in a particular area. Moreover, the study also intends to discuss the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) initiatives carried out by Coca-Cola to resolve the issues that are associated with the scenario. For the evaluation of CSR initiatives, many secondary resources are utilized.
Nigeria is the country that constantly encounters issues related to the insufficient water supply in accordance with the needs of the rapidly growing population. As a result of disparity regarding the clean drinking water, more than 63 million people are living without access to potable water (WaterAid, 2016). In addition to this, the infrastructure of water in Nigeria is also experiencing a rigorous negligence.
The rural areas are facing a significant decline in the facilitation of services as well as the urban areas where the people are forced to purchase water from private vendors and the water is sold at unaffordable prices. The rates of water coverage in the country are considered as the lowest rates in the world. The aspect of water accessibility has been stagnated up to 47% before 2006, but 54% improvement has been noticed in the year 2010 (WaterAid, 2016)
In this regard, the Coca-Cola system understands the important role played by water and recognizes it as a valuable resource for the communities it provides services as well as for its products. By emphasizing on the provision of water, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company (HBC) has put forth significant support to the local communities within the country. Coco Cola HBS shares the similar responsibilities as those of the Coco Cola Company that are regarded as protecting water sources through the dissemination of sustainability of local communities (Coca-Cola HBC, 2016). Coco Cola Hellenic is an established company that is accounted for bottling Coco-Cola products and is listed among world’s largest bottlers and tends to make sales of more than two million units (Coca-Cola HBC, 2016). The company is presented with extensive geographic reach with several ongoing operations in 28 countries that is responsible for providing significant services to approximately 560 million people.
With the start of 2014, Coco Cola HBC Nigeria commenced its commitment that in turn is entrenched with the provision of water stewardship by covering the underserved communities. Additionally, the major focus of this commitment is to provide the communities with safe and potable water. Conversely, the aim underpinned by those initiatives was associated with the reduction in rates of incidences that were resulting due to the prevalence of water-borne diseases, alongside attaining amelioration of hardships that were encountered by the local people. The people of Nigeria are bound to obtain water by walking several kilometers (Coca-Cola HBC, 2016).
Coca-Cola HBC Nigeria performs the CSR initiatives in the light of strong commitment that revolves around the promotion of sustainable development for the creation of value in terms of business as well as for the society. The major concern of the company is to provide such products that foster an open environment for achieving best socioeconomic outcomes and contributing to the development of the local communities.
The communities known by the name of Mbaikya (located in Maku), the Lafia Community (Lafia), the Yandev Community (Gboko), the Osengere Community (Asejire), the Down Quarters Community, and the Ita-Elepa Community (Elepa), along with the Kaduna Kakuri Primary School located in Kaduna, are provided with beneficial outcomes in the light of this program. In the context of the program, a total of 4,900 is the estimated amount of individual who were reached through the program, whereas a significant improvement in their daily life has also been noticed (Coca-Cola HBC, 2016). For example, adequate elimination in the amount of time has bee observed which the women to access safe and clean water spent.
Similarly, with the continuation of the designed CSR initiatives, the all-inclusive bore well project contributed by efficiently addressing the issue underpinned with acute water shortage within the mentioned communities (Coca-Cola HBC, 2016). The CSR initiatives put forward by the Coco Cola company recognizes the critical importance of establishing shared values for the workers, along with the involvement of customers, suppliers, and mainly entailing communities.
Furthermore, Coca-Cola HBC Nigeria took initiative for the formation of partnership with the Coco Cola Company embedded with ‘Safe Water for Africa Project’, alongside instilling the scope of the Coco Cola RAIN initiative in accordance with the facilitation of sustainability to access safe water in the communities including Badagry which is situated in the state of Lagos, and Abeokuta community in Ogun (Coca-Cola HBC, 2016).
The construction of every Water Health Center was carried out in order to facilitate over 5,000 individuals present in each community and found within the radius of 1 kilometer (Coca-Cola HBC, 2016). Additionally, the CSR initiatives were also embedded with significant opportunities for employment in terms of valuable job openings and members from the local communities were hired for the installment of Water health Center, as well as for maintenance and operational processes.
References
Coca-Cola HBC. (2016, Feburary 11). About Coca-Cola Hellenic. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colahellenic.com/newsandmedia/News/archive/2010/14-12-2010
Coca-Cola HBC. (2016, Feburary 11). Environmental partnerships: Safe Water for Africa partnership. Retrieved from http://www.coca-colahellenic.com/sustainability/community/waterandenvironment/envpartnerships
WaterAid. (2016, Feburary 11). The Crisis - Water. Retrieved from http://www.wateraid.org/ng/what-we-do/the-crisis/water
