Poverty Footprint Study on how the Coca Cola - Oxfam America

Table 12 Water use ratios at SABMiller bottling plants for 2009*
Country Plant Water Ratio
YTD (HL/HL)
Access in Zambia
Water YTD (Hls) Production
Volume YTD (Hls)
Zambia Ndola CSD 12.14 1,087,994 89,600
Zambia Lusaka CSD 5.64 2,197,140 389,535
El Salvador In La Constancia
CSD
El Salvador In La Constancia
Juice and water
CSD = Carbonated Soft Drink
2.62 5,854,733 2,237,168
1.72 4,317,683 2,506,809
Water supplies are abundant in Zambia, and yet as the population and economy grow, communities are
increasingly competing for access to this water. For instance, water use in sugar growing has been a source of
tension over water access. There is increasing competition between Zambia’s power utility and Zambia Sugar
for water from the nearby Kafue River, which is used for hydropower generation and sugarcane irrigation and
by local communities. Owing to the ongoing expansion of Zambia Sugar’s growing areas, this competition is
growing more intense.
SABMiller states that its CSD bottling plants in Zambia use from 5.64 to 12.14 hectoliters of water to produce
1 hectoliter of Coca-Cola products. In El Salvador, this ratio is as low as 1.72 for water and juices and 2.62 for
carbonated soft drinks.
SABMiller Water Strategy
Water represents a significant risk to parts of our business, as well as to some of the communities in which
we operate. We also know that issues of scarcity and accessibility cross community and national boundaries
and involve interdependent factors that can vary from country to country and region to region. It follows that
the water issue cannot simply be managed within the confines of our own operations. Local water challenges
are usually best solved in partnership with NGOs, local governments and other local businesses. In the
regions where we operate, we aim to foster a collaborative approach to ensure the best outcome both for
our business and for the local community. Our water strategy is based on the 5Rs (pRotect, Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle and Redistribute), a comprehensive, risk-based approach to managing water in our business and
in the value chain. This model provides a consistent approach, recognizing the different local issues and
circumstances faced by each of our businesses. Over and above our internal commitment to become 25
percent more water efficient by 2015, SABMIller has established the Water Futures partnership, which
includes watershed protection collaborations with NGOs and governments across the world, including
countries at risk of water scarcity in Africa and in Latin America. SABMiller published the first corporate water
footprint in partnership with WWF in 2009 and in 2010 extended this further to include soft drinks in markets
such as South Africa.
See www.sabmiller.com/water for further details.
*Source SABMiller
Exploring the links between international business and poverty reduction 67