ITT and Mercy Corps Collaborate to Provide Safer Water for Pakistan Flood Victims

You can’t lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself. That could be ITT Corp.’s mission statement. The company is already a global water leader, with products that touch every part of the water cycle, delivering fresh water to communities and commercial businesses, treating and disinfecting it, transporting the wastewater and returning it to our streams and rivers cleaner than it came in. But ITT Corp. is more than a corporate trailblazer — the company is also a global community leader. 

Yesterday, ITT Corp. (parent of Bell & Gossett, Goulds Pumps and other brands serving the HVAC and plumbing industry) announced that through its partnership with Mercy Corps that the company is donating five portable water treatment systems to the Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces of Pakistan in response to the recent flooding.

“We are pleased to be using our expertise in fluid technology to support our partner, Mercy Corps, in providing victims with immediate assistance as well as long-term recovery,” said Steve Loranger, chairman, president and CEO at ITT. “Our funds and our products are being used to provide life-saving water and to prevent the spread of waterborne disease.”

Of the more than 15 million people the Pakistan floods are estimated to have affected, the World Health Organization estimates only 1.2 million had access to critical safe water supplies. The water treatment units, which have the potential to provide clean water to as many as 200,000 people, were donated by ITT and are being deployed through Mercy Corps’ large-scale humanitarian aid response.

This collaborative disaster response is part of a strategic partnership between ITT’s corporate citizenship program, ITT Watermark, and Mercy Corps to provide safe water and sanitation during emergencies. Under the partnership, ITT has established an emergency fund to support Mercy Corps’ initial, on-the-ground assessment of short- and long-term needs following a disaster.

Within hours of being notified of the Pakistan disaster, ITT authorized Mercy Corps to tap $62,000 of ITT’s 2010 emergency response fund to support efforts to provide clean water to flood victims. ITT is also matching all ITT employee donations to Mercy Corps’ Pakistan relief efforts.

ITT and Mercy Corps’ joint activities have included trucking and chlorination of water, repair of water-related infrastructure and restoration and construction of new water sources. In the Swat Valley alone, ITT’s support has already helped Mercy Corps provide 1.1 million gallons of water to 110,000 people. Mercy Corps’ initial assessments in Swat Valley and Sindh province identified an acute need for access to water and sanitation. As many as four million people have been rendered homeless following the worst South Asian floods in 80 years.