Company Announcement - BASF celebrates World Water Week by donating portable water containers to Makapanstad community. BASF focuses on sustainable use of natural resources during 150 year anniversary and beyond. BASF in South Africa recognised World Water Week recently by donating 20 ‘Hippo Water Roller’ portable water containers to the community of Makapanstad, north of Pretoria.  World Water Week, a programme of the United Nations, is designed to promote projects that focus on the responsible use and preservation of water resources. The theme for 2015 is ‘Water and Sustainable Development’.

With South Africa being a water scarce country, the challenges facing a large portion of the population include access to clean water.  Compounding this is the fact that the majority of this sector has to travel vast distances to carry the water containers from source to home, with women, children and the elderly often carrying up to 20kg containers for many kilometres. Designed in Africa for Africa, the Hippo Water Roller enables individuals to collect 5 times more water than a single bucket by simply rolling the container along the ground. The savings in time, energy and reduced suffering are immense and the positive social-impact benefits are far reaching. At the handover ceremony, Vice-President and head of Business Center at BASF in South Africa and Sub-Sahara, Joan-Maria Garcia-Girona said:  “One of BASF’s core values is that we act responsibly as an integral member of society.  Linked to this is our corporate purpose of ‘We create chemistry for a sustainable future’, where we focus on developing innovations and solutions in collaboration with others to help make the future more sustainable.”

“Access to water is a basic human right, but in many areas of the country, this remains a challenge.  We would like to thank BASF for providing these containers to the people of Makapanstad in order to alleviate the burden of carrying water,” said Elvis Choma, Area Manager of the Department of Environmental Affairs:  Chief Directorate: Natural Resource Management.

Described as a community that has “actively taken control of their natural resources”, the Makapanstad community was identified with the assistance of the Department of Environmental and Water Affairs.  The donation of 20 rollers was made to the Makapanstad Bush Encroachment Project, a registered non-profit organisation, whose primary aim is to encourage members of the community to be actively involved in land preservation and job creation. BASF has also donated starter vegetable seed packs to the project, further supporting the United Nations theme of sustainable development, as well as one of BASF’s core anniversary themes of “food security.”

During 2015, BASF is celebrating its 150 year anniversary through a number of interactive and innovative activities.  Garcia-Girona went on to say: “BASF established itself as a science and research based organisation 150 years ago.  Over the years this winning recipe has not changed: We recognize societal trends and the needs of people; with research and development we find new and innovative solutions to meet these challenges, again and again.  But our focus is still on improving people’s quality of life. This, however, should not come at the expense of the next generations. When we conduct research today, we keep one guiding principle in mind: sustainability.”

BASF’s global and local 150 anniversary program is envisaged as a virtual laboratory – the Creator Space™ programme creator-space.basf.com, in which the company aims to try out new ways of working together over the next year and beyond – within BASF and with relevant stakeholders i.e. customers, scientists, and various communities. The three anniversary topics focus on urban living, energy, and food security.