Employee projects highlight World Water Day at Cummins

The activities range from a river cleanup in South Africa and a community engagement event at a dam along a river in India, to an oil recycling project in Turkey and an education program reaching students in Brazil.

“Our company and employees work diligently to be better stewards of this increasingly important world issue,” said Scott Saum, Program Manager for Cummins Water Works, the company effort to address the global water crisis. “We have been very successful in implementing creative solutions to reduce water consumption in Cummins’ facilities and operations around the world. And I’m proud to know we are creating positive change in local communities with our many employee involvement activities.”

The alarming reality is water scarcity is growing exponentially. There are currently an estimated 785 million people around the world lacking access to safe water. About 1.7 billion – 1 in 4 – lack access to a toilet. At current consumption rates, it’s estimated by 2050 around two-thirds of the world’s population will be facing water shortages.

Those sobering statistics led Cummins to create Cummins Water Works.  Launched in 2021, Cummins Water Works partners with leading water experts to invest and engage in sustainable, large-scale, high-impact water initiatives around the world. By 2030, the program’s goal is to become net water positive by creating community water benefits that exceed the company’s water usage in all regions where Cummins has a presence.

The multi-million-dollar program has projects underway in Brazil, Canada, China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, South Africa and the United States. The employee projects connected to World Water Day are spread across the entire month of March.

One of the larger efforts is taking place in Guarulhos, Brazil near São Paulo, the most populous city in the country. Cummins Brazil, working with Trata Brasil, a public interest organization dedicated to improving sanitation, and Water.org, are holding 18 sessions this week in three public schools to reach 1,200 students, 7- to 13-years old, on the importance of sanitation and clean water (see photo above).

“The objective of this action is to promote environmental education through playful actions focusing on water supply and sanitary sewage, impacting not only students, but also school professionals, the school community, and the students' parents,” said Soraia Senhorini Franco, Regional Corporate Responsibility Manager for Cummins in Brazil.

All of the employee initiatives around the world have the same bottom-line goal as Cummins Water Works: strengthening communities by helping them address the global water crisis.