Bill Clinton lauds P&G for clean water initiative.

Procter & Gamble Co. earned special recognition from former President Bill Clinton last month for its ongoing commitment to helping Third-World children through clean water and preventive care.

President Clinton, at his annual Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York, presented Procter & Gamble senior executive Susan Arnold with a certificate highlighting the company's commitment to raise $20 million toward expanding a global water purification program.

The program, launched in 2003 and expanded in collaboration with several other entities, uses P&G's Pur sachets, which include the ingredients used to purify water. P&G was also recognized for a second program, developed in cooperation with UNICEF, to provide tetanus vaccinations to pregnant women in developing countries.

The Pur program, so far, has distributed enough water purification packets to clean 700 million liters of water. When mixed into a 10-liter container, the contents of the Pur sachets force contaminants and dirt to the bottom, and the clean water can then be filtered through. Over the next five years, Procter has committed to providing 2 billion additional liters of safe drinking water.

"That would prevent an estimated 80 million days of diarrhea and save an estimated 10,000 lives," said Greg Allgood, director of the children's safe drinking water program at P&G.

P&G has committed to raising $20 million toward achieving that goal, and is kicking in $2.5 million of it. Of that, $1 million is earmarked for people living with AIDS in Africa. Procter is launching a campaign, called "Give Your 2 Cents Worth," to raise the money (it costs two pennies to clean the water). The tetanus program involves the sale of Pampers. Launched in the United Kingdom in 2006, the effort promises that for every package of Pampers purchased, Procter will provide one vaccination through UNICEF.