Jason Priestley promotes clean water initiative

For moms in their late twenties to mid thirties, there’s a good possibility that Brandon Walsh, the lead heartthrob on 90210, was a major crush. Brandon was a boy-next-door, good guy, always coming to the rescue. In real life, Brandon is played by Jason Priestley, who is involved in some good-deed-doing of his own.

Jason, dad of two, was approached by Walmart and P&G to get involved in their clean water initiative. The goal is to provide 25 million days of clean drinking water to developing countries. Since the campaign began in April of this year, they have been able to donate 15 million days’ worth.

So how does it work? For every P&G product purchased at Walmart in November, the companies will donate one day of clean drinking water to a family in need by way of a simple little packet of powder created by P&G. The packet is poured into 10 litres of bacteria-filled, dirty water, and purifies the water in about 30 minutes, leaving it clean and safe for consumption.

Jason was startled by the statistic that one billion people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water and that 1600 kids die every day due to lack of clean water. “Being a parent myself, I was compelled to join and help with this initiative. Sixteen hundred children dying every day because they don’t have access to clean drinking water is not OK. And that’s something that is totally fixable, I think. We here in Canada, we have the luxury of just being able to go to the tap and have beautiful, great tasting drinking water at our fingertips. ”

Jason recently took a trip to the Dominican Republic to visit a community that has been assisted by the initiative and to help teach families how to clean their own water. “The people there have been living with parasites and the communal wells where they get their water are toxic. The communities, the adults and children, have  all been living with parasites in their systems for years. So to be able to go there and take these packets to these people and show them how they work, it was an amazing experience.”

Canadians can help P&G and Walmart reach their clean water goal by purchasing participating P&G products at Walmart during the month of November. Every little bit helps!