Around the world, more than two-billion people are at serious health risks every day due to the lack of clean drinking water, and many of those people live in India. Senator Warner was on-hand today as the 16,000 inhabitants of the poor Indian village of Kompally got access to reliable, safe drinking water for the first time.

Sens. Warner, Bennet (CO) and Udall (NM) attended the dedication today of the 500^th site started by WaterHealth India in just the past five years.  WaterHealth India is a public/private enterprise that works with the World Health Organization to provide safe drinking water to communities that don’t have it now.

“This is a very cool effort to end sickness due to unclean water, which unfortunately is a way of life in many poor communities around the world,” Senator Warner said. “This is an interesting business model that uses a public-private partnership to dramatically reduce waterborne illness and disease that often runs rampant in these poor villages.”

WaterHealth India uses off-the-shelf technology that allows for the construction of a water filtration and purification facility in just 21 days. Communities typically foot 40% of the bill, and WaterHealth funds the rest. Once it’s up and running, the purification centers can provide clean drinking water for about 0.30 Rupees per liter, or about 7 cents per 5 gallon jug.

Also in Hyderabad, the senators addressed 700+ corporate executives attending the annual Confederation for Indian Industry Partnership Summit. Senator Warner's remarks focused on the maturing US-India relationship, including ways to encourage investment that flows both ways and is conducted on a level playing field.   Senator Warner also encouraged the CII CEO's in the audience to invest in America, particularly the rural areas.

Earlier, the senators met with students at the University of Hyderabad, which has become a hub of India’s pharmaceutical industry. India’s pharmaceutical industry constitutes of about 8 per cent of the world’s pharmaceutical production. Over the last couple of years, Indian pharma companies have been increasingly targeted by multinationals for both collaborative agreements and acquisition.