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| Fundacion Coca-Cola will spend $2 million installing drinking fountains that purify tap water at 741 public schools in Mexico - a country where its top-selling products are taxed in an effort to trim waistlines. |
The Mexican charity arm of Coca-Cola is making an effort to provide clean water to schoolchildren in Mexico, announcing plans to donate drinking fountains that purify tap water to 741 public schools.
Fundación Coca-Cola will spend $2 million, and has already installed 42 drinking fountains. "The fountains purify municipal water using sediment filters, activated carbon, and ultraviolet lamps, Fundación Coca-Cola said," according to a report by the soda giant.
Mexican water is notorious for its poor quality.
"Mexicans' mistrust of municipal tap water runs deep and many communities lack access to clean drinking water. This combination has helped make Mexico the Coca-Cola Co.'s second-biggest market in the world by volume of sales, and largest by per-capita sales.Mexico is also a top consumer per-capita of bottled water," the report said.
What is Coke's motivation for showing its charitable side?
The company is "under fire for contributing to obesity," according to the Wall Street Journal. "Some blame the country's soft-drink binge, and the companies that make the soda, for contributing to Mexico's high rates of obesity and diabetes."
Mexico enacted a soft-drink tax earlier this year, and the new law may inspire similar efforts across the across the border in the US.
"A groundbreaking tax on sugar-sweetened beverages recently passed in Mexico could provide the evidence needed to justify similar laws across cities in the US," stated a report by The Guardian in January.
Lawmakers wanted the tax revenue to pay for clean water in schools.
"The money to be raised - estimated at $15 billion pesos - is intended to be earmarked for drinking water in schools. In some communities there are none, while in others it is not potable and bottled soft drinks are safer," The Guardian's report said. 
