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Water Industry News
ZENON teams with largest water company in
India and World Vision to provide safe drinking water for up to 350,000
tsunami victims
OAKVILLE, Ontario, January 6, 2005 - ZENON Environmental is spearheading
the drive to send its Homespring units to provide clean, safe water to
victims of the disaster in India and Sri Lanka. In a combined
initiative through the assistance of Eureka Forbes, a pioneer and leader
in water purification systems in India (www.eurekaforbes.com),
and World Vision (www.worldvision.ca),
an international relief and development organization and its partners on
the ground, ZENON will initially donate 54 of its Homespring water
filtration units to support relief efforts in Asia.
ZENON's Homespring units will be installed in Sri Lanka and India where
there is a high and critical need for clean and safe water. These
include relief camps, schools and other community locations.
Eureka Forbes has taken on the responsibility of servicing and
maintaining the units to ensure continued safe drinking water to people
in the area. Eureka Forbes is a marketer of the Aquaguard Water
Purifier in India with one of the widest sales and service networks
across the country.
World Vision will provide its expertise in identifying those areas most
in need as well as coordinate the logistics of transporting the units on
the ground. For those units that are installed in temporary relief
camps, these will be moved to other areas where there is a continued
need, such as schools, old age homes, etc. and will not be sold
commercially.
The Homespring product is the first whole home water filtration system
launched by ZENON's Consumer Product Division. With ZENON's
ZeeWeed ultrafiltration membranes at the core of the product, the
patented, self-contained Homespring system makes water biologically safe
for consumption, without chemicals, by physically removing suspended
solids, viruses, parasites and bacteria from the water.
Clean water is critical to the victims' survival at this point.
According to the World Health Organization, the average physically
active adult consumes approximately four litres (one gallon) of water
per day. As each Homespring water filtration unit can potentially
produce up to 27,000 litres of water per day (7,000 gallons) depending
on water quality, the 54 units being provided by ZENON are capable of
providing safe drinking water to over 350,000 people.
"We are committed to helping find water treatment solutions to the
relief efforts in the region," said Andrew Benedek, Chairman and
CEO of ZENON. "Our participation in this initiative
reinforces our positioning to solve real world problems and, as our logo
says, provide Water for the World."
"Providing water is an integral part of World Vision's relief
efforts," said Marilyn Friedmann, vice president, Donor
Development, World Vision Canada. "This partnership with
ZENON supports more than World Vision's relief effort, it supports
reconstruction and will allow us to make significant inroads with the
rehabilitation of municipal water supplies."
In addition to ZENON's efforts with the Homespring water filtration
systems, the company's larger water purification systems, which the
Canadian Army have trusted for years, will be deployed by Canada's
Disaster Assistance Relief Team (DART). ZENON continues to seek
out initiatives to further assist tsunami and earthquake victims in
Asia.
World Vision is an international Christian relief and development
organization working in more than 90 countries around the world,
providing help to more than 85 million people each year.
Canadians interested in donating to Southeast Asian relief efforts can
call 1-800-268-5528 or visit www.worldvision.ca.
ZENON is a world leader in providing advanced membrane products and
services for water purification, wastewater treatment and water reuse to
municipalities and industries worldwide.
In 2004, ZENON Environmental was ranked as Canada's top Corporate
Citizen by Corporate Knights, a business publication addressing
corporate responsibility. This is the second time that ZENON has
been selected to lead as Canada's top Corporate Citizen.
ZENON has also been selected as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers for
the fifth consecutive year. An S&P/TSX Composite company,
ZENON Environmental Inc. trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the
symbols ZEN and ZEN.NV.A; and on the OTC under the symbols ZNEVF and
ZNEAF. Additional information is available at the Company's web
site www.zenon.com.
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