KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 21): Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) said today its South Sudan-based subsidiary Petronas Carigali Nile Ltd had recently launched the first phase of its 'Water for Life' project in Juba to provide sufficient safe and clean water to the local community there.

Petronas said in a statement that the project is in collaboration with South Sudan's Ministry of Petroleum and Nile Hope, a national non-governmental organisation there.

The project will benefit more than 40,000 residents around Juba, the statement added. 

"The initiative is part of Petronas' corporate social responsibility commitment which emphasises community well-being and development through increasing awareness on health, sanitation and safety, improving the quality of healthcare, as well as providing access to clean water," Petronas said.

The statement quoted Petronas executive vice president and chief executive officer (upstream) Datuk Mohd Anuar Taib as saying in his speech that as a responsible corporate citizen, Petronas was looking forward to co-developing sustainable community-based programmes for the people of South Sudan with the Ministry of Petroleum and partners.

“This project is the first of our Water for Life projects in South Sudan. We will be extending the same project to four other locations in the Juba area. When all projects are up and running, we hope it will provide enough clean water to approximately 40,000 people,” Mohd Anuar said.