PepsiCo unveils Hydro-BID data management and modelling tool

The IDB’s Hydro-BID is an open source modelling tool that has the potential to forecast water availability and supply in the LAC region under virtually any climate, population and land use scenario.

To date, the tool has projected water supplies in Brazil, Peru, Haiti and Argentina, and is expected to impact more than three million people across the LAC region by 2017.

PepsiCo Foundation’s $5m grant to IDB’s AquaFund is contributing to fund pilot projects, in partnership with the governments of Switzerland and Austria, in five countries and will reach approximately 500,000 beneficiaries by the end of 2015.

While some projects are aimed to improve access to safe water and sanitation services for scattered communities in extreme poverty, other projects like Hydro-BID present an unparalleled effort to develop a suite of watershed modelling tools that could be applied worldwide.

“Water is a critical, global resource and few challenges are as significant as the global water crisis,” said Dan Bena, senior director, sustainable development and operations outreach at PepsiCo. “Water is also a central part of our business, and we know that we need to be water stewards in order to sustain our business and the communities of which we are a part.”

Source: PepsiCo