18 Oct 08

Wexford, Ireland – Call for all to unite in fight against water-borne diseases at the official launch of Aquatabs in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Representative drawn from the ministries of health and water resources, governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as pertinent bodies were in attendance at the launching ceremony of Aquatabs in Ethiopia.The Ministry of Water Resource (MoWR), Ethiopia has called on Governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as private institutions to work in partnership to prevent waterborne diseases at the official launching of "Aquatabs", water purification tablets, in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Speaking at the launch of Aquatabs on October 18th, 2008, Yohannes Gebremedhin, Water Resource Administration Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Department Head with MoWR said, “all concerned bodies need to work to allieviate waterborne diseases that result from unclean water. Efforts of all members of the society is fundamental in preventing waterborne diseases that occur due to lack of safe drinking water and hence the supply of water purification tablets to the market would help alleviate the problem” he said, and went on to say that “Water gets highly contaminated and water purification tablets have a significant contribution to get rid of this problem. About 1.1 billion people worldwide have no access to safe drinking water and the supply of this tablet to the market will help reduce the mortality rate of children under age five”.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, Kevin O’Callaghan, Head of Sales, Africa for Medentech said “the availability of Aquatabs in Ethiopia will make significant impact to those suffering from water borne diseases and we are delighted to be represented by Minasie Kifle, General Manager, EtMedix, Ethiopia who said that “the company has begun supplying sufficient Aquatabs to the public at a reasonable price to those most in need”.

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News Media Contact: D. Richardson; +353.53.9117910

Medentech is committed to driving a significant positive health impact globally by improving access to safe drinking water and by reducing surface contaminations by developing, manufacturing and marketing cost effective disinfection solutions. Its Aquatabs brand of rapidly dissolving tablet is one of the best known and most respected names in point-of-use water purification globally and is used to disinfect billions of litres of water every year. Medentech is headquartered in Wexford, Ireland with distribution agents in over 60 countries worldwide.

Aquatabs is a trademark of Medentech.