BAT director KH Masud Siddiqui and head of legal and external affairs Mubina Asaf received the award on behalf of the company, according to a press release issued by the company.
Bangladesh Brand Forum has initiated the award to honour best innovative companies of the country.
“This award is recognition of our commitment and we will continue to serve our people and the society,” said Mubina Asaf.
‘Probaho’ is a CSR initiative by BAT Bangladesh whereby pure drinking water is brought to arsenic-prone areas.
The groundwater in many villages of Bangladesh is contaminated with arsenic, sometimes reaching levels as high as 1-2 mg/L whereas, WHO has fixed the acceptable levels of arsenic in water to be 0.01 mg/L, the release reads.
BAT Bangladesh operates in many areas that lie in these zones, it added.
“Through this project, 73 water filtration plants have been installed so far, which extracts groundwater and runs a purification process where arsenic, iron, manganese, phosphates and other impurities are neutralized before the water is distributed to people.”
BAT Bangladesh uses the SIDKO filtration unit, a government-approved community-based technology for this project, it said adding, “The filtration plants purify approximately 350,000 litres of drinking water, bringing smiles to 175,000 people every day.”