Water is a valuable natural resource that we can help to conserve through efficient use and recycling. GSK operates in several regions of the world that are classified as "water stressed" - Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Many countries in water-stressed areas have legislation that closely regulates and monitors the use of surface and ground waters. Sites in these regions are particularly concerned with water use and conservation and sites in other regions have taken on water conservation projects proactively and strategically to be better prepared for stricter regulation of water use. An example of this is the Ermington, Australia site. It implemented a proactive programme that included the innovative use of resources and redundant equipment to reuse wastewater and education of employees in water conservation principles.

Water is used in manufacturing processes, sanitation services and for general site uses and is extracted from municipal sources, wells, boreholes and other sources.

Water usage is reported by manufacturing and R&D operations from all sources. Water used for GSK operations comes primarily from municipal sources (56%) and wells and boreholes (41%). In 2002, GSK used 25.4 million cubic meters of water. Compared to 27 million cubic meters used in 2001, this represents a 6% decrease in the amount of water used. This decrease is due to water conservation and reuse programmes.

A target was set to reduce water consumption 10% by 2005. The target has been reached and we will continue to implement water conservation programmes to maintain this level of water usage or continue to improve.