Pure Catskill Mountain water drawn from springs beneath the estate of Wall Street mogul Andrew Krieger is en route to tsunami survivors in India.
Leisure Time Ice and Spring Water of Kiamesha Lake agreed to bottle 50,000 gallons of Krieger's water at a reduced cost, Bruce Reynolds, president and CEO of Leisure Time, told the Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y.
About 15 tractor-trailers will begin transporting the gallon jugs of water to a shipping port tomorrow. Another 50,000 gallons of the spring water will be shipped to India at a later date.
The water comes from underground springs Krieger discovered after he bought an old 600-acre dairy farm in Livingston Manor, 96 miles northwest of New York City, nearly 20 years ago.
Krieger also purchased an estimated 50 tons of medical supplies from AmeriCares last week and chartered a cargo plane to airlift the supplies to the coast of India this week — at a total cost of $300,000. The medicine will be used to treat diarrhea, cholera and respiratory tract infections among hundreds of thousands of tsunami survivors.
Krieger, who has close business ties with India, has founded IMGE Emergency Relief Fund to raise money and send supplies to tsunami survivors. The organization will work closely with AmeriCares, a not-for-profit disaster relief and humanitarian aid group.
Krieger, president and CEO of NorthBridge Capital Management in Fort Lee, N.J., is the founder of IMG Academies East, which brings athletic training and rural health initiatives to India.
Contributions can be sent to IMGE Emergency Relief Fund, 1 Bridge Plaza North, Suite 690 Fort Lee, N.J. 07024.
Source: The Associated Press