The Government of Benin is engaged in a major rural drinking water supply project in Borgou, a department located in the east of the country on the border with Nigeria. The project is therefore managed by the National Agency for Rural Drinking Water Supply (ANAEPMR). This state agency has just selected three companies for implementation: the French Vergnet Hydro, the Beninese Forag SA and Agire Sarl.
The three partners will work together to provide drinking water to 35,000 villagers. In concrete terms, these companies will build seven village water supplies. Vergnet Hydro is responsible for installing all electromechanical equipment. This includes 41 submersible pumps, 43 generators and seven chlorination stations. Forag SA was in charge of drilling or rehabilitating 41 boreholes. The installation of the pipes will be the responsibility of Agire Sarl. The Cotonou-based company will also carry out civil engineering works for the construction of 15 water towers, 82 standpipes and the construction of water supply networks.
Project launch in 2019
“The seven networks must be impounded by September 2019. We will resize the networks and supply our partners with equipment as drilling is carried out and rehabilitated,” says Joël Menager, Vergnet Hydro’s project manager. The total cost of this drinking water project is estimated at 5 billion CFA francs, or nearly 8 million euros. This is another step in the gradual conquest of West Africa for Vergnet Hydro, based in Orléans, in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France.
The company is best known for its projects in Mali or Guinea. Recently, it won a contract to supply drinking water to 100,000 people in the Koulikoro region of southwestern Mali. On this project too, the French company is working with local partners to install 269 water points using solar pumps.
Jean Marie Takouleu