The French waste water, energy and waste management company has announced the execution of several environmental projects in the Mé region of Côte d'Ivoire. These projects concern the recycling of plastics and a drinking-water plant that will be built in this country where climate change is causing drought.
The news will undoubtedly be welcomed with interest by the people of Mé, an administrative district located in the south of Ivory Coast. “We will soon build a plastic recycling plant and a water purification plant in the Mé region,” announced Gilles Feuillade, general manager of Veolia Ivory Coast. It was during a press conference, given on the 27th of June 2018 in Abidjan, by the West African Business Council of a French Business Association known as Mouvement des Entreprises de France (Medef).
The project announced by Veolia to build a drinking water plant in southern part of the country comes at the right time. The Mé region, named after the river that crosses it, may be watered, but the lack of drinking water is as worrying as in the rest of the national territory. The town of Bouaké, in the centre of the country, has been without water for almost a month due to poor rainfall and quarry works that have accelerated the drop in the water used to supply the city’s dam. Bouaké has 1.5 million inhabitants, more than half of whom are said to be affected by the lack of water. A European Commission mission report, carried out in 2010, states that more than 4 million people in Côte d’Ivoire drink water from unimproved sources, particularly in rural areas. Even today, many children die daily from diarrhoeal and other water-borne diseases.
It is in this context that Veolia‘s announcement comes into play. With nearly 169,000 employees worldwide, the company designs and deploys solutions for water, waste and energy management, with annual revenues of €6.5 billion, including approximately €1 billion in Africa. Even today, many children die daily from diarrhoeal and other water-borne diseases, or from a lack of safe water.
It is in this context that Veolia’s announcement comes into play. With nearly 169,000 employees worldwide, the company designs and deploys solutions for water, waste and energy management, with annual revenues of €6.5 billion, including approximately €1 billion in Africa.
The Mé project will be implemented by Veolia Environmental Services Ivory Coast. The subsidiary, created on November 30, 2017 in Abidjan, has for missions the production, transportation and distribution of all fluids, as well as the design, construction, financing and operation of drinking water sanitation or production plants.
Boris Ngounou
