Patrick Couzinet, CEO Veolia Water Technologies Africa
The speed and magnitude of Africa’s ongoing urbanization, with 1.3 billion people expected to live in cities in 2050 compared to 480 million today, combined with its rapid industrialization, has shed a new light on the evolving and multifaceted needs for water treatment and infrastructures. To address the plurality of these needs, Veolia Water Technologies has defined and launched a dedicated project called “Ambitions for Africa”. Carried out by 1,000 dedicated employees across the continent, the “Ambitions for Africa” [ads1]project aims at anchoring the company in the territories where it operates through local partnerships, community engagement and tailor-made solutions.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 28 June 2018-/African Media Agency (AMA)/- With nearly 10,000 employees worldwide, Veolia’s Water Technologies unit specializes in water treatment solutions and provides a complete range of services from the design to the building, upgrading and maintaining of water and wastewater treatment facilities for industrial clients and public authorities. The company is a recognized global expert on how to treat, recycle or reuse water with over 350 proprietary, cutting-edge water treatment technologies that can also produce and recover energy, extract raw materials or even create valuable byproducts.
The latest concrete step of Veolia supporting Africa’s needs is its brand new chemical blending facility in Johannesburg, South Africa. Inaugurated today, June 28, 2018, in the presence of Mr. Hachmi Kennou, Governor of the World Water Council and President of the “Cities and Sanitation” task force, and Mr. Claude Laruelle, Chairman of Veolia Water Technologies, this facility employs 40 people and will produce water treatment chemicals to answer the demand for quality water treatment from both municipalities and industrials throughout the African continent. This state-of-the-art plant has a maximum ouput capacity of 15,000 tons of water treatment chemicals per year and implements best-in-class practices: it recycles 100% of its wastewater and reduces the consumption of potable water through the recycling of wash water.
Moreover, capitalizing on the robust, easy-to-operate, low-energy packaged plants which have been manufactured at Veolia Water Technologies’ South African plant for the past 15 years, Veolia is also widening its market reach and is now distributing these products all over Africa, including in remote locations or in harsh climates. Recent installations include a three-part project for Shanta Gold at its New Luika Gold Mine located in the Lupa Goldfield, south west Tanzania, where Veolia Water Technologies has supplied a River Water Treatment Package Plant, a Borehole Water Treatment Plant and a Sewage Treatment Plant. The company also supplied two packaged water treatment plants to Bambisana Hospital in remote Eastern Cape, South Africa, to provide potable water to the hospital as well as to treat its sewage water for reuse.
Finally, within the framework of “Ambitions for Africa” is the will of Veolia to assert its commitment to the continent and its regional anchorage through the implementation of local win-win partnerships. Veolia is thus developing projects with local partners who bring the invaluable knowledge and expertise that enable the company to adapt its offering and properly respond to the challenges of each country in Africa. Attesting to this strategy, South African company Ceracure is now a stakeholder in Veolia Water Technologies’ South-African subsidiary. This key partner will bring Veolia its expertise in the field of control and electrical instrumentation. In the same spirit, an ambitious partnership has been established with Moroccan company Afric Chimie for the distribution of Veolia’s chemical products in Morocco.
Patrick Couzinet, CEO Veolia Water Technologies Africa, said : “In 30 years, one citizen out of 4 on the planet will be African. The challenges the continent is facing are considerable but solutions and services already exist to answer to legitimate human needs such as access to clean water, waste and pollution treatment or energy access. We wish to provide our expertise and know-how on environmental solutions to those who need it the most and we will remain committed to the African population and sustainable development of the continent as a whole”.
