Grameen-Veolia Water Ltd inaugurates its first water treatment plant for the villagers of Bangladesh, in Goalmari
Paris, June 24, 2009 - A year after setting up a joint venture, Grameen-Veolia Water Ltd, 2006 Nobel Peace Prizewinner and founder of the Grameen microdredit Bank Muhammad Yunus, and Antoine Frérot, Chief Executive Officer of Veolia Water, have inaugurated the first water treatment plant intended for village populations living in remote rural areas of Bangladesh.
The plant will eventually supply drinking water to 40,000 people in this village, around 100 kilometers distant from Dhaka, the nation's capital. The water produced from treatment of water from the river running next to Goalmari is compliant with World Health Organization standards. It is distributed via a system of storage reservoirs, standpipes, and deliveries to the farthest-flung locations.
The new plant will be followed by four further treatment plants to provide a total of 100,000 people with drinking water, living in villages in central and southern Bangladesh. Most of the groundwater in this part of the world is contaminated by arsenic, often to a dangerous level to health.
Grameen-Veolia Water Ltd is 50/50 held by Grameen Healthcare, Grameen Bank's health and hygiene subsidiary, and Veolia Water AMI, Veolia Water's subsidiary for Africa, the Middle East and India (with IFC and PROPARCO as shareholders). It can draw on the technical expertise of Veolia Water, which also transfers its know-how to the locally hired Bangladeshi teams. The subsidiary can also count on the Grameen correspondents' network (the Grameen ladies) working with the country's rural populations.
As part of this pilot project, which is based on the economic principles of "social business", drinking water is sold to inhabitants for a price of 0.2 euro centimes per liter, which is 100 times cheaper than locally-available bottle. All profits will be plowed back to drive the development of other water-related projects in Bangladesh.
According to Professor Muhammad Yunus, "this inauguration proves that economics can be adapted to the needs of poor people while meeting their basic needs like access to drinking water despite their limited financial resources."
"With this essential service to health and development, Veolia Water is experimenting with an innovative socio-economic model," stated Antoine Frérot. "We expect the success of this experiment to open up new avenues for achieving the Millennium Development Goal of reducing in half the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015."
Veolia Water, the water division of Veolia Environnement, is the world leader in water and wastewater services. Specialized in outsourcing services for municipal authorities, as well as industrial and service companies, it is also one of the world's major designers of technological solutions and constructor of facilities needed in water and wastewater services. With 93,433 employees in 64 countries, Veolia Water provides water service to 78 million people and wastewater service to 53 million. Its 2008 revenue amounted to €12.6 billion.
Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE and NYSE: VE) is the worldwide reference in environmental services. With more than 330,000 employees the company has operations all around the world and provides tailored solutions to meet the needs of municipal and industrial customers in four complementary segments: water management, waste management, energy management and freight and passenger transportation. Veolia Environnement recorded revenue of €36,2 billion in 2008. www.veolia.com
Contacts
Marie-Claire Camus
Tel. + 33 (0)1 71 75 06 08
marie-claire.camus@veolia.com
Stéphane Galfré
Tel. + 33 (0) 1 71 75 19 27
stephane.galfre@veolia.com
Nathalie de Lataillade
Tel. + 33 (0) 1 71 75 19 28
nathalie.de-lataillade@veolia.com