Group

August.13.2020

Africa faces the need for environmental solutions

The story of SUEZ in Africa began in 1948, when the Group built the first drinking water plant in Sherbine, Egypt. It has been providing water treatment, water services management and waste management to towns and industrial companies ever since.

Africa faces many challenges and major changes, including rising populations, exponential urban growth, water resource scarcity and increasing waste production.

It is estimated that 65% of Africa's population will be affected by water stress by 2025.
The continent's water tables contain 5,000 billion cubic metres of water, but 320 million inhabitants have no drinking water.
Barely 65% of Africans currently have access to an improved drinking water source, not to mention the need for sewerage, because as soon as a town acquires a drinking water network, this water needs to be purified before being returned to the environment.
Climate change will worsen the scale of water shortages, especially in regions where water is already in short supply.

Water production and distribution services – expertise to support populations

Supplying drinking water on the African continent is a long-term challenge. The Group works alongside its customers to guarantee long-term access to sufficient quantities of water to meet their growing needs.

SEN'EAU, the new urban and peri-urban drinking water management, operation and distribution company in Senegal

The Senegalese Ministry of Water and Sanitation has signed a leasing contract with SEN'EAU, with SUEZ as its leading technical partner, to manage the public drinking water production and distribution service in urban and peri-urban areas.

This 15-year contract guarantees the supply of drinking water to an initial population of approximately seven million inhabitants

Access to high-quality water meeting international standards in Algiers, Algeria

In Algiers, Algeria, 27 of the Group’s international experts have been working daily, supported by technical assistance teams, to assist and train the local teams of SEAAL, Alger’s water and sanitation company.

This contract, consisting in a transfer of expertise, has enabled SEAAL to develop full expertise as a public utility operator in the field of water and sanitation, supplying drinking water to the Algerian capital 24/7, and creating a true customer relations culture.

High-quality networks to support the development of Casablanca

The Casablanca urban area entrusted the delegated management of its drinking water, sanitation, electricity distribution and street lighting networks to SUEZ via Lydec in 1997, with a view to achieving high performance objectives. Lydec offers higher quality of service to the five million residents it serves and improves the network and the quality of the water supplied while preventing leaks.

Easier access to drinking water in Angola

EPAL signed a contract on 4 June 2020 with the SUEZ Group and its partners, Mota Engil and Soares da Costa, working as a consortium, to build the Bita drinking water production plant in Luanda, Angola's capital.

The contract covers pumping raw water from the Kwanza river, developing a water treatment plant over 39 months and providing nine months' assistance with plant operation. The plant will meet the drinking water needs of Luanda's fast-growing population, which currently stands at 7.5 million, and support the capital's economic development.

Protecting the water of the Nile delta in Cairo, Egypt

In Cairo, the group maintains and manages Gabal El Asfar, the biggest wastewater treatment plant on the eastern bank of the Nile. It is equipped with technology to reuse treatment sludge via anaerobic digestion and cogeneration, producing up to 65% of the energy needed to operate the plant's equipment.

The site, which serves five million Greater Cairo residents, releases water of optimum quality into the natural environment, protecting the water in the canal near the plant and in the Nile delta.

Helping African industry to maximise its economic and environmental performance

SUEZ also supports African industrial companies to help them maximise their economic and environmental performance. In Morocco, SUEZ positions itself as a leader in industrial waste management, with customers such as Renault, Danone and Coca-Cola and the creation of waste treatment platforms in the free cities of Kenitra and Tangier.

Zero CO2 emissions from Renault’s manufacturing site in Tangier

Renault has entrusted the overall management of industrial waste at its Tangier site to SUEZ. Covering 52 hectares, the centre consists of a logistics platform and a sorting warehouse, a biological waste recovery unit and an installation to capture biogas and convert it to energy.

By using biomass as fuel, the site has become the first automotive production plant in the world to produce zero CO₂ emissions.

A waste disposal and recovery centre in Meknès

At the request of the Meknès city authorities, SUEZ has rehabilitated its household waste storage centre and built an innovative disposal and recovery centre that meets the sustainable development targets set by the Moroccan authorities.

With an area of 56 hectares and capacity for 200,000 to 330,000 tonnes of household and similar waste per year, the site helps reduce the area's greenhouse gas emissions by capturing biogas and treating leachates. The initiative makes a social contribution – the Group has helped the 180 "informal" waste sorters who used to work at the landfill site to create a cooperative enabling them to work under safe conditions.

Providing access to drinking water through decentralized solutions

SUEZ has developed the UCD® compact decentralised unit to provide a quick response to the drinking water needs of cities with fast-growing populations, islands and isolated towns. The units are tailored for urgent needs and specific local situations and are installed worldwide. In Africa, with installations in Bamako, Ouagadougou, Niamey and Yaoundé, these units have the advantage of being compact, reliable, secure and easy to operate. Across the world, 230 units have been installed so far.

Drinking water supplies for secondary cities in Côte d'Ivoire thanks to UCDs®

SUEZ has signed a contract with the Ivory Coast Ministry of Economic Infrastructure to supply and install 40 UCDs®. These compact, modular units for producing drinking water from surface water have been gradually installed at all the priority sites identified in order to provide a quick solution for populations short of water.

The project is part of Ivory Coast's national development plan and will meet the drinking water needs of about 450,000 people. Launched in 2011 in response to population growth, the programme to overhaul the country's water infrastructure began in cities, and is now concentrating on medium-sized towns. Several units have been delivered in 2020, and will soon begin to supply drinking water.

SUEZ in Africa for 70 years

SUEZ's 6,600 employees in Africa are helping cities and industry to meet new environmental challenges. The Group has built over 500 drinking water and sanitation plants, serving most of Africa's capitals, and manages the drinking water and sanitation services in Greater Casablanca and Algiers and drinking water in Senegal.

Keywords

#Access to water and sanitation #Water treatment #Water infrastructures #Wastewater treatment #Algeria #Senegal #Morocco #Egypt #Ivory Coast