SUEZ and the Ivory Coast’s Ministry of Economic Infrastructure have signed a €19m contract to supply and install 40 compact modular drinking water production units. With a total production capacity of 92,000 m3/day, these units will supply 18 towns in 17 regions. They will be gradually installed, over a period from 10 to 24 months, at all of the selected priority sites.
This project is part of the Ivory Coast’s 2016-2020 National Development Plan and will meet the drinking water needs of around 450,000 inhabitants.
Started in 2011 to address the challenges of demographic growth, the water infrastructure upgrading programme began with larger cities, and is now focusing on medium-sized towns. To bring quick solutions to communities that lack water, the programme has chosen a modular metallic surface water treatment system called UCD®, which is designed to suit local constraints. Since 2013, SUEZ has deployed several units of this type in Ivory Coast, and building on this initial experience, it has developed a model that can be replicated on a larger scale.
The first ten units to be delivered will be installed rapidly to meet the demand of locations where drinking water distribution is partial because of an incomplete supply network or an existing treatment plant being faulty or obsolete.
UCD® water treatment units are modular and flexible, they can be delivered and installed quickly, and are suitable for different types of surface water. They use high-performance treatment processes to provide an extremely reliable source of water that meets European quality standards.
With this new contract, SUEZ is strengthening its presence in Ivory Coast, where it has provided more than 80 facilities, including more than ten since 2012. An innovative version of UCD®, AERO-G, is installed in the Songon (42,000 m3/day) and Bonua II (80,000 m3/day) drinking water production plants, both of which supply Abidjan and the surrounding area. Present on the African continent since the construction of the water treatment plant on the Djoué river, Brazzaville, in 1952, SUEZ has built more than 500 drinking water production and sanitation plants, and continues to serve many of Africa’s capital cities, including Nairobi, Ouagadougou, Dar Es Salaam and Bamako.