Since 2011, the Fondation SUEZ has been committed to providing the most vulnerable communities with access to water. It supports NGOs that are improving access to water in refugee camps, remote areas and slums. Here we focus on three projects in South Sudan, Bangladesh and Niger.
This is the background against which, in the early 2000s, two NGOs - Les Puits du Désert in France and Tidène, its partner in Niger - were set up to come to the aid of the regions’ most disadvantaged nomadic and sedentary inhabitants who, until then, received no outside support.
Their priority was access to water, with an ambitious aim: to build or rehabilitate 400 wells. Then, gradually, their programmes increased in scope, taking on all areas of development: health, food safety, education, economic activity, etc.
For every village well built, a three-party agreement is signed so that the inhabitants and head of the village can claim ownership of the structure. A management committee in charge of well upkeep and maintenance is also set up and sessions to raise awareness of hygiene issues are organised and run by a travelling theatre group. And for every market gardening well rehabilitated, some 20 market gardens are created, which improves food safety for inhabitants and enhances the region’s wealth, some farmers having seen their income increase tenfold from sales of their crops.
The programme focuses particularly on girls and women. Freed from their water chores, the former can attend school more regularly and the latter can develop new income-generating activities through the creation of women’s cooperatives. All in all, the programme offers effective ways to help build peace and stability in the region.
The Fondation SUEZ helps to improve the living conditions of over five million people in developing countries by providing support to more than 60 NGOs in developing countries.
