Hybrid solar/manual pumps set up to provide a sustainable drinking water service for more than 600,000 Ivorian people

Picture caption: Inhabitants of Tchantcheve (Sub-Prefecture of Bonoua, Department of Grand Bassam) getting drinking water from the solar/manual hybrid pump demonstrator set up in 2019.

A total of €18 million funded through a concessional loan from the French Treasury Department

“VERGNET HYDRO will lead a project to update 1,000 water distribution points in Côte d’Ivoire with hybrid solar/manual pumps ready for management. These will supply drinking water to more than 600,000 people,” Thierry BARBOTTE, Managing Director of VERGNET HYDRO, proudly announced. Worth a total of €18 million, funded through a concessional loan from the Treasury Department (of the French Ministry of Economy and Finance) to Côte d’Ivoire, the project has now been ratified with the signing of an intergovernmental agreement between the two countries.

For each of these 1,000 water points, VERGNET HYDRO has committed to (1) carry out the preparatory work of blowing, cleaning and checking the borehole, (2) supply and install a solar pump, a manual pump, a 4 m3 tank, taps and all related fittings (pipes and cables, etc.), (3) build the superstructures and (4) run awareness and training programmes (via its Ivorian subsidiary, SAHER). “Management of all these water points will be immediately entrusted to professional operators to ensure the project’s sustainability. Our water points will, therefore, come with all the fittings necessary for such management in a rural context,” indicated Etienne DECHERF, Chief Sales and Operations Officer at VERGNET HYDRO.

Two hybrid solar/manual powered demonstration pumps installed in 2019

In 2019, VERGNET HYDRO installed two hybrid solar/manual powered demonstration pumps in Côte d’Ivoire. The country’s Hydraulics Minister, Laurent TCHAGBA, was able to see how the VERGNET HYDRO solution worked during an official visit to the one in Koffikokorekro (Adaou sub-prefecture, administrative department of Aboisso) on 22 November 2019.