Grameen Veolia

Today we visited the village of Goalmari where Grameen has teamed up with Veolia to create a water plant to treat surface water at a low cost.

The poor are able to purchase 10 liters of water for about one taka (there are 72 takas in a US dollar). The plant started in 2009 with an investment by Goalmari of $600,000. The water is treated by three chemicals then pumped to 11 different taps. “Dealers” work the taps and receive a commission from each liter sale. The water is used by 3,500 families that did not have access to clean water before (other than boiling).

The plant works on a small scale to ensure that it works correctly before rolling the idea out to other villages. The plan for this plant is to serve 9,000 families. They also plan to build 5 more plants in other villages by 2012. The current plant is now self-sustaining meaning that this social business breaks even and does not lose money. When more families purchase water and it begins to make a profit, Veolia will be paid back. Once they are paid back (which could take awhile) then additional profits will be invested to provide more water to more of the poor.

Imagine the significance of providing clean water to anyone in any country. Seeing the first plant was exciting. It is a part of history that will hopefully become a normal part of infrastructure.

I have included a few photos. We could not take photos inside the plant. I did include a photo of a poster used to educate people about clean drinking water.

Tomorrow, I leave for a village and then fisheries so you won’t hear from me for eight days.

I will have amazing photos when I return.