Diageo Guinness CMR supports Water Project with 120 m CFA

Cameroonian Government for some time now been battling with adequate supply of good drinking water. Some companies have tried to address this shortage issue. It is on this premise that the Group, Diageo Guinness Cameroon a subsidiary, has inaugurated on Wednesday, October 8 the 2014/2015 edition campaign dubbed "Water of life". By this gesture, it has taken upon itself to ensure that poor communities get access to potable water.

To this effect, Guinness Cameroon has released 120 million CFA francs to the disadvantaged communities to address the situation. Baker clawed, Managing Director of Guinness Cameroon, signed on Wednesday, October 8, 2014, three agreements with three organizations, for the implementation of water construction projects in four regions of Cameroon.

They include; heart of Africa - Roger Milla Foundation, Zusammenarbeit Internationale (Giz), and Water Collective. The fourth convention, with Catholic Relief Services, was however not signed as representatives of this organization were absent.

These projects fall under the 'Water of life' programme, that was launched by Diageo and has been operational since 2006 to enable 1 million people each year in Africa to have access to drinking water. Guinness aims to become by 2015, a leader in solutions to the global water crisis.

Already, about 200 projects have been realized so far in 18 African countries where Diageo is operating. In Cameroon, 120 million CFA francs will be disbursed this year, and partners will have to run the project in the Littoral regions, West, Northwest, Southwest and Extreme - North of Cameroon.

From Diageo Guinness Cameroon officials, projects are not limited to the construction of water points; there will also be training sessions of beneficiary communities in the maintenance of infrastructure, and the creation of the water management committees.

For the implementation of the project, Guinness Cameroon preferred to rely on people on the ground, to entrust these markets to subcontracting companies specialised in the construction of water points. Baker clawed explained this choice by the fact that, we are more effective with partners on the ground, through which we will ensure that we give the water directly to individuals we intend to cover under our scheme.

The cost of each project has not been revealed yet. Still partner associations will have to pass contracts to companies to carry out the work on the ground, thereby increasing the number of intermediaries, and also the risk of never seeing the 120 million CFA francs actually spent on projects.

The Cameroonian experience showed that the more there are intermediaries between the payer and the performers of the project, the less consistent, the envelope for that purpose, with final projects executed poorly or not at all.