Yaounde’s new water project takes off

Two officials from the American consortium; ECC and GE were on Friday, Dec. 12, received in audience by the Minister, Secretary General at the Presidency.

A consortium of two U.S. companies, General Electric Co. (GE) and Environmental Chemical Corp. (ECC) has effectively kick-started the project to boost potable water supply in the city of Yaounde latest, end of 2015.

This is the substance of the 15-minute audience the Minister; Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh granted Richard Ebel, Vice President of the Environmental Chemical Cooperation (ECC) and Ali Ben Haj Hamida, Sales Executive for General Electric Co. last Friday, December 12, on behalf of the Head of State, President Paul Biya.

The project whose negotiations reached conclusive stage last September is already in its execution stage, the Vice President of the Environmental Chemical Cooperation (ECC), said.

“We talked about scheduling the water supply project and how quickly we need to mobilise fast track its execution”, Richard Ebel told pressmen at the end of the audience. The equipment of the GE is already heading for the docks in the United States, he assured. The equipment is expected to be installed in Akom Nyada near Yaounde for immediate deployment.

The project as further explained by Ali Ben Haj Hamida, will add value to potable water in Yaounde. It is the first of its kind to be installed in Africa wherein water treatment will be done through the application of the membrane and desalination technology.

In simple language, the project consists in getting water and treating it to suit the needs of the population. “We have started sending equipment to the site, and we hope to have 55,000 cubic metres of water per day flowing in the taps of Yaounde by the end of 2015”, Hamida said.

The consortium last September announced its intension to disburse 603 million dollars (about FCFA 312 billion) to finance the supply of water in four Cameroonian towns, Yaounde, Limbe, Tiko and Mutengene.

The project they said will be executed in two phases, beginning with Yaounde. It is expected to bring in an additional 55,000 cubic metres of water a day to Yaounde, which currently has a daily demand-supply gap of about 200,000 cubic metres for an estimated population of over two million people and an estimated daily demand of 311,000 cubic meters.