Aquassistance Organization

In March 2009, the Aquassistance Board of Directors decided to undertake twelve new projects in addition to the sixty already in progress. Although eight of them are rather conventional hydraulic projects carried out in West African villages, the four others are more atypical. They range from the master plan for the integrated management of waste in a small town (Gaibandha) to the post-crisis reconstruction of urban water networks (Gumri and Bwamanda) and to the capitalization of experience (collaboration with ENDA Tiers Monde). The teams of volunteers are being trained to enable the first missions of expertise to be all carried out before the end of 2009. The first will take place before the summer.

AQUASSISTANCE is a Non-profit Organization of personnel of GDF SUEZ Group who volunteer to provide assistance to populations in need in the areas of water, environment and waste management. It sets out to make the skills of its members and some physical resources available to these people.

The state of precariousness of millions of people in the world with respect to water and environment is the reason for founding the association. Its purpose is to provide assistance in the field to populations in distress by bringing them an appropriate service and equipment.

The association is designed to act in all cases where a mission of experts from the professions concerning management of water and the environment is justified, whether for an emergency, development or rehabilitation. The association is disinterested. Coming to the help of distressed populations is its single preoccupation, its only justification.

Consequently the association does not allow any exploitation for publicity of the actions undertaken with a view to a commercial advantage, any competition between professionals and field workers, any political involvement.

Priority is given to voluntary work. The association is made up of members grouped into local sections to suit the locations of the sites of the Group.

Volunteers, all members of the association, propose and carry out the projects selected by the Board of Directors of the association. A central animation team organizes the operations to be undertaken, monitors their progress and ensures their coordination. The permanent members of the central animation team are the only persons who receive a salary.

  Aquassistance was born in the autumn of 1994, after the Rwanda tragedy. At this time the French water companies as a matter of urgency had just constructed and connected to the distribution network, for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of refugees, a pumping station at Goma (Zaire) and had just rehabilitated the treatment plant and the distribution network of the town of Cyangugu (Rwanda).

  The volunteers of the Lyonnaise des Eaux who had helped to bring about the success of the operation and lots of others who had followed its progress with attention, convinced of the effectiveness of the missions undertaken by their profession, decided to get together to come to the aid of populations in difficulty henceforth wherever they might be, and to create to this end a specialized humanitarian association, Aquassistance, open to all the personnel of the Group.