Water utilities across Europe are working with Ukrainian and other colleagues to bring safe water and sanitation services to people on both sides of the border. Here is the contribution of the French sector. 

Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, French water companies have mobilised alongside partner humanitarian organisations (Aquassistance, Action Contre la Faim, French Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, Solidarités International, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, UN agencies, etc.) to support people affected by the conflict. Priority needs have been identified around the access to hygiene in transit and accommodation centres that are hosting the refugees.

This note lists the actions deployed, as of April 15, 2022, by the member businesses of the Professional Federation of Water Companies to respond to the emergency in Ukraine.

• Creation of an Emergency Funds by the SUEZ Foundation, endowed with €100,000, at the beginning of March to:
  • Supporting the action of the NGO ACTED as part of the project in Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast (access to water, sanitation, hygiene, protection, multi-purposes cash, distribution of non-food items and shelters…).
  • Supporting the actions of local NGOs in favour of the arrival of Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

This fund enables future support according to the evolution of the request for intervention of NGOs on WASH in Ukraine.

• Intervention by the teams of the Aquassistance association alongside Action Contre la Faim, to:
  • Send two CDF 5000 (5 m3/h) mobile water treatment plants to Siret in Romania.
  • Train Ukrainian personnel to their functioning before deployment in Ukraine from Chernivtsi. An estimation of the needs is underway.
• At the national level, the creation of the platform “Friday” by Suez, to promote among employees the initiatives launched by NGOs and French associations in response to the Ukraine emergency and to enable the collection of donations or commitments.
• At the regional level, contribution to several fundraising initiatives and calls for donations. For example, in Béziers, Suez, in conjunction with the local community, helped organise a concert whose proceeds were donated to Ukrainian refugees in the city.
• Supply and delivery of sanitary facilities for 4,000 refugees by the Veolia Foundation with the support of its subsidiary Sade and the mobile sanitary facilities supplier Sebach: several sanitary facilities were transported to Moldova and Ukraine, in the Lviv region, to equip border crossing points (transit or accommodation centres), in particular at Giurgiulesti, Palanca and Causeni.
• In March 2022, Veoliaforce, with the local French Red Cross unit, will carry out an audit of needs in Moldova to assess the capacity of local infrastructures for access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border and to propose solutions.
• Production and distribution of 1,320 hygiene kits for 6,600 people by the French Red Cross and Veoliaforce volunteers. Each hygiene kit covers the needs of a family of 5 for one month.

Read more about what the European water sector is doing via Poland, Romania and Germany, Slovakia and Belgium with an update from Germany.