As part of its partnership with the NGO Solidarités International, the Veolia Foundation sent two Veoliaforce experts to Sittwe in Myanmar. The goal was to improve the operation of the city’s wastewater treatment plant serving the Rohingya refugee camps.
Nearly 95,000 Rohingyas are currently living in refugee camps in the port city of Sittwe in south-west Myanmar (formerly Burma) on the border with Bangladesh. The NGO Solidarités International, which the Veolia Foundation partners, has installed a wastewater treatment there. Extracting and centralizing sewage sludge from the 4,000 public latrines in the camps has in fact become a key sanitation issue, the aim being to ensure that wastewater does not seep into the water table - a risk that is particularly high during the rainy season (mid-May to October).
On-site, two Veoliaforce experts conducted a three-week mission to optimize the operation of the wastewater treatment plant. They set up an analytical laboratory to improve the operation of the wastewater system. They also trained the local teams to continue using the analysis lab after they left.
More:
> The Veolia Foundation website: humanitarian emergencies and development aid
> The Foundation alongside the Rohingyas with Médecins Sans Frontières