Clean water and sanitation for all
February 1, 2021
Company
Donation to BORDA for better sanitation for the people of Bauang in the Philippines
69 % of global water usage is dedicated to agriculture. This number alone is testament to how reliant our company – one that draws much of its resources from the land – is on water. Managing water and wastewater is, and will continue to be, a global challenge as we continue to deal with the climate crisis that is chracterised by extreme weather conditions such as droughts and floods.
In order to tackle water and wastewater management head on, we entered into a long-term partnership with the Bremen non-governmental organisation BORDA in 2019. As part of our continuing engagement with BORDA, we are donating €10000 to a wastewater management project in the Philippines – a country from which we obtain some of our resources, pineapples and tuna just to name a few. Our goal is for us to play an active role in more sustainable water usage within our supply chain by building projects together with BORDA that are pertinent to both our company and our suppliers, thereby contributing to one of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of clean water and sanitation for all that was drawn out in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Communities listening in on what clean water and wastewater treatment entails
Our donation in 2020 will be used mainly to support the operation of a local septage treatment plant in Bauang, the Philippines in order to provide its community with cleaner water and appropriate sanitation infrastructure. Started in June 2020, the septage treatment plant aims to achieve a few key objectives. It seeks to provide logistical support in sludge collection, transportation and hauling and conduct in-plant training for the septage treatment facility workers and desludging operators. On a wider level, this project aims to replicate itself in other municipalities and cities by attracting other local government units to learn from the Bauang experience.
The septage treatment facility in Baranggay Payocpac, Municipality of Bauang La Union is the first-ever major private sector investment in sanitation management. It is built on a 2785 square metre site based on the design and technical specifications of Basic Needs Services Philipines, Inc. The facility allows septage to be treated in a natural manner in order to stabilise fecal waste. It combines treatment modules that can process up to 20 cubic metres of septage per day either for disposal or reuse and is intended to provide the constituents of the entire Municipality. For the constituents, this means that they would now have a long-term solution to sanitation issues, particularly, fecal waste management.
Because we draw much of our resources from countries that face challenges in providing basic needs such as clean water and sanitation to its people, we are glad to have this opportunity with BORDA to help give back to these communities and contribute to the global effort in achieving more sustainable solutions in clean water and sanitation.
Future Perspectives with BORDA
As stated in the introduction, we are looking forward to developing projects with BORDA that relate directly to our suppliers and their communities. As a start, both Henry Lamotte Food and BORDA held a virtual meeting on 16 November 2020 in which BORDA presented a few of its projects in South Asia and Southeast Asia that have an impact on agriculture and food production. Examples included treating greywater for reuse in agriculture in India and treating wastewater from a noodle processing plant in Vietnam. These projects have helped inspire us with ideas as to how we can help our suppliers and their communities along our supply chain manage wastewater sustainably.
As a wholesale grocer, we recognise the important role water plays in keeping the lands, from which we draw our resources, fertile and the food production processes, in which we transform produce into delicious ingredients for further use in the food industry, sustainable. Our partnership with BORDA is part of our conscientious effort towards more sustainable sourcing of raw materials and products.
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