The African Water Association’s Ordinary General Assembly held by videoconference on Wednesday, March 31, 2021 gave a go ahead to the Executive Board to change the Association name by adding the word sanitation. The name was changed from African Water Association (AfWA) to African Water and Sanitation Association (AfWASA), taking into consideration the "sanitation" component of the Association's mission.

The idea of changing the name was first officially raised in Kampala, Uganda, during AfWA 20^th Congress, by Mr. Lansana Gagny Sakho, then Managing Director of ONAS (Sanitation Corporation of SENEGAL). This is not only to take into consideration in a more visible way, the actors of sanitation who are part of the Association, but also the fact that in its development, AfWA has made sanitation a significant pillar of its operations.

Thus, this request, sent to Mr. Sylvain Usher, Executive Director of the Association, was brought before the Scientific and Technical Council (STC) which, judging its appropriateness, proposed 3 names to the Governance Committee which in turn, confirming the appropriateness of the change, considered the question of the new name by analyzing the 3 proposals made by the STC and selecting the most relevant one that it submitted to the Executive Board for validation. Finally, the last step was the approval by the Ordinary General Assembly, which was done on March 31.

It should be noted that although the Ordinary General Assembly approved the name African Water and Sanitation Association, it will still be necessary to wait a few months for its implementation. Indeed, AfWA being recognized as an International Organization, such a change implies legal and administrative procedures, as well as the modification of the visual identity...

But in the meantime, the sanitation actors, members of AfWA, are delighted with this name change which gives them a real identity and strengthens their feeling of belonging to the Association.

ENVAL Cabinet & Laboratories is a consulting firm specialized in microbiological and physico-chemical testing and analysis in West Africa as one of its main areas of operation, which has just found its way into AfWA family amidst the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Contract identifying ENVAL as an affiliate member of AfWA has been signed on March 10^th, 2021 by Mr. Bakary Coulibaly, Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

ENVAL Laboratories is for sure one of the most advanced private laboratories in West Africa in terms of food, water, soil, foliar and oil analyzes, as well as noise and air quality measurements. ENVAL has been an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory since 2012 and has been supporting the following stakeholders in performing required analyzes for product quality certification: Carrefour, Nestlé, SODECI, Vitol Fondation, TOTAL, COLEACP, Partners in Food Solutions, anteagroup, LUKOIL, CITRANS, CIMAF, FOXTROT International, etc.

Under this framework, AfWA Director of Programs, Dr. Simeon Kenfack and Mr. Gilles Djagoun, Senior Water Program Coordinator in charge of AfriCap, paid a working visit to Enval Headquarters in Angré, Abidjan on March 10^th, 2021 from 10:00AM to 12:00PM, aimed at identifying rooms for collaboration between AfWA and ENVAL for better water quality in Africa.

With the facilitation of the various Unit Managers, AfWA representatives successively toured the Microbiology Unit, the Heavy Metal Analysis Unit, the Physico-Chemical Analysis Unit and the Textile Analysis Unit.

Following these tours, AfWA Director of Programs introduced the Association, highlighting its history, vision, mission, activities and comparative advantages; he further expressed the wish that ENVAL could become a member of communities of practices set up by the Association and one of AfWA programs' mentors as well, having its peers benefit from its potential and know-how. Mr. Bakary Coulibaly, CEO of ENVAL Laboratories felt honored and gave a positive outcome to this direct query. He finally committed to visit AfWA Executive Office in the days ahead.

The 86th meetings of the Scientific and Technical Council (STC) of the African Water Association (AfWA) started this Monday, March 15, 2021 under the theme "Contributions of the WASH sector in the fight against COVID 19 moving towards the 2022 Dakar World Water Forum. This meeting, held for the third consecutive time in videoconference, and sponsored by SOTICI, is attended by leading experts in the WASH sector, all committed to improving access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation services for the people of Africa.

The opening of the meeting was marked by a series of tributes to the founding fathers of the Association, including Mr. Marcel Zadi Kessy (Côte d'Ivoire), forerunner of AfWA, Mr. Abdoulaye Bouna Fall (Senegal), and Mr. Gilbert Tshiongo (DRC) all present at the first hours of AfWA and who strived to make it grow.

Mr. Sylvain Usher, Executive Director of AfWA and Mr. Ramzi Omaïs, CEO of SOTCI paid tribute to the memory of the illustrious departed and promised to perpetuate their works.

In his welcoming remarks, Dr. Papa Samba Diop, Chair of the STC paid tribute to women for their commitment to the discussions and actions for access to water and sanitation on the continent. He also advocated that young people's voices be heard and that leaders involve them in the debates on the challenges of the sector. Regarding the World Water Forum Dakar 2022, the STC Chair reminded the strategic member position of AfWA and invited the Association to write a white paper to be submitted to the organizing committee of the forum.

During this first day of the STC's meeting, participants were able to discover innovative technologies presented by the sector's industrialists, in particularly tools for protecting water and sanitation companies' information systems, equipment for remote management and supervision of drinking water networks, and a case study by Eau du Morbihan after two years of using Filtralite - an innovative filtering media.

Opened on March 15, the 86th CST conference will end on March 17, 2021.

The Importance of Water

World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, focuses on the importance of freshwater.

World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. It is about taking action to tackle the global water crisis. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

AAE invites you to participate in the communication campaign around this celebration by answering the following question: What does water mean to you?

Please send your answer and photo to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Celebrating AfWA Women Leaders !

Hurray, it is time again to celebrate women's rights and showcase their accomplishments!!!!

The African Water Association (AfWA), in support of the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, ‘Women in Leadership: Achieving an Equal Future in a COVID-19 World’ uses this occasion to express our appreciation to the wonderful AfWA Women’s Network for their resilience to ensure that women and children, regardless of their socio-economic, religious or ethnic background, enjoy sustainable water and sanitation, especially in this era of COVID-19 where such services are crucial to curb the spread of the pandemic.  The leaders of the various networks have been phenomenal in spearheading this course. Under the auspices of International Women's Day today, we celebrate and honor AfWA women leaders of our network, stellar overachievers, seemingly ordinary women accomplishing extraordinary deeds. 

Their contribution towards the fight against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has been manifest in diverse ways, including:  disinfection of classrooms, administrative blocks and toilets of schools, distribution of personal protection equipment made up of boxes of masks and soap and construction of handwashing stations to promote handwashing with soap in schools.  They were also involved in organizing webinars to educate members and the general public on “Communication management of water and sanitation companies during the COVID-19 pandemic”; “Efforts by operators and professionals in the water, hygiene and sanitation sector in the fight against COVID-19”;  "Mechanisms for maintaining the quality of water and sanitation services in Africa and resilience in times of health crisis".

We celebrate AfWA's women leaders and honor them for their dedication that has brought the AfWA Women's Network this far.  Well done!!!

The African Water Association informs all its members, and the entire community of stakeholders in the water and sanitation sector that the 86th meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council and Exhibition will be held from March 15 to 17, 2021, by videoconference under the theme: WASH sector contribution in the fight against COVID-19 by the WWF 2022.

AfWA invites all the stakeholders and those interested in the development of the WASH sector on the continent to save the date to participate in this meeting of exchanges around the challenges of access to water and sanitation in Africa.

The registration link as well as the Agenda will be communicated to you shortly.

The professional family of Mr. Marcel ZADI KESSY did organize on Thursday, January 28, a ceremony to pay tribute to the man who devoted a good part of his life to the development of the water and electricity sector in Côte d'Ivoire.

This ceremony took place on SODECI-CIE’s headquarters esplanade, in presence of several officials, namely Hon. Laurent TCHAGBA, Minister of Hydraulics, and Hon.  Ms. Anne Désirée OULOTTO, Minister of Health, Environment and Development.

Many other Ivorian high-ranking personalities participated in this solemn ceremony around the mortal remains of Mr. ZADI who was praised by all for his hard work, integrity and altruism in regard of his noble causes.

 AfWA’s Executive Director, Mr. Sylvain USHER who spoke on behalf of the Pan-African Association, for his part, bowed down before '' this great visionary who wanted to create cooperation between water and sanitation operators, because like a seer, he had already glimpsed the challenges of access to water on the continent, and the difficulties that would be faced by drinking water suppliers to provide quality services to the population. Mr. ZADI had also seen how Utilities could help each other to improve their performance, without having a considerable impact on their budgets. He therefore, with his peers from other African countries, created the African Union of Water Distributors in 1980''. He is the Nostradamus of our time," said AfWA’s Executive Director, who was also pleased to have been able to pay tribute to this founder, at the occasion of AfWA’s 40^th anniversary celebration in Kampala -Uganda, during the 20th Congress in February 2020.  

Mr. Usher also recalled the deceased's attachment to the gender dimension, another of his visions of the time that is being realized today. President Zadi has always believed in the competence of women, so that wherever he has gone, he has worked to give value to women, to propel them to the ranks they deserve''. He said.

To dwell on the qualities of President Zadi, continued Mr. Sylvain Usher, would lead us to spend many days here. There is so much to say about him. Then, in a voice full of emotion, he addressed the deceased in these terms: ''Your passing reminds us, as if it were obvious, that we are ultimately very few things, and that we must take advantage of every second, every minute here below ... We are all happy to have known you. We are all proud to have been part of your life. It has been a great honor to have worked with you, to have learned from you, you who knew how to do so much with so little, you who knew how to cultivate love and friendship''. Finally, as if to commit himself to the perpetuation of his works, he concluded his speech with this quote from the French philosopher and writer, Jean d'Ormesson, ''The dead live, as long as only one living person still carries them in his heart''; and I can say with certainty that there is much more than one living person who carries you in his heart.

Died on October 13, 2020, President Marcel ZADI KESSY was buried on Saturday, January 30 in Yacolidabouo, his home village.

Since 2015, approximately 350 million people have benefited from the impact of AfWA's actions to provide drinking water; of these, 285 million live in urban areas and 65 million in rural areas. With regard to sanitation, AfWA influences the quality of services for more than 110 million people living in urban areas on the African continent.

This is the more than positive outcome of the 2020 Review and 2021 Planning Workshop, organized by AfWA and its implementing partners, from February 2 to 5, 2021 in Assinie Mafia, Côte d'Ivoire.

During this workshop, the activities planned for the past year were reviewed. Activities that, “despite the health crisis facing the world, were able to be carried out. This health crisis has forced us to "stay at home", but it has also forced us to call upon our intellectual genius, our intelligence to find the best way to carry out our activities", said Mr. Sylvain Usher, Executive Director of AfWA.

It’s the challenge that the African Water Association achieved, throughout the year 2020, by organizing all its meetings by videoconference.

This is why, the Director of Programs, Dr. Ing. Siméon Kenfack, said: "we can therefore state with absolute certainty that during the year 2020, the Association has succeeded in better reaching its targets in terms of advocacy and mobilization of scientific, technical and financial partners, but it has also learned to adapt to difficult conditions, by equipping itself with online training tools, communication tools and has trained its staff to adapt to this new situation".

With regard to the prospects for the activities of the African Water Association, it is important to note that in this context of resilience to the effect of COVID 19, AfWA has reviewed its implementation strategy, with the identification, the evaluation and establishment of 4 regional implementing partners, one in Burkina Faso for West Africa, another in Cameroon for Central Africa, another in South Africa for Southern Africa, and the last one in Uganda for East Africa. ‘’Most of our fieldwork will be conducted through these regional implementing partners," said Dr. Kenfack. In addition, to increase the impact of its actions", AfWA is initiating new programs to be implemented in 26 countries, says Dr. Simeon Kenfack, who adds that "in response to the quantitative and qualitative challenges of human resources in the water sector in Africa, AfWA has established the African Water and Sanitation Academy, based in Uganda, to teach and empower all categories of human resources in the sector in Africa".

With all these actions, AfWA will further strengthen its position as a leading Association in capacity building for water and sanitation stakeholders in Africa.

ERANOVE Group’ subsidiary companies organized on Tuesday, January 26, 2021, a day of tribute and testimony to Mr. ZADI KESSY Marcel, former Managing Director and former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SODECI-CIE Group, AfWA’s founding President, who died last October.

The objective of this day was to honor the memory of the illustrious deceased and to continue keeping his values. A privileged moment, a duty of memory, that of celebrating a man who by his work, his intelligence, his wisdom and his humility, became a reference, not only in CÔTE D’IVOIRE and worldwide.

"This great man had a vision, he had a capacity to materialize this vision, to inspire leaders, to shape great minds and to push back the limits of knowledge. Through his professionalism, he will have taught us all to listen, love work well done, the culture of excellence, the recognition of merit," acknowledged Mr. Ahmadou BAKAYOKO, Managing Director of CIE-SODECI Group.

The representative of the Governor of Abidjan district welcomed "the memory of the illustrious deceased, whose charisma and prestige have gone beyond the borders of Côte d'Ivoire”.

Hon. AKA Aouélé, Minister of Hygiene and Public Health and Hon. Raymonde GOUDOU Koffi, Minister of Culture, as well as all speakers at this tribute day, recognized in Mr. ZADI KESSY Marcel, this business leader, who made the development of youth, the empowerment of women, as well as local expertise, a top priority. He was a model of commitment to his community, where he undertook structuring projects, transformation projects, which became models around the world, and encouraged executives to do the same.

The testimonial day was also punctuated by screenings of tribute films, performances by artists, and ended with a photo exhibition of Mr. ZADI KESSY Marcel's achievements. Several personalities and company executives, including Mr. Sylvain USHER, AfWA’s Executive Director, were keen to honor the memory of this exceptional man.

The Founding President of AfWA will be buried on Saturday, January 30, in YACOLIDABOUO, his birth village, in the region of SOUBRE located in the southwestern part of CÔTE D’IVOIRE, about 340 KM from Abidjan.