20 years of commitment to solidarity and human development

Interview with David Poinard, Managing Director of the Veolia Foundation

In Chad, the Veolia Foundation is working with UNICEF to identify solutions for access to water that are both adapted to this humanitarian environment and likely to be adopted by local communities. ©Veolia

On Monday 18 November, the Veolia foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary… 20 years, the age of youth… But for this atypical foundation, the only one of its kind in France, these twenty years have been those of a human adventure, of self-building to better unite project support and skills sponsorship, while optimising the Veolia group’s three core businesses (water, energy and waste management) in the service of others and the planet. During the evening, Antoine Frérot, Chairman of the Veolia Group and the Veolia Foundation, and other speakers addressed nearly two hundred guests, including Veoliaforce volunteers, humanitarian and institutional partners, and project leaders. For Défis Humanitaires, this anniversary is an opportunity to take stock and to recall the fundamentals of this foundation, which is now a key player in humanitarian aid, development, support for initiatives and the defence of the environment and biodiversity. Interview with David Poinard, CEO of the Veolia Foundation.

This interview is one of a series published with CartONG, Résonances Humanitaires (RH), INSO, Coordination Humanitaire et Développement (CHD), Première Urgence Internationale, Solidarités Internationale and the Crisis and Support Centre of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. There are more to come, notably with VOICE, the coordination of humanitarian NGOs with the European Commission and ECHO in Brussels.

Hello David Poinard. Before going any further, could you tell us about the foundations of the Veolia Foundation in terms of its statutes and how it operates within the Veolia group?

The Veolia Foundation is a corporate foundation under the law of 23 July 1987. Beyond this legal aspect, we are a team of about ten people, supported by the Veolia group. We are the Veolia Group Employees’ Foundation. As the cornerstone of our action, they can be involved as project sponsors or Veoliaforce volunteers. In this way, they embody the Veolia Foundation’s two levers for action: financial support and skills sponsorship.

More specifically, how is the Foundation governed?

The Board of Directors of the Veolia Foundation is made up of Veolia representatives and outside figures who bring us their perspective. It defines the Foundation’s strategic orientations and oversees its sound management. It approves commitments in excess of €150,000, while the Selection Committee examines other projects submitted to the Foundation.

The Veolia Foundation was set up in 2004, partly on the initiative and commitment of Veolia employees. At the time, Veolia Waterforce, a humanitarian intervention structure in the field, was added to this ‘redistributing’ foundation. Under the impetus of Thierry Vandevelde, Managing Director of the Foundation at the time, it became Veoliaforce. Can you elaborate on this evolution-construction towards a unique foundation model, combining a redistribution component as a ‘project sponsor’ and a component as a field player?

Originally, there was a fairly traditional corporate foundation: employees could ask it to support charities, often local ones, in which they were involved in their spare time. When the Waterforce unit, renamed Veoliaforce, joined the Foundation, we gained a lever for action and changed our nature by adding an operational aspect to our actions. We have one specific feature: our actions are always carried out with partners. We work regularly with the French Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières and Solidarités International. And the United Nations

The Veolia Foundation has also joined the France humanitarian response team. When, just over a year ago, the Kakhovka dam was destroyed in Ukraine, leading to flooding and the displacement of populations, the Veolia Foundation took part in an operation led by the Crisis and Support Centre (CDCS) of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.

From your point of view, what have been the main challenges and issues that the Veolia Foundation has had to take up or assume over the past twenty years, in order to respond synergistically to the various missions it has set itself: humanitarian emergencies and development, social reintegration, protection of the environment and biodiversity, research and training?

In twenty years, the Veolia Foundation has built bridges between worlds that did not speak to each other and opened doors between the private and public sectors. Today, one of its greatest successes is that these doors no longer exist. With every humanitarian disaster, exchanges are natural and fluid.

The Foundation has changed in nature, but it has also changed in dimension by being able to support projects over the long term. And I’m thinking of the Tara Ocean Foundation. The schooner Tara and the Veolia Foundation are a bet on trust, on our ability to understand the role of the ocean in regulating the climate, on a collective ambition. We have travelled thousands of miles across the seas following Tara. I believe we have helped to raise awareness of a Tara generation. The generation that turned 20 with the Tara Ocean Foundation last year, and with the Veolia Foundation this year.

How many projects has the Veolia Foundation supported since it was set up in 2004, and how many skills sponsorship projects have it carried out?

The Veolia Foundation has supported more than 1,500 projects and carried out more than 200 skills sponsorship projects.

The number of your partners, particularly humanitarian ones, is impressive: Médecins Sans Frontières, the Red Cross, Solidarités International, Première Urgence, Action contre la faim, etc. On a more institutional level, the Crisis and Support Centre of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs…. There are also partnerships with the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Bioforce Institute and even UNICEF and UNHCR… How are these partnerships built, based on what criteria and on what occasions or initiatives? What common thread binds them together?

The common thread is the need for effectiveness. We want to be useful for the beneficiary populations. We need to be both reactive in the event of a humanitarian emergency and determined when addressing long-term issues, such as sanitation in refugee camps. To achieve this fluidity in our exchanges, we need to get to know each other and exchange ideas. With this in mind, in 2020 we set up the WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene or EAH editor’s note) Humanitarian Workshops, a biennial event organised with the Partenariat Français pour l’Eau (PFE), which brings together a number of players in the sector to identify innovations, share feedback and, generally speaking, talk to each other. I believe we now have a well-established place in the sector as water and sanitation experts dedicated to the humanitarian sector. We keep coming back to this: our Veoliaforce volunteers are our added value.

Organised with the Partenariat Français pour l’Eau (PFE), the Humanitarian WASH Workshops bring together around fifty experts in access to water and sanitation in the humanitarian sector to identify innovations and share feedback and good practice. ©Veolia

Veoliaforce, a field intervention structure that supports humanitarian NGOs with expertise specific to the Veolia group (water, energy and waste management), works with volunteers who are Veolia group employees made available during their working hours. How are applications and in-house technical training organised?

Each year we organise training for around thirty candidates for the Veoliaforce voluntary service. These employees, from all Veolia’s business lines, learn how to deploy Aquaforces, our mobile water purification units, and get to know our partners in the humanitarian sector, who are present during the training.

As you mentioned, Veoliaforce volunteers are employees of the group who go on mission during their working hours, with a hierarchy and colleagues who support the effort in their absence. When a Veoliaforce expert leaves, a whole team, in addition to the Foundation, is mobilised to make this possible.

The Veolia Foundation is present or active in a great many countries, and the ‘map of projects’ is impressive. Can you give some concrete, recent and significant examples of interventions, particularly humanitarian, with your partners, on decisive issues, situations or challenges?

In recent months, we have been working in refugee and displaced persons camps in eastern Chad. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is facing one of the most massive humanitarian crises in the world today. It asked the Veolia Foundation to improve access to water in the 12 camps around Farchana. We provided continuous support for five weeks to audit and make recommendations.

In another example, this time with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), several Veoliaforce experts travelled to Goma, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to support the NGO in improving access to drinking water in hospitals and camps for displaced persons.

And on a much more local level, in the Paris region, we are supporting a back-to-work project organised by Maison Solidarité Femmes 95 to help women who have suffered violence. Our projects and missions take us to places where humanity is under attack.

The civil war in neighbouring Sudan has caused almost 8 million people to flee, of whom just over 900,000 have crossed the border into Chad. As a Stand-By Partner of the UN agency, the Veolia Foundation is committed to supporting the UNHCR on the issue of access to water. ©Veolia

To keep things practical and humanitarian, a simple question: when does Veoliaforce intervene?

It all starts with an exchange with a partner who, through their knowledge of the field, lets us know what type of intervention is needed. In a post-disaster context, it is the feedback that leads us to determine the human and material resources needed to restore access to water, for example. Does the area have fresh water sources? Is it necessary to treat brackish water? The answer will lead us to give priority to a particular Aquaforce [mobile drinking water treatment unit].

In a post-emergency humanitarian context, or even in a development project, you have to find the right moment to intervene in the most useful way possible. Depending on needs and the availability of our Veoliaforce experts, we structure the timetable for missions with our partners.

Access to drinking water is already, and will become even more so, one of the decisive challenges of the 21st century… Does the fact that you are the foundation of a group that specialises, among other things, in water services give you a more global – we would say holistic – ‘intelligence’ of this challenge? And how does this intelligence enable you to put in place ‘tailor-made’ solutions on the ground (I’m also thinking of your adaptable and modular Aquaforces and Saniforces technical solutions)?

The challenge is to combine the business expertise available within the Group with our partners’ knowledge of the field. The Aquaforce RO, adapted to brackish water environments, was born out of the need, gradually identified, to be able to adapt to environments where fresh water is scarce. Saniforce, a low-carbon solution for treating faecal sludge in humanitarian contexts, was born out of field observations: when camps for displaced persons or refugees become permanent, the question of sanitation becomes a major public health and environmental issue.

In addition to humanitarian and development work, the Veolia Foundation is also involved in social reintegration and the protection of the environment and biodiversity (the Tara missions you mentioned spring to mind). Can you explain how important these causes are to you, and how you link them to the Foundation’s other missions and to the Veolia Group’s core businesses?

Like Veolia, we want to be a player in the inevitable ecological transformation we have to go through. To be understood, embodied and activated, this transformation must be fair. This is a major challenge for our contemporary societies. By investing in social links and integration through economic activity, we want to ensure that no one is forgotten along the way.

As for the environment, the challenge is to live in harmony with nature, preserve resources and biodiversity, and limit climate change. In other words, our challenge is to ensure that the Earth remains habitable. The Foundation encourages actions that educate the public or raise awareness of eco-responsible behaviour. It also supports ambitious projects to understand and restore natural environments.

Do you have any practical examples of training initiatives in one or more of the Foundation’s areas of activity that are particularly close to your heart?

Training is not one of the Veolia Foundation’s areas of activity as such, but it is one of the means we use to promote our action. We train Veoliaforce volunteers and, increasingly, we train the staff of humanitarian partners in the use of our solutions. We are involved with Bioforce, the French Red Cross and Médecins Sans Frontières. In the field, we train the staff of UN agencies to take over the production of drinking water.

In a rural region of Senegal, a drinking water treatment plant has been installed by two desalination experts to provide the population with access to quality water. ©Veolia

It will soon be 2025; what prospects do you see for the work of the Veolia Foundation in a world where humanitarian and development needs are exploding and conflicts are spreading? What challenges do you think the Foundation will have to meet, and how might it adapt its modus operandi or approach?

This year we’re moving up a gear, both in terms of human resources, by setting up a network of Veolia ambassadors to increase the impact of our action in the regions, and in terms of material resources, by setting up hubs where our Aquaforces will be pre-positioned so that they can be transported more quickly to where they’re needed. The idea is that, with our small team of less than ten people, we can leverage our resources to duplicate more easily, deploy more quickly and respond more effectively.

More specifically, at a time when funding for humanitarian aid and development is falling and crossing the exponential curve of needs, do you think that foundations such as the Veolia Foundation have a greater role or responsibility to assume?

Our responsibility is that of the foundation of a group present in all essential services. We want to be able to respond whenever the need arises and our partners call on us.

In conclusion, what would you like to say to your partners in projects and actions, and to our readers?

A big thank you, because without them, we wouldn’t be much of anything! By submitting projects to us, by calling on us in emergencies or for development, they push us to be better. They are the key to our effectiveness. I might as well tell you that we haven’t finished working together, because it’s necessary, because it’s useful. At 20, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you!

Every year, around thirty Veolia employees from all business lines come here for training in humanitarian emergencies and development missions. ©Véolia

Interview by Pierre Brunet

Writer and humanitarian

David Poinard

Delegate General of the Veolia Foundation since April 2024, David Poinard is a hydrogeologist by training and holds a doctorate in urban hydrology from INSA Lyon. He has held a number of management positions at Veolia Water since 2001, and is also involved in Veolia Foundation operations as a Veoliaforce volunteer, working on development projects or in crisis situations (natural disasters and armed conflicts). He has also chaired the French Water Partnership (FWP) working group on ‘WASH in crisis and fragile contexts’ since 2020.

Veolia Foundation: Serving outreach and human development | Fondation Veolia

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The Nile’s dam of discord: Between rebirth and ruin

The Nile in Cairo, Egypt, 2018. © Emőke Dénes

Unlike the water of the Nile when we look downstream, particularly in Egypt, the time to resolve the conflict we are talking about is passing in vain… and the possibility of agreement remains ever distant.

The Renaissance Dam is a major hydroelectric project on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia, and since its construction began in 2011, the dam has been at the heart of a regional conflict mainly involving Ethiopia, which initiated the project, Egypt and Sudan. The Renaissance Dam dispute is one of the most important water-related issues in the world, particularly in recent years, as it involves Africa’s two most populous states after Nigeria. This dam has a major impact on the vital resources of Egypt, which is massively dependent on it for agriculture and irrigation, so much so that without this river life could come to a standstill in the country. This article therefore aims to take stock of the conflict, focusing on the outcome of the negotiations, the current and foreseeable impact, and the outlook for the future.

Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, 2022. Source: Photograph by Stefano De Falco.

Conflicting points of view

For Ethiopia, the dam represents a crucial project, aimed at generating around 6,000 megawatts of electricity, which would triple the country’s electricity capacity. The dam is seen as a solution to the country’s energy challenges, as well as an engine for economic development. But in fact, the symbolism of the dam’s construction goes beyond the economic issue. Its construction was a message to Egypt and Sudan: Ethiopia no longer needed their approval as a condition for building development projects in the Nile basin, thus rejecting the 1929 and 1959 agreements.1

The date of the dam’s construction is not neutral: the current project dates back to the 1950s and 1960s, but the Egyptian refusal and lack of support and international investment prevented it from being implemented. In this context, 2011 represented the optimal moment for Ethiopia, following the independence of South Sudan and the chaos generated by the ‘Arab Spring’ that was destabilising Egypt at the time.

‘The Egyptian state understands the demands of Ethiopian development, but this development must not be at the expense of others’. – President Al-Sissi, June 2021.

From the point of view of the Egyptian government, Egypt is facing an ‘existential’ crisis. The Renaissance Dam poses a clear and direct threat to Egypt’s national security, as it fears that filling and operating the dam will significantly reduce the flow of water from the Nile, affecting its agriculture, industry and domestic needs, which we will discuss in more detail later.

Located between Ethiopia and Egypt, Sudan shares these concerns. Although the Great Renaissance Dam (GERD) could regulate flooding and provide cheap electricity, there are concerns about water management and the impact on its own irrigation projects. Sudan’s position on the Renaissance Dam remained ‘neutral’ between Egypt and Ethiopia until mid-2020, and political and media positions in Sudan focused mainly on the dam’s positive impact on the Sudanese economy and its role in regulating the flow of the Nile. However, there was a change in Khartoum’s position in 2021, which moved closer to the Egyptian position, in favour of signing a binding agreement with Ethiopia prior to filling the dam. However, the current war in Sudan is putting the dam issue on the back burner for the war-suffering Sudanese. This weakening of the Sudanese position… consequently weakens the Egyptian position, which welcomed Sudanese support.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Sochi during the Russia-Africa Summit, 2019. © The official Egyptian presidency

Fruitless negotiations

The negotiations between the parties to this dispute, especially Egypt and Ethiopia, have gone through several phases. The nature and terms of the negotiations in the latest round have changed from what they were several years ago. First there were the technical studies of the dam and the assessment of its effects on the downstream countries of Egypt and Sudan, then negotiations on the implementation of the recommendations of the international committee of experts, and finally negotiations on the rules for filling and operating the dam. Now that the fifth stage of the filling process is underway this summer, the scope of the negotiations has narrowed considerably, and is limited to the future operation of the dam.

Generally speaking, although the negotiations were primarily aimed at establishing binding rules for the filling and operation of the dam, in order to protect the interests of the three countries, they were marked by a lack of trust and a lack of political will to reach a binding agreement, especially on the part of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian regime, which initiated the project and therefore considered itself to be the strong party, wanted to dominate the negotiations, opting for a strategy whereby the absence of an agreement was better than a weak or binding agreement that did not suit it. This policy of fait accompli was therefore the norm on the Ethiopian side… Countered by threats from the Egyptian side. The two sides accused each other of various faults, with the Egyptian side believing that Ethiopia’s recognition of and commitment to previous agreements was the only way out of these disputes.

The most notable moments in these negotiations were the signing of the agreement in principle in 2015 and the intervention of the United States and the World Bank in 2020, which led to a final agreement on the project that Egypt signed… but Ethiopia withdrew at the last moment, rejecting American pressure from the Trump administration. The last phase of the negotiations, which took place in December 2023, failed like the previous ones, prompting Egyptian officials to put an end to the negotiations, which they said were ‘nothing but a waste of time’.

Egyptian farmers grow lettuce, while another farmer digs a small canal with a donkey, Cairo, Egypt, 2014. Hamish John Appleby (IWMI)

An existential issue for Egypt

The impact of the Renaissance Dam on Egypt is significant and, as such, a source of extreme concern for many sectors of Egyptian society. By controlling the flow of the Blue Nile, the dam could seriously affect the quantity of water available downstream, and therefore in Egypt. Taking into account the world average ‘water poverty’ threshold, which is estimated at 1,000 m³ per year per inhabitant, even though Egypt draws all its resources from the Nile, it is considered to be one of the water-poor countries, because the share of water per inhabitant does not exceed 600 m³ per year, due to the country’s strong demographic growth. If we combine this situation with the construction of the Renaissance dam, the per capita share of water in Egypt should fall below 500 m³ per year…

Source: Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources

Projections estimate that the productivity of key crops such as maize and wheat could fall substantially as a result of the reduction in water available for irrigation.

‘Unilateral and uncooperative practices in the operation of this oversized dam could have a catastrophic impact,’ Egypt’s Minister of Water Resources, Hany Swelim, told the UNWater 2023 plenary session, noting that ’if these practices continue alongside a prolonged drought, it could result in more than 1.1 million people leaving the labour market, the loss of around 15% of Egypt’s agricultural area and a doubling of the country’s food import bill.’

In addition to the implications for agriculture, changes in the flow of the Nile could also have long-term effects on Egypt’s ecosystems and economy. The reduction in agricultural land and the loss of almost a million hectares could mean the displacement of 2 million families and a 12% drop in agricultural production, leading to a food deficit of 5 billion Egyptian pounds, jeopardising the country’s food security.

This loss of agricultural land and the halting of projects to rehabilitate it will naturally lead to the loss of employment opportunities that the agricultural sector used to offer to 6.5 million workers, resulting in an increase in the unemployment rate. The impact will also extend to other sectors such as fishing and tourism, especially in Aswan and Luxor. For fishermen, there are no more floods every year, and the quantity of fish is constantly decreasing. Types of fish such as whiting and mabrouka have become rare, and even Nile tilapia, the fish known as the cheapest (considered the ‘fish of the poor’), is also declining due to the salinity of the water. This scarcity is driving up prices, making fish unaffordable for a large proportion of the Egyptian population.

As a result, Egypt is now facing a serious social crisis stemming from rising unemployment and internal migration. And this at a time when Egypt is already suffering from a major economic crisis. An exacerbation of the situation as a result of the foreseeable new impacts of the Renaissance Dam could therefore make the situation unbearable in the country, encouraging even more illegal emigration to escape misery and poverty.

The Renaissance Dam alters the availability of water for Egypt, particularly during periods of drought, when Ethiopia withholds water from the Nile. This situation could force Egypt to draw more intensively on its water reserves, such as the Aswan reservoir, accelerating the depletion of these water resources if Ethiopia fills the dam. In other words, the construction of the dam will mainly affect the water in the ‘High Dam’ lake, also known as ‘Lake Nasser’, which will have an impact on electricity production capacity, with a drop of almost 40%, forcing the country to resort to other solutions to compensate for this loss, such as buying electricity or building fuel-fired power stations… which will add to the deficit in the Egyptian economy. Egypt depends on hydropower for 9% of its energy, and although this may not seem like much, in a crisis situation, every resource is precious.

Conclusion: The outlook… between reality and what needs to be done

Internally, Egypt has begun to change its agricultural practices, limiting the cultivation of certain water-intensive crops such as rice and bananas, and promoting more efficient irrigation methods. Efforts are also underway to renovate irrigation canals in order to reduce water losses and better distribute crops according to their water requirements between different regions. Efforts are also being made to increase the quantity of water, to use desalination rationally, to develop facilities and to maintain supply networks in order to increase the overall efficiency of water use, including rainwater. The cost of reprocessing seawater to make up the shortfall in water, particularly drinking water, adds to the burden on the Egyptian economy.

In conclusion, we can only conclude that Ethiopia has succeeded in imposing its policy of fait accompli, making the dam a reality… which threatens the lives of millions of people in Egypt and Sudan, because it is the people who pay the price for conflicts and political decisions. It therefore seems more necessary than ever to reach an agreement on the operation of the dam and its functioning, in order to avoid a fatal crisis whose repercussions will not be limited to the African continent. A crisis of illegal emigration from Egypt, which is already hosting millions of refugees and suffering from an unprecedented economic crisis, is the last thing Europe wants at this time. The European Union must therefore put this conflict on its agenda as quickly as possible.

What’s more, the countries that have the capacity to play an important mediating role, from my point of view, are those most involved in the investment linked to the dam: China and the United Arab Emirates. President Al Sissi’s reference to this crisis during his visit to China in May could be interpreted as a call for Chinese mediation to reach a binding agreement on this ‘dam of discord’. In fact, multi-party mediation may be the solution to reaching an agreement. However, there must be the political will to put an end to this conflict, which is perfectly resolvable. We are at a time in history when we are seeing many conflicts and too many people suffering… We must do everything we can to avoid adding another tragedy.

Ahmed Elbanna

1 The 1929 Agreement: Signed between Egypt and Great Britain (on behalf of Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), in which Great Britain undertook not to undertake, without prior agreement with Egypt, any irrigation or electricity production works likely to harm Egypt’s interests, reduce the level of water reaching it or alter the date of arrival of the water. Egypt has the right to oppose the construction of any new project on the Nile and its tributaries.

The 1959 agreement: The 1959 Nile Waters Agreement is an agreement between Egypt and Sudan concerning the shared control and use of the waters of the Nile. Under this agreement, the entire average annual flow of the Nile, estimated at 85 billion m3, was shared between Sudan, which received 18.5 billion m3, and Egypt, which received 55.5 billion m3. The agreement also gave Egypt the right to build the Aswan dam.

Ahmed Elbanna

Ahmed Elbanna is an Egyptian student in the M2 International Conflicts and Crises programme at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and winner of the 2023-2024 Eiffel scholarship. He is the current assistant to the founder of Solidarités International, Mr Alain Boinet. Interested in conflicts and crises from a humanitarian perspective, Elbanna completed his dissertation at Cairo University on the integration of Syrian refugees in Egypt.

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