Vitens helps
For those of us in the Netherlands, it’s hard to imagine that there are countries where sufficient drinking water isn’t something you can take for granted; here the water is clean and safe and runs 24 hours per day from the tap. Vitens helps to improve the situation in various countries in Africa, Asia and South America. We lay water pipelines, dig wells and advise local drinking water companies on technology and management.

Millennium Development Goals
With its foreign projects, Vitens contributes to the achievement of one of the UN Millennium Development Goals for 2015: to halve the number of people around the world without access to clean drinking water. The Millennium Development Goals are an agreement between all of the countries in the United Nations to help create a more equal world in terms of wealth and prosperity. Worldwide, the goals must reduce poverty and child mortality and improve healthcare and education.

The motor of innovation
The government has designated water as one of the key areas of our knowledge economy. Vitens wants to play a role in this. Internationally, we are considered a motor of innovation in drinking water supply. In Europe, we help other drinking water companies to improve their production process. This keeps us involved with new methods of water purification and allows us to give advice to foreign drinking water companies. In the Netherlands, drinking water knowledge is collected at Wetsus, the centre of excellence for sustainable water technology.

Vitens-Evides International
On international projects, Vitens works closely together with another drinking water company, Evides. Together, the two drinking water companies founded Vitens-Evides International. Vitens-Evides International supports local water companies in developing countries to improve the drinking water supply. Projects to supply safe drinking water to more than 20 million people are currently underway in Ghana, Malawi, Mongolia, Mozambique, Suriname and Vietnam. In this way, Vitens-Evides International provides an important contribution to achieving the 7th Millennium Development Goal for 2015: halving the number of people worldwide that have no access to clean drinking water.

The budget for international activities is two million euros per year; Vitens and Evides each contribute one million euros. In addition, Vitens-Evides International appeals to donors to support international water projects. The Water for life foundation plays an important role in this.

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