New water pump in Côte d’Ivoire to sustain The Cocoa Plan

A new water pump presented to the community of Deputekro in Côte d’Ivoire will provide safe and clean drinking water while also sustaining Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan.

The Company officially donated the new facility to villagers at a ceremony on September 18 in the Deputekro village, located about 40 kilometres from the country’s capital Yamoussoukro.

Having taken villagers previously over two hours to source clean, drinkable water from the nearest source, the new EUR 15,000 water pump now provides a lifeline for around 400 members of the community who are now able to obtain clean water in the area much more easily.

The village chief, Ambe Kouadio, welcomed the new addition to the region which allows direct access to safe drinkable water. He said: “The pump now allows villagers to now drink safe and clean water instead of sourcing water from the local creek.”

Together with Nestlé, the initiative was led by Olam, one of Nestlé’s Cocoa Plan supply chain partners.

Olam had helped Nestlé select the Enterprise Cooperative of Yamoussoukro (ECOYA) as one of its suppliers to source its vital chocolate product ingredient, cocoa, as part of The Cocoa Plan. Under the programme, cooperatives who successfully supply Nestlé with high-quality cocoa plantlets are rewarded for its beneficial work with a social project, such as a new water pump in this instance.

Emerson Gueye, Director of the ECOYA cooperative, said: “The village is very happy now that the pump was opened and all these initiatives should allow us to double our productivity.”

During this year’s crop season, the collaboration resulted in Nestlé paying a premium to the cooperative farmers for over 300 tonnes of good quality traceable cocoa, while also providing the cooperative with a nursery for cocoa trees and around 20,000 plantlets from the Nestlé R&D Centre in Abidjan.

As part of the on-going work in Côte d’Ivoire, Nestlé will also assign around CHF 1,5 million to the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) over the next three years in order to help improve access to clean water in plantations and basic sanitation in rural schools.


The Cocoa Plan

Backed by an investment of CHF 110 million over the next decade, The Cocoa Plan aims to help address the key issues facing the cocoa farming communities that Nestlé works with.

Although The Plan is not a quick fix for the challenging cocoa situation, it is an important and significant part of broad, collaborative efforts to improve the cocoa supply chain and the lives of cocoa farmers and communities.

This includes improving the quantity and quality of yields by providing 12 million stronger productive plantlets and increasing farmer training by teaching more efficient methods