Progress report for
Supporting communities in Latin America on Water & Sanitation
Achievement at a glance
In 2023, Orbia Building and Infrastructure (Wavin) implemented 29 WASH programs to provide water access to more than 25,000 people in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. The business distributed 372 clean water storage tanks with a total capacity of 224,550 liters as well as 331 rainwater systems and 2 hand-washing stations.For further information see: https://www.orbia.com/494548/siteassets/6.-sustainability/2023-impact-report/orbia_impact_report_2023.pdf
We are proud to work together with our various partners (one example of a coverage from one of our partners is attached as a picture)
Challenges faced in implementation
We have successfully delivered on our commitments together with our partners.Next Steps
We will continue developing WASH projects with our partners in Latin America. In parallel in 2024 we will implement indicators of the "WASH4WORK" methodology in selected projects to better measure the impact of WASH projects in LATAM.We have approved 26 new projects for execution in 2024, covering the following countries: Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Argentina.
Beneficiaries
Our focus is on the high-impact projects in vulnerable and underserved communities in geographical proximity to our manufacturing sites. In this way, we can be actively involved in delivering the projects, contribute with our solutions and technical experts, and monitor projects until successful completion. Beneficiaries include private households, schools, community kitchens. A breakdown of the beneficiaries per country is given below: Colombia: 14405 Peru: 4294 Ecuador: 4224 Brazil: 3235 Argentina: 317 Mexico: 100 Guatemala: 250 Costa Rica: 2500
Actions
Each project has a story on it's own, and we would be happy to provide further details.Three examples are provided below.
• A partnership with TECHO Brazil to build the first eco-sustainable house in the Favela Porto Areia, a community founded by recyclable waste collectors
near Sao Paulo. Made with recycled plastic blocks and a roof covered by 100% recycled post-consumer materials, the 27 m2 house also incorporates
rainwater storage and hydraulic and electric installations. The initiative was steered by 20 Orbia employees working alongside TECHO professionals.
Rejane Alves de Souza, a mother of nine, became the first beneficiary of this project in Brazil, which aims to scale up and build 1,000 additional houses
across other Brazilian favelas in the future.
• The Safe Water for Soup Kitchens program in Cerro Colorado (Peru), works in conjunction with the local municipality, SEDAPAR (the local water utility) and the NGO Agualimpia, to improve WASH conditions and empower women. The program has installed several 1,100-liter polyethylene water tanks, kitchen
taps and biodigesters for the treatment of gray water, benefiting more than 1,550 persons daily. Since 2021, the program has reached 75% of all existing soup kitchens in Cerro Colorado with plans to implement six more next year focusing on sanitation and hygiene. In 2023, 600 women were empowered and trained with water management skills through the Women with Punch initiative.
The needs for access to water, basic sanitation and hygiene are a constant in some countries around the world. Orbia B&I in alliance with Funcagua (Water Fund) delivered an Aquacell solution in Guatemala to capture and store rainwater in a rural school. Before installing the system, the school had irregular water service and in times of drought it would go up to 4 days without receiving water. The small amount of water available compared to the number of children and teachers made it impossible to carry out adequate handwashing practices, clean bathrooms and facilities in general. The installation of the Aquacell solution allowed the school to have up to 10 thousand liters of water storage on a regular basis, benefiting more than 200 preschool and primary school children. This shows how sustainable WASH solutions transform lives.