@ywtoh & @stockrock I remember you guys commenting on SACE, this...

@ywtoh & @stockrock I remember you guys commenting on SACE, this is why they got involved.

Same article, 2 links.
https://nordesteconomia.gelocal.it/imprese/2021/06/24/news/depurazione-acque-in-costa-d-avorio-30-milioni-da-sace-al-progetto-della-padovana-fluence-1.40425236
https://www.italy24news.com/local/96040.html

24-06-2021
SACE, support for Fluence Italia supplies in the Ivory Coast

(Teleborsa) – SACE – as part of its operations in support of the export and internationalization activities of Italian companies – it intervened to support a financing intended for the construction of a water treatment and purification plant in Ivory Coast, with a total value of 154 million euros. The project will be carried out by the Israeli company Fluence Israel, which it will entrust to its Italian associate Fluence Italy subcontracting for around 30 million euros.

In detail, SACE reinsured a portion of the loan, initially insured by the Israeli Export Credit Agency ASHRA, issued by the Israeli Discount Bank to the Ivorian Ministry of Economy and Finance. The plant will be built in Laguna Aghien, the largest freshwater reservoir near the city of Abidjan and will have the purpose of treating the water of the Lagoon, dense with algae and other contaminants. With a population of 4.7 million people, Abidjan is the most populous city in the Ivory Coast with a huge water requirement caused by the significant demographic increase. The plant will have a capacity of 150,000 cubic meters per day and will help reduce the water deficit of the Abidjan district by supplying it with treated and purified water.

Fluence is an international group, headquartered in New York, a global leader in 360 ° solutions for water treatment with over 7000 installations in 70 countries, which allow companies and communities to make the most of their water resources in order to optimize the water cycle. The Group has several operating offices throughout the world (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Dubai, Egypt, Israel, USA), including Fluence Italy based in Padua.

The project is part of the plan promoted by the Ivorian executive for the development of the production chain poultry, with the dual objective of promoting social cohesion by increasing places of work (mainly in contrast to youth and female unemployment) and to reduce the food insecurity in a sector characterized by a significant deficit in foreign trade.

The Ivory Coast, one of the most dynamic countries in West Africa (+ 6.3% average GDP growth in the coming years), is the eighth largest market for Italy. Africa subsahariana, with a export equal to 190 million euros (+ 4% compared to 2019 despite the pandemic crisis). The Italian market share among the countries of the European Union, equal to 7%, however, remains relatively low. Further opportunities for Italian companies to increase their presence in the Ivory Coast will be provided by the National Development Plan, a $ 50 billion program that will enter its second phase in 2021, with the aim of expanding and consolidating a manufacturing industry that, by transforming raw materials locally, helps stabilize hard currency flows, freeing the country from the traditional dependence on cocoa exports.
_______________________

Who knew that the Ivory Coast project had anything to do with helping to develop poultry?
https://www.fratmat.info/article/213397/conomie/filiere-avicole-la-cote-divoire-vise-une-production-de-200-000-tonnes-de-viande-de-poulet-et-337-milliards-dunites-dufs-a-lhorizon-2030
Would love for Fluence Italy to get to do some wastewater treatment for poultry farms in future in the Ivory Coast, similar to this:
https://www.feednavigator.com/Article/2020/12/09/Agrotop-to-construct-large-broiler-farm-in-Ivory-Coast
_______________________

Other people have also mentioned how Fluence were able to get VINCI as a construction partner for the Ivory Coast, maybe not realizing that VINCI have been involved in other Fluence desalination projects in French speaking countries and that VINCI have even advertised about Fluence before.

https://hotcopper.com.au/posts/38813805/single