In Vietnam, there is already considerable availability of bottled water on the market. However, the quality of products remains a tremendous issue and is well known by consumers. This situation required 1001fontaines to adapt its model slightly and progressively to find the relevant strategy.

Romain Joly, Vietnam Country Director, and his teams took the decision in June 2020 to stop the activities of upgrading existing small-scale water producers in the Mekong Delta and to start a large O-we (the brand name of 1001fontaines water in Vietnam) water production factory in Ho Chi Minh City. “This decision was made to guarantee our product and service quality for the long run, in a very competitive and fragmented market context. Our core mission remains: provide the safest water at the most affordable price to vulnerable households, especially to factory workers in suburban areas.”

The factory started operating in November, targeting both retailers to convince them that O-we was the best choice and factories that would like to offer quality water to their workers.

The objective for 2021 is now to maintain sales to existing customers and to convince more retailers and factories to select O-we water.

Myanmar is the most recent country of operation for 1001fontaines, with less than two years of local activity, but a clear potential to replicate the Cambodian success story at an accelerated pace.

Following the eruption of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, the borders were closed in March, resulting in our Country director, Amandine Chaussinand, being blocked from being in Myanmar for months and forced to manage the project and the teams remotely. As she recalls, “that was particularly challenging in March, given the fact that it is in a pilot phase, with teams recruited only in 2019 and the two water entrepreneurs having barely a few months of experience.”

In order to make up for the distance, a significant work of knowledge capitalization was performed, resulting in comprehensive guidebooks detailing all the 1001fontaines methodologies adapted to the Myanmar context. These were used to train entrepreneurs continuously, grow the sales with marketing campaigns and prepare for the opening of future sites. These materials build on the 15 years of experience of 1001fontaines and are off-the-shelf assets for local teams.

In 2021, we intend to finish the pilot phase and to start preparing for regional deployment.

Madagascar counts among the poorest countries in the world. Rural areas, in particular face immense challenges, in terms of economic situation and overall development. With 11 sites in such rural areas, and a limited potential to open more water kiosks in the same region, 1001fontaines and Ranontsika (its local organization) decided to investigate additional solutions that could help the project reach financial sustainability.

Luke Barrett, Country Director, was instrumental in designing these new services: “We identified two major options that would both foster our mission to improve the health of vulnerable populations and generate additional revenues. Those were (1) opening a large production factory out of Tamatave to serve sales kiosks in the city, and (2) offering water testing services with our laboratory.”

Thanks to these two activities Ranontsika is perfectly on track to reach economic sustainability by 2022, a very satisfying result, given the 2020 context.

2021 will provide more insights about the new revenue streams, whilst also enabling us to strengthen the rural sites.

Cambodia has seen a growing number of hostile climate events, and the 2019 droughts and floods convinced the teams that it was time to engage in further adaptation efforts.
Frédéric Dubois, Country Director of Teuk Saat, conducted the first workshops to kick-start the work: “Climate change is an increasing reality and its consequences on the ground are terrible. Access to essential services is key to ensuring the resilience of communities but these climate events put that at risk. That is why we have become more pro-active in addressing them.”

Teuk Saat created a drought mitigation plan to support affected sites with complementary water supplies, coming from either a nearby kiosk, another local water source or water trucks. The capacity of Teuk Saat to address climate events has caught the attention of public institutions, with both UNICEF Cambodia and the Cambodian Ministry of Environment recognizing the efforts.

Building upon these first results, Teuk Saat will move ahead with long-term adaptation efforts in 2021, improving the assessment of water source resilience and engaging in their rehabilitation when necessary.