Sojitz Corporation

CLOSE

First-Ever Desalination Project in Sub-Saharan Africa

August, 2013

Worldwide demand for water has been steadily expanding, driven by economic growth, rising populations, urbanization, improving standards of living and changing lifestyles. Securing water resources is therefore becoming an increasingly important global challenge.

Against this backdrop, Sojitz began participating in a desalination project in the Republic of Ghana in central West Africa in October 2012. In partnership with one of Spain’s largest water companies, Sojitz will build and operate the plant, which will begin supplying drinking water to the capital city of Accra in 2014. This is the first desalination project in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is also the first such project invested in by a Japanese company.

With a population of 24 million, Ghana suffers from an acute water shortage. In Accra, where 4 million people are concentrated, the supply of water meets only about half of demand. The urgent need for safe drinking water has been underscored by events such as a cholera outbreak in various regions at the end of 2010. The desalination project is aimed at alleviating this situation, and is expected to supply up to 60,000 cubic meters of water per day, enough to meet the drinking water needs of about 500,000 people.

An enormous amount of water exists on Earth, but rivers, lakes and other sources of freshwater that humans can consume make up only 0.01% of that. Seawater accounts for 97.5%. Desalination, which turns this seawater into precious freshwater, is seen as a trump card for solving the global water shortage. Demand has therefore expanded rapidly. Desalination plants that use reverse osmosis membranes require little energy to produce water, and are an area in which Japan can apply its world-renowned technological prowess. Sojitz plans to actively participate in desalination projects, primarily in Africa and the Middle East.

csr_201308_03_1e.jpg
Desalination Project in Ghana

csr_201308_03_2.jpg
The desalination plant under construction

An Employee’s View

When I travel to Ghana on business, there is something I think about whenever I wash my hands or brush my teeth: A few years from now, hundreds of thousands of people in Ghana will be using water created by our business. I feel a great responsibility, and at the same time a desire to continue to do as much as possible to help people around the world through this business.

Shoichi Fujita

Shoichi Fujita
Power & Environmental
Infrastructure Department
Machinery Division

Page top