ferrovial

Clean Water and Sanitation

3 in 10 people lack access to clean drinking water services and 6 in 10 do not have access to safe
sanitation facilities. According to the UN, water scarcity, poor water quality and inadequate
sanitation negatively impact food security, livelihood choices and educational opportunities for
poor families across the world. Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure availability and
sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Social Infrastructure Program

Our commitment to SDG 6 is supported by our Social Infrastructure Program. The main goal of
the program is to improve and increase access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation in
vulnerable communities in Africa and Latin America. We want to ensure the human right to
water and sanitation and increase its sustainability over time with better water resource
management.

All of this started in 2008 with the “Maji Ni Uhai” (“Water is Life” in Swahili) project to construct
water and sanitation infrastructures for vulnerable communities in Tanzania. In 2011, after three
years of hard work, we launched the Social Infrastructures Program. This program is a point of
reference for good practices in managing social action projects and has received awards from the
CODESPA Foundation, SERES Foundation, Cinco Días and Telefónica Foundation, among others.

The program emphasizes the importance of supporting and strengthening local community
participation in improving water and sanitation management. With this program, we have
become more than a traditional donor. We do not only supply funds, we also provide technical
and technological assistance and our specialists participate in project development.

Our employees also participate in the program as corporate volunteers. This initiative allows us to
service these projects with our employees’ technical experience and knowledge. It is also
beneficial to our volunteers, who develop their critical thinking skills and get the opportunity to
collaborate on social projects within their professional environment.

28 Projects and 6 Million Euros Invested

In 2020, we are developing three projects within the SDG 6 framework through our Social Infrastructure Program. In collaboration with AMREF Health Africa, Action Against Hunger and the CODESPA Foundation, we are working in Kenya, Colombia and Peru. Project management is carried out by a joint committee made up of Ferrovial and NGO representatives that make all decisions together.

From 2008 until now, we have worked on 28 projects and have invested almost six million euros. Our 121 hands-on volunteers have directly impacted more than 230,000 people in nine countries (Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana and Zimbabwe). In 2018, these projects have supplied more than 1.3 million cubic meters of drinking water. In other words, 1,300 million liters of clean water.