Quest Water Global Inc., a Canadian company specializing in sustainable water treatment and distribution, announced on July 24, 2025, it signed a public-private partnership with the National Office for Rural Hydraulics, or ONHR. The ONHR is an entity under the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Rural Development.

The $30 million agreement calls for installing 300 Aquatap potable water stations across five provinces, benefiting nearly 1.8 million people. The stations will deploy in Kinshasa, Kasaï, Bas-Congo, Haut-Katanga, and Lualaba, areas with largely insufficient water infrastructure.

The deployment will follow a Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer, or DBFOT, model. Under this model, Quest Water will handle the design, financing, manufacturing, operation, and eventual transfer of the facilities to the Congolese state. In return, the Congolese government commits to providing land, ensuring installation security, facilitating administrative procedures, and granting tax exemptions on imported technological equipment.

The 10-year project includes manufacturing units in South Africa and an assembly plant in Kinshasa. A local joint venture, Aquatap Oasis Partnership SARL, will handle on-the-ground implementation. Revenue from water sales will be shared, with Quest Water receiving 60% and the ONHR 40%.

This project is part of the Congolese government’s efforts to improve water access in rural and peri-urban areas. The ONHR, a public agency responsible for planning and monitoring rural water projects, will coordinate.

Beyond water access, the initiative is expected to create several hundred direct and indirect jobs, from site identification to equipment maintenance. Hygiene and sanitation awareness campaigns, known as WASH, will also be carried out with support from the U.S. based NGO Clean International.

Quest Water Global, founded in 2010 in North Vancouver, operates in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and South Africa. It develops solutions such as Aquatap, a decentralized solar-powered water purification and distribution system, and WEPS, which produces drinking water from atmospheric humidity.

This is not the company’s first venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2019, it signed an agreement with American Ventures, founded by former basketball player Mutombo Dikembe, and Kalo Products SARL to install 50 community water centers in Tanganyika, Lualaba, Sud-Ubangi, and Kasaï provinces.

Ronsard Luabeya (Intern)