Ankara, June 6, 2006 – The World Bank and ROÇ Energy Ltd. signed today a US $184,900 Development Marketplace Program Project Agreement related to “Solar Desalinization & Water Purification” funded by the Development Marketplace initiative of the World Bank. The agreement was signed by World Bank’s Country Director for Turkey, Andrew Vorkink, and Chairman of the ROÇ Company Oğuz Çapan.
World Bank Development Marketplace (DM) is a revolutionary way to identify and fund the best ideas in development from around the world. The DM seeks to find solutions beyond established channels through an open, transparent, and competitive process with minimum cost and bureaucracy. DM has the mission to create a marketplace of ideas, talent, and resources that address the challenges of development and to promote knowledge sharing. Since 1998 to date, the Global DM competition has disbursed over US$23 million in awards to 171 winning proposals. The Country DM competitions have awarded over US$11 million to more than 650 winners in 42 countries. The 2006 Global Development Marketplace Competition received 2,525 proposals from 154 different countries. After three rounds of assessment, 118 finalists were selected, representing 55 countries -including Turkey- who displayed their ideas in Washington DC in May 2006.  | Solar Desalinization & Water Purification Project |
At the final judging, on May 9th, President of the World Bank Group, Mr. Paul Wolfowitz announced the 30 winning projects and awarded a total of US$ 5 million for ideas that will provide concrete benefits to their communities by meeting basic needs for clean water, hygienic sanitation, and access to energy. Donors to this year’s marketplace included three-time contributors the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), along with first-time supporters the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Village Energy Project (GVEP). Winning project ideas ranged from using native freshwater mussels to clean up China’s lakes, to establishing a decentralized supply of renewable energy throughout Rwanda, providing water-pumps, to using a solar-powered desalinization and water-purification system in Turkey, to improving access to water in Haiti, to using LED light units to bring lighting to tribal homes in India. Africa was strongly represented, with 14 of the 30 winning projects coming from the region. The largest number of winners from a single country was India with five winners followed by Benin, Cambodia, Kenya, and Senegal with two each. Among the winners is a project from Turkey. “Solar Desalinization & Water Purification” Project of Roç Energy Ltd, has the objective to improve the health of impoverished coastal populations in rural areas of Turkey through the production of an affordable solar powered, self-contained desalinization and water purification system that can be manufactured and distributed locally.  | Vorkink - Capan |
During the signing ceremony of the Grant Agreement Andrew Vorkink, Country Director for Turkey said: “I would like to congratulate Turkey and Mr. Oğuz Çapan particularly for coming up with such an innovative and practical idea that could help villagers in Taşlıca Peninsula and many other living in remote areas around the world, through the replicability of his project. His project is innovative especially for the smaller residential areas (villages and small communities) which are not generally served by city/municipal water networks. The project is also important as it not only promises income and prospects for future work/employment at local level but also falls into the general context of 'Renewable Energy' and savings in energy. Provision of clean water by desalinating the sea water or even contaminated fresh water for drinking purposes at the household level will be one of the major impacts of the project.”
Click here for more information about Global Development Marketplace 2006 |
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