Jean-Christophe KI will retire

 “It’s a source of great satisfaction to have led one of my country’s leading entities in the water and energy sector.”

Jean-Christophe KI will retire at the end of December 2021. “Ki de Vergnet” is known by everyone in the rural hydraulics sector in Burkina Faso. He is also one of the main architects of VERGNET BURKINA’s nationwide reputation. An Officer of the Order of Merit for Rural Development in Burkina Faso, Jean-Christophe has been instrumental in the growth of a company that counted seven members of staff in 2015, but has flourished and now employs 15 people (including five executives) and works with more than 300 partners (with the water management service). “I’m stepping down with a sense of mission accomplished. It’s a source of great satisfaction to have led one of my country’s leading entities in the water and energy sector.”

Jean-Christophe is one of seven children born to a farming couple in Toma, a town 180 km northwest of Ouagadougou. He was a brilliant student and, at the age of 14, he left his family and the Upper Volta to stay with an uncle who worked as a nurse for the Société Africaine de Plantation d’Hévéas in Grand-Bassam (Côte d’Ivoire). He stayed there from the time he started secondary school until he passed his baccalaureate, and nurtured a love of science. “I owe my passion for science to a French couple who taught mathematics and technology, Mr. and Mrs. CIMPER. They immediately took me under their wing and, even since, have been there during all the key moments in my life.” The teenager admired the couple and wanted to become a teacher himself, but at the time, Côte d’Ivoire only recruited Ivorian teachers.

“… enthusiastic about VERGNET BURKINA’s many R&D and innovation projects.” 

Once he’d completed his maths and science baccalaureate, Jean-Christophe went on to study geology at the University of Ouagadougou, returning to Abidjan for his degree and master’s in hydrogeology, followed by a post-graduate degree in mineral processing at the University of Liège in Belgium. After that, he started work in 1988, joining BRGM, the French geological survey, in Ouagadougou. As a young works engineer, he was assigned solely to water exploration projects in fractured underground environments. During his first three years with BRGM, he became friendly with a colleague, French engineer Christophe LEGER. The two men are still friends and still work together 33 years later as Christophe is Deputy Managing Director of Vergnet Hydro.

In 1997, Jean-Christophe was promoted to the position of Project Manager, tasked with improving the drinking water supply in the city of Ouagadougou, which was then facing worrying water shortages. He was subsequently appointed Director of the ANTEA office in Burkina Faso, when this BRGM subsidiary became independent in 2009. “My first contract with BRGM was for two months. In the end, I spent 27 years working in that stimulating environment, combining research and engineering.” And on the back of those 27 years’ experience, Jean-Christophe became Director of VERGNET BURKINA in 2015. Assisting the growth of VERGNET BURKINA was a significant professional challenge, of course. However, Jean-Christophe claims that he was above all “… enthusiastic about VERGNET BURKINA’s many R&D and innovation projects”.

“I’ll continue to promote the development of rural hydraulics in Burkina Faso.” 

Among these R&D and innovation projects, the keen scientist lists, “the installation and monitoring of filters for arsenic decontamination on boreholes, the implementation of our drinking water management services for water supply systems, the demonstrators of VERGNET HYDRO’s autonomous, solar-powered water distribution points, our first large-scale projects in the photovoltaic energy production sector and, of course, the UNICEF research action project to test an innovative management service on 150 human-driven pumps.” In addition, VERGNET BURKINA was awarded two Water and Sanitation Trophies (“Research and Innovation” and “Water Resources Exploitation”) at the 2018 National Water and Sanitation Forum in Burkina Faso.

“I’m still extremely interested in the technical developments in our sector. And I can’t imagine turning the page for good. I’ll therefore continue to promote the development of rural hydraulics in Burkina Faso.” Jean-Christophe has been married for 31 years and has four children and a grandson, so also intends to enjoy his retirement with his family, and to reconnect with the fundamentals of the farming community to which he belongs, the San people. As a matter of fact, he owns a 4-hectare groundnut and sesame farm and to satisfy his unstoppable quest for innovation, the young retiree even plans to develop a new organic sesame business. After ground-breaking water supply, he’ll now be breaking new ground as a farmer!