Nalco Africa Announces Price Increases

JOHANNESBURG, March 1, 2011 - Nalco Africa (Pty) Ltd. has announced it is implementing a price increase
for customers, effective April 2 or as contracts permit. Increases will
average from 12 to 16 percent.

"We have faced significant raw material cost increases and some raw
material availability shortages," said Paul Voorhout, Managing Director,
Nalco Africa. "We need to increase our prices as our costs increase. That
allows us to continue to invest in research, manufacturing process
improvements and development of our field engineers to enhance the
sustainable solutions we provide and the value we create for our customers."

Nalco's sales engineers and key account managers will discuss the
particular impacts of these increases with individual customers.

About Nalco Africa

Nalco Africa, located in Johannesburg, provides industrial water and
process treatments to various industries in southern and eastern Africa
including food and beverage, chemicals, steel, light and medium
manufacturing, petrochemicals, mining and mineral processing, refining,
automotive, power generation and pulp and papermaking. Nalco Africa is a
joint venture of Nalco Holding Company (NYSE: NLC) of the United States and
Protea Chemicals of South Africa, a division of the Omnia Group.

Casimiro da Silva Santos, Marketing Manager of Nalco Africa, +27-10-590-91-35, cdasilva at nalco.com