Technical assistance to the Zambia water and sanitation project

Project details
Country: 
Zambia
Donor organisation: 
Associated enterprises: 
Department: 
Water
Project volume: 
5,395,250 €
Currency: 
Value of services: 
1,618,575 €
Start of project: 
November, 2015
End of project: 
August, 2021
Project background: 

The Zambia Water and Sanitation Project consists of rehabilitating and expanding water and wastewater services of Mulonga Water & Sewerage Company (MWSC) in the Copperbelt Province, Zambia’s traditional copper mining region bordering on the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Company is one of the 11 public Commercial Utilities (CUs) that provides water and wastewater services in urban and peri-urban areas in Zambia. MWSC is wholly owned by the municipalities of Mufulira, Chingola and Chililabombwe in equal measure. MWSC is responsible for the service provision to approx. 500,000 people in the three urban areas. MWSC has a total of roughly 50,000 water connection customers as of December 2014. The high population growth in the peri-urban areas as well as lack of major investments in physical infrastructure have limited its ability to provide adequate water supply and sanitation services to the fast growing urban residential areas.

Project description: 

The investment project and the TA assignment will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 will cover surveys, feasibility study, outline design, procurement of the main contracts and the start of the capacity building work by the Project Implementation Consultant (PIC) as well as detailed design by other consultants. Phase 1 starts with the appointment of the PIC and ends with the appointment of the Works Contractor(s) and is expected to take approximately 30 months. Phase 2 will cover the implementation of the Project from appointment of the Works Contractor(s) to completion of the work and is expected to require approximately 30 months construction plus a 12 months defects period. During Phase 2 the PIC will continue to provide overall programme management and monitoring inputs as well as completion of the capacity building work.

Service description: 
  • Programme management and monitoring: Design and implement an ongoing programme management and monitoring process.
  • Reduction of NRW: Design effective and appropriate systems and processes for the long term management of NRW and assist MWSC in implementing such systems and processes including physical leakage and commercial NRW as well as a substantial leakage control programme to reduce the current high level of physical leakage.
  • Extension of services to peri-urban areas: Design and implement an effective, sustainable and affordable approach for the planning, design and construction and the future management of water and sanitation systems in peri-urban areas.
  • Infrastructure improvements: Provide robust information about current MWSC assets, water resources and community attitudes, prepare feasibility studies, 30 year rolling investment plan and outline designs for the required infrastructure investments (EUR 150 million) including managing a comprehensive groundwater survey, willingness and ability to pay survey and supervision of detailed design and of the construction supervision performed by other consultants
  • Procurement:  Assistance to MWSC with the procurement of the following three groups of contracts and responsibility for producing bidding documents and managing the procurement processes:
  • Development of outline designs by the PIC followed by detailed design of civil works and pipelines by consultants to be appointed in Phase 1.
  • Construction of the works by a mixture of FIDIC Red Book contract(s) for civil works and pipelines and FIDIC Yellow Book contract(s) for water/ wastewater treatment works.
  • Supervision of construction by consultants to be appointed in Phase 1.
  • Capacity building: Provide a comprehensive analysis of the current organisational strengths and weaknesses of MWSC and design a Business Improvement Programme to be implemented by MWSC that will provide strong systems, processes and people for all MWSC’s operational functions.
Objectives: 

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to improving the access of the population in the MWSC service area to reliable, sustainable and affordable clean water and wastewater services.

Currency: