DUTCH COMPANIES AWARDED MAPUTO WATER CONTACT

The Dutch companies Royal HaskoningDHV and Vitens Evides International have been awarded a contract to work on a project to supply drinking water in Mozambique’s capital city Maputo.The two companies will design a new water distribution system for northern Maputo which will eventually supply safe drinking water to 550,000 residents and 20,000 households.The contract was awarded by Mozambique’s Water Supply Investment and Assets Fund (FIPAG) for the implementation of all services required for the development phase of the project that will be funded by the Dutch government. The contract is worth 2.2 million euros (just under three million US dollars). The water distribution system will be part of the Corumana Water Supply System, a 130 million dollar project funded by the World Bank through a loan to the Mozambique government.The Corumana Water Supply System will initially supply 60,000 cubic metres per day of treated drinking water to Maputo from the Corumana Dam on the Sabie River. This capacity will be extended during a second phase to 120,000 cubic metres per day. The distribution system will cover an area of about 900 square kilometres. Royal HaskoningDHV and Vitens Evides International will design the system with four new distribution centres and 192 kilometres of primary and secondary distribution pipes connecting 20,000 household to the water supply for the first time.The consortium will also draw up the tender documents for the construction of the distribution system.The design phase is due to end in April next year, with building work scheduled to begin before the end of 2014.The Dutch government will fund the construction phase with a grant of around 20 million euros, and will pay for the system's operation and maintenance for the first decade, costing around one million euros.According to Royal HaskoningDHV’s project director, Bob Bakker, “the new sustainable urban water supply system will provide good quality drinking water for more than half a million inhabitants in northern Maputo. The new system will improve drinking water quality and quantity, and will reduce the costs per litre for the inhabitants that now depend on unreliable sources”.Bakker added, “it is exciting to have the opportunity to provide a system that will make a real difference to the quality of lives of so many people, and help to enhance the Maputo community in such a positive way”.Currently the cities of Maputo and Matola and the adjacent areas rely on the Umbeluzi River for their water supply. But the system based on the Umbeluzi treatment station is no longer sufficient to meet the growing demand for water.The Dutch government previously contributed 18.6 million euros to the expansion of the Umbeluzi system, a project which increased the number of people benefitting from this system from 670,000 to 1.5 million.