Amman looks to boost supply and plug the leaks

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Jordan is targeting institutional reform and greater private sector participation in its water sector. An innovative scheme to reduce non-revenue water in Amman is a sign of the potential opportunities.

Jordan’s recently published water strategy report covering the period from 2008 to 2022 highlights a number of new remedies for the country’s precarious water resource situation. The scope of the report is broad, with targets set for expanding water production and reuse, reducing non-revenue water and improving cost recovery through tariff reform.

Reform of Jordan's fragmented water sector over the next 2-5 years will aim to encourage investment and greater private sector participation through various business models, including management contracts, concessions and any other models deemed to be appropriate.

One model that holds particular promise is performance-based outsourcing of specific operational tasks. It is a concept that Miyahuna, the water utility for Amman’s 2.6 million residents, is already applying to the specialist area of reducing non-revenue water (NRW) in Amman. As part of a broad scheme being sponsored by USAID and conducted by US-based Segura Consulting with the assistance of Competitive Advantage Consulting, Miyahuna is planning to tender several long-term NRWreduction contracts in the Jordanian capital.

Three one-year pilot contracts have been awarded over the last fifteen months to the following consortia consisting of international firms in partnership with Jordanian engineering companies: Farrer Consulting & Consulting Engineering Centre (CEC); Mouchel & Orient Engineering Consultancy; and ADS Environmental Services & El Concorde. A fourth award is pending.

The pilot programme will be followed by up to three contracts, each covering a geographical area of Amman. The duration of the contracts has not been decided, although it is expected to be in the region of five years. They may also be renewable. Each contract will be heavily incentivebased. Roger Patrick, President of Competitive Advantage Consulting, who is leading the work on NRW, outlined the advantages of the 1-year pilot scheme. “It gives [contractors] more confidence in bidding aggressively on an incentive-based long-term contract, resulting in a win-win for the contractors and Amman.” It has proved an attractive proposition to prospective bidders – more than fifty expressions of interest were received when the contracts were initially brought to market. Under the terms of the pilot phase, the contractors will make only a small profit on top of cost recovery. The incentive is that only successful pilot contractors will be allowed to bid for a longterm contract.

NRW currently stands at approximately 40% in Amman. It is a critical issue for a city which achieves water supply to residents for an average of only 36 hours per week. Construction of the $1 billion Disi- Amman conveyor is expected to commence soon, and the risk is that much of the delivered water, which has to be pumped more than 300km and up an elevation of around 1km, will simply leak away once it reaches Amman unless substantial reductions in the city’s NRW can be achieved in the meantime. The report highlights the aim of reducing the countrywide level of NRW from around 50% today to 25% by 2022.

Jordan is also counting on water reuse to boost economic productivity in the next 10 years. Approximately 62% of Jordan’s 6.4 million people are currently served by sewerage systems, with treatment plants producing an average of 274,000m3/d of treated effluent. The report forecasts that, with the construction of new wastewater treatment plants, this figure will more than double by 2022 to approximately 700,000m3/d. The private sector will be encouraged to take a greater role in the collection of wastewater as well as the distribution and sale of treated effluent.

Elsewhere, the report acknowledges the need to assess the option of expanding desalination of both brackish and sea water resources to bolster the supply to municipal, industrial and agricultural consumers.