Dealing with water supply for fast growing Great Maputo Metropolitan Area

International consultancy, engineering and project management service provider Royal HaskoningDHV together with international water utilities company Vitens Evides International (VEI) will develop a new water distribution system for northern Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. This distribution system will ultimately supply safe drinking water to 550,000 residents and 20,000 households. The Royal HaskoningDHV lead consortium has been commissioned by Fundo de Investimento e Patrimonio do Asbestecimento de Agua of Mozambique (FIPAG) to implement all services required for the Development Phase of this project that will be funded by the Netherlands Government via an ORIO Grant. The contract value for Royal HaskoningDHV and VEI’s services amounts to 2.2 million Euro.

The new water distribution system will be part of the so-called Corumana Water Supply System, a US$ 130 million World Bank funded project through a loan to the Mozambique Government. The Corumana System will initially supply 60,000 m3 per day of treated drinking water from the Corumana Dam to Maputo. This capacity will be extended during a second phase to 120,000 m3 per day.

The new distribution system will cover an area of about 900 km2 that is now rapidly urbanised.

Millennium Development Goal

Although Mozambique as a whole is likely to meet the millennium development goals for water in 2015, the coverage of potable water supply in the capital city Maputo is still below 50%. The Corumana Water Supply System will enable FIPAG to cover all inhabitants of the city.

Future proof

Royal HaskoningDHV and VEI are responsible for the design of the water distribution system including new distribution centres, a main distribution ring, at least192 km of primary and secondary distribution lines and 20,000 new household connections. It is currently planned that the design works will be completed in April 2014 and construction works will start at the end of 2014.

Bob Bakker, project director at Royal HaskoningDHV said: "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. As well as helping to improve existing living conditions, the system will be future-proofed to accommodate Maputo’s rapidly growing population.”

Services supplied by Royal HaskoningDHV and VEI include among others: socio-economic surveys to provide demand and financial stability analysis, topographical and geotechnical surveys on which to base preliminary and detailed designs and detailed plans for implementation, operation and maintenance, organisational development, and finance. The consortium will also produce tender documents to procure contractors to build the water distribution system.

"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" Mr Bakker adds.

Funding of the 2.2 million Euro Development Phase was awarded by the Netherlands government after an ORIO request for funding was submitted by Royal HaskoningDHV, VEI and FIPAG.

After approval by ORIO of the studies of the Development Phase, the value of the ORIO Grant for implementation will be around 20 million Euro and operation and maintenance for the first 10 years will add up to around 1 million Euro.

Rapidly growing population

Mr Bakker continues: "The new Corumana Water Supply system will be Maputo’s second water supply system, and is needed as the existing supply system is no longer able to deal with demand. Our main challenge will be to design a distribution system that will cope with a rapidly growing population and to construct it in an area where urban infrastructure facilities such as roads are still under development.”

After completion of the Construction Phase Royal HaskoningDHV and VEI will continue to provide technical support to FIPAG and the future water supply operator of the Corumana Water Supply System.