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activities WORLDWIDE

Consulting ENGINEERS since 1963

As water resources in Syria are scarce and water was subject to massive pressure the objective of the project was to improve the environmental situation in a number of towns in Aleppo Governorate (4 million inhabitants concerned) through the devel-opment of modern water and wastewater treatment infrastructure and an improvement of the service providers. One of the aims was to achieve compliance with the requirements/effluent standards of Directive 91/271/EEC (Urban Wastewater Treatment).

IGIP, together with its partners, first prepared a conceptual study on masterplan level for identifying short-, medium- and long-term investment in the water supply and wastewater sector in the project area. Within this study they analyzed the complete water cycle:
  • Water resources
  • Water supply situation
  • Water distribution
  • Wastewater collection and disposal
  • Wastewater treatment
  • Effluent and sludge reuse

The needed short- and mid-term investment for all studied 172 agglomerations exceeded 700 Mio. Euro. Additionally, long-term investment was determined to be around 330 Mio Euro. As the project budget for short-and mid-term investment was limited to 75 million Euro, 6 towns were selected for carrying out further investigations in the form of comprehensive feasibility studies. For these towns, different water supply and wastewater disposal and treatment scenarios were examined and feasible solutions proposed for implementation.

The political situation in 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic did not allow continuing the project as foreseen with the preparation of tender documents of the identified projects. Therefore a suspension of the contract after finalization of the feasibility studies has been agreed between the EIB and IGIP.

Services Provided

The overall objective of the Technical Assistance was to identify, ascertain the feasibility and prepare for EIB financing an investment programme in the water and wastewater infrastructure in the rural areas of Aleppo Governorate. The TA operation was articulated into two sequential phases:

Phase 1 included the preparation of the conceptual study on master plan level:
  • Assess present and future water supply and wastewater investment needs in Aleppo Governorate, identify priorities and the investment “package” for short-term, mid-term (2025) and long-term horizons (2040). The Consultant analysed 38 sub-projects to protect the Euphrates River, other surface waters and groundwater resources in the project region and identified the most important projects. The master plan included following analyses:
    • Identification of project sites (in total 172 urban agglomerations)
    • Analysis of social aspects, Institutional, technical, environmental analysis, wastewater re-use assessment, analysis of unit-costs (WWTP, pipelines + O&M), analysis of Procurement situation, economic and financial analysis
    • Definition of investment required in different horizons
    • Project selection and definition of investment programme
    • Workshop to present output of conceptual study
 Phase 2 included following services:
  • Preparation of 4 feasibility studies for water and wastewater projects proposed for EIB financing including:
    • Description of present situation in 4 agglomerations
    • Analysis of future situation
    • Definition and analysis of alternative technical solutions (ranging from lagoons up to activated sludge process)
    • Institutional analysis of wastewater utility and municipality, their role in the wastewater investment and operations
    • Financial and economic analysis including tariff study, budgeting, accounting practices, investment planning
    • Sensitivity and risk analysis
    • Definition of procurement and implementation strategy (FIDIC Yellow Book)
  • Preparation of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Studies (ESIA) for the 4 projects as well as for 2 further projects to be financed by the promoter himself
  • Preparation of the Terms of Reference for the further Technical Assistance during the project implementation Assistance to EIB in all aspects in the due diligence process and project appraisal
  • Assistance to EIB in all aspects in the due diligence process and project appraisal