As part of the Government’s policy to privatize the state-owned sanitary engineering services in Bahrain through the implementation of “Muharraq Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) & Sewer Conveyance System” privatization project, a Technical Conference has been jointly organized by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Works and the Economic Development Board today the 16th November 2009.
The project has been put out to tender based on a 27 years Build Own and Operate (BOO) Contract and the bids submission are expected by 20th January 2010. A pre-bid conference on the project was held in Bahrain earlier this year on July 7th and 8th and it was attended by more than 100 representatives of bidders from various countries. This project forms part of a wider on going national Privatization Strategy and Implementation Plan (PSIP) set by the Government of Bahrain appointing a consultant Consortium comprising lead Consultant HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd with supporting entities Fichtner Gmbh and Norton Rose LLP.
In order to facilitate further interaction with the prospective bidders and disseminate project related information to them, The bidders whom have confirmed their attendance for the technical conference are from the Sumitomo/ Degremont consortium, the Samsung Engineering/ United Utilites/ ADIC consortium, the Keppel/ Veolia/ Mubadala consortium, the Berlinwasser/ Metito/ Mitsui consortium, the Saudi Oger/ Kwater/ Samsung C&T consortium, the Saudi Bin Ladin/ Tanqia consortium and Acciona Aqua. This strong line-up of leading global water and wastewater companies re-affirms the attractiveness of the Bahrain wastewater privatization programme.
This Technical Conference has been jointly organized by the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Finance and the Economic Development Board. The conference agenda is expected to cover technical and environmental elements of the Project such as permitting procedures in Bahrain, routing of the gravity sewer trunk line and the findings of soil investigation studies. It will also include presentations from the Central Planning Office (by Mr. Dominic Mc Polin), the Directorate of Environmental Impact Assessment (by Ms. Zahawa Kuwari) and from the Project Technical Consultant Fichtner (Mr. Wolfgang).
The Government expects to sign the Sewage Treatment Agreement with the successful bidder in June 2010 after which the successful bidder will seek to achieve financial close with its lenders. Implementation of the project is expected to take up to 42 months and will include construction of a 100,000 m3/day sewage treatment plant, a 15km length of deep gravity sewer and a wastewater connection network allowing for the decommissioning of 24 existing wastewater pumping stations.
In summary, the Muharraq Sewage Treatment Plant and Network Privatization Project is not only a strategic project for the Kingdom of Bahrain’s privatization programme but also an extremely important transaction for the GCC water and wastewater sector, representing the first such project in the market with a large network component involved. It is expected that the legal and commercial framework established for the Muharraq project and the findings of the PSIP will add to the experience gained by Bahrain in various privatization projects and lead the way for efficient and cost effective service delivery to the people of Bahrain.
