PA provides a full range of services to support the transition to market-driven water and wastewater services around the world. By establishing a proper regulatory framework and engaging private operations and/or asset ownership through competition, PA is instrumental in helping form efficient market structures for these vital utility services.
Track record
Restructuring a Western Australia water industry
For the last decade, the government-owned Water Authority of Western Australia (WA) has managed the water resources of the state and provided water utility services to its 1.7 million people. In April 1995, the WA state government announced a restructuring plan to spin off an autonomous water sector, to be completed by 1 January, 1996.
PA Consulting Group, with senior management from the Water Authority and the two other government bodies involved, developed and implemented an integrated change program. This program has delivered three new organizations, reduced staff from 3,600 to 2,200 and saved over $16 million in annual net cost savings (with more still to flow through). The project, dubbed 'Streamline '95,' included three initiatives:
- Utility efficiency improvements and utility corporatization
- Creation of the Water and Rivers Commission
- A high-level water industry restructure requiring new legislation.
Water/wastewater utility privatization, Argentina
The public company, Obras Sanitarias de la Nacion, provided drinking water and sewer collection services to the city of Buenos Aires and other areas of the province. It was privatized in 1994 through international public bidding as a 99-year concession. The bidding included obligatory execution goals and a quality service regime.
PA advised a consortium formed by Lyones d'eaux, Anglian Water, Agua de Barcelona, Sociedad Comercial del Plata and Meyer y Banco de Galicia, to profile the company's hydraulic engineering, modeling of water and sewer grids, financial and economic status, hydrogeology, tariffs, quality of service, pumping stations and electrical and mechanical engineering. The new company that was formed after the privatization was Aguas Argentinas S.A.
Following privatization, PA has provided advisory services to the company on its technical and commercial operation. In 1995, Aguas Argentinas and an international consortium formed by Safege and Montgomery Watson signed a consulting contract for program management and engineering services for the Greater Buenos Aires water and wastewater concession. PA continues to participate in the consortium.
Strengthening the Alexandria Water General Authority (AWGA), Egypt
PA is leading a technical assistance team to help Egypt's AWGA improve the recovery of its operation and maintenance costs, decentralize its management and improve its service delivery. The project's overall goal is for AWGA to achieve world-class performance through a program of benchmarking, adopting best practices and continuous improvement for its 4.5 million customers.
Highlights of this five-year, USAID-sponsored program include institutional assessment, institutional strengthening programs and priority program activities and conflict resolution, as shown below.
Institutional assessment (January 1999 - January 2000)
To evaluate AWGA's existing institutional capacity, PA examined national policy issues and governorate laws and regulations that affected the utility, and the adequacy of sector planning at the governorate and national levels. In addition, we examined AWGA's planning and specification of sector programs, contracting and construction procedures, preparation of O&M manuals and facility startup, facility operation and maintenance, and financing.
Institutional strengthening programs (February 2000 - December 2010)
Based on the institutional assessment results, PA designed and is currently implementing 70 priority programs and a long-term (ten-year) plan consisting of 71 additional programs (short-term programs) for overcoming AWGA's institutional weaknesses.
Priority program activities (February 2000 - June 2004)
Within the short-term programs, PA identified activities to be undertaken over a five-year period to strengthen AWGA. These have been grouped into seven major areas: organization; administration and management; strategic planning; human resources; finance; customer and public relations; technical and O&M.
Conflict resolution (February 2000 - June 2004)
PA is assisting AWGA in developing programs to resolve water source disputes (over both quantity and quality) and customer disputes, and in the interpretation of existing rules and regulations affecting AWGA's performance).
Metering program
PA is assisting AWGA in preparing specifications for tendering and purchasing up to 60,000 meters and installing them. We will also develop a comprehensive program for AWGA that encompasses all phases of metering operation, trading and maintenance.
Competitiveness assessment of water division, Ottawa, Canada
PA led a competitiveness assessment of the water division's operations, maintenance and construction activities for the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, Ontario, Canada.
The objectives were to assess O&M (operations and maintenance) competitiveness, determine gaps, recommend improvements and estimate the resultant implementation costs/benefits. The study also evaluated current SCADA and automation technology as well as information management systems for managing employee, accounting, purchasing, maintenance, laboratory and customer service operations.
The study estimated overall productivity improvements in maintenance operations of 20-25 percent, which represents an annual savings of over $1 million in maintenance expenses. The team also recommended measures to achieve additional operations savings of $1.5 to $2 million per year. Additional studies of distribution maintenance, metering and related operations are being planned, and the results of this and future studies will be incorporated into a strategic plan for improving competitiveness.
Upgrading the Mafraq Wastewater treatment plant, Jordan
The existing wastewater treatment plant in Mafraq, Jordan is producing an effluent that does not meet the Jordanian Standard for treated domestic wastewater. The Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MWI) in Jordan requested USAID's assistance to finance an upgrade or replacement of the plant. PA's Water IQC team is providing long-term technical assistance to USAID and the Jordan Valley Authority by reviewing and updating the design-build solicitation documents and providing construction supervision to ensure proper performance of the contractor and adherence to the proposed specifications.
