Four-Cities-Project

Concluded

In August 2003, the government of Albania granted a five year management contract to a consortium of BerlinWasser International GmbH (BWI) and AquaMundo GmbH for the water and wastewater services in four Albanian towns: Durres, Fier, Lezhe and Saranda, with a total population of 400,000. The management contract offered the private operator a fixed payment plus performance-based commission. The project goal was to ensure that within five years the water supply and sewage disposal systems in the four cities ran on an independent, economical and cost-covering basis. To achieve the task, BWI and AquaMundo experts assumed management responsibilities and were to be assisted by a team of experts in various fields including engineering services, leak detection, system operations, procurement functions, maintenance, customer services, payment collection procedures, and accounting. The management contract was part of a larger project to improve the provision of water and sewage services in the targeted cities. The project included infrastructure investments to improve operations and maintenance. The World Bank supported this project by providing a $15 million loan through its International Development Association (IDA) to fund the management fee and necessary investments. In addition, the government of Albania was to fund investments worth $6.93 million. AquaMundo was owned by Austrian registered company InfraMan GmbH, a subsidiary of AmiWater, the water management arm of the Saudi pipe maker Amiantit Group.