Santafe I Water Supply and Sewerage Rehabilitation Project

closed

The key objective of the First Santa Fe Water Supply & Sewerage Rehabilitation Project is to support and consolidate the transition of Empresa de Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Bogota (EAAB) from a technically capable but operationally inefficient public service agency to a commercially-run public utility company, sensitive to the demands of the market, and with a corporate culture based on professional responsibility and accountability. The project will enhance operational efficiency, provide broader managerial autonomy and responsibility, reduce political interference, and increase public accountability of municipal utilities such as EAAB. The transition to a corporate culture will prepare the way for a longer-term structural transformation of the company, including inter alia, participation of private sector capital in the future provision and operation of the capital's water and sewerage services. In addition, the project has a number of specific objectives which include: 1) expanding distribution services to the urban poor; 2) addressing major environmental concerns of the heavily polluted Bogota River; 3) reducing the vulnerability of the Bogota water supply system; 4) supporting a revamped economy and its tariff framework which enables EAAB to reflect the full cost of providing its services. The project includes eight main components: 1) vulnerability control; 2) primary sanitary and storm water drainage and pollution control; 3) primary water distribution system; 4) secondary water, sewerage and drainage networks and service connections; 5) rehabilitation works; 6) institutional strengthening of EAAB; 7) technical assistance and consulting services for engineering, design and supervision of works; and 8) environmental component.