Strategies for water resource development: Identifying and evaluating various options - both conventional and non-conventional - and proposing master plans and costed development programmes.
Water demand management: Identifying the issues to be tackled as well as the methods to be adopted to deal with them, placing special emphasis on:
Water demand and resources:Projecting water demand and the sustainability of resources on a realistic basis, taking into consideration living standards, agricultural and industrial activities, tariffs, unaccounted-for water and methods of supply.
Unaccounted-for water: Determining the technical, managerial and accounting aspects of unaccounted-for water and the optimum levels for viable economic and financial returns.
Tariff structures: Establishing procedures for the formulation of new tariff structures and the updating of existing ones, taking into consideration local and social conditions as well as major economic indicators so as to enhance the income of water authorities
Institutional set-up: Specifying measures required for improving management efficiency and financial self sufficiency.
Use of non-conventional water resources: Assessing, if appropriate, the desalination of sea and brackish water, the reuse of sewage effluent or irrigation drainage, the artificial recharge of groundwater, and the possible use of aquifer storage recovery.
Institutional set-up: Advising on restructuring institutional set-ups and the formation of supporting relevant associations such as WASA, WUA and similar set-ups and co-operatives to strengthen the participation of the beneficiaries in cost recovery of the projects and their sustainability.
The Environment: Preparing “Environment Impact Assessment” reports, together with recommendations, and estimating the cost of proposed mitigation measures. Also providing safety contingency plans, auditing services, risk assessments plans and proposing methods for the treatment of industrial and urban waste.
Design: Carrying out design work in order to estimate cost of construction at the feasibility study stage or preparing detailed design for the preparation of tender documents.
Pre-feasibility studies: Identifying and analysing the concepts underlying projects to be submitted to funding agencies, taking into consideration those agencies’ rules and regulations.
Feasibility studies: Carrying out feasibility studies and estimating the economic and financial internal rates of return, taking into consideration all important factors which can be fully quantified, and using sensitivity analysis based upon realistic assumptions for all aspects where quantification is found to be difficult.
Tendering: Proposing tendering procedures and evaluating tenders in accordance with internationally accepted rules and regulations.
Supervision:Advising on or appointing construction contractors, and also engineers for the supervision of construction contracts, together with subsequent monitoring of their performance.
Information Technology: Establishing new I.T. applications as well as assessing existing I.T. applications in order to enhance their business benefits and performance and align I.T. applications with business objectives and vision.
G.I.S.: Establishing new G.I.S. applications as well as assessing existing G.I.S. applications in order to enhance their business benefits and integration with I.T. applications, placing particular emphasis on applications for water/wastewater network maintenance operations.
Organisational Performance: Helping water services organisations measure their performance through the definition of key performance indicators (KPI’s) and the subsequent monitoring of KPIs, utilising software automation of the primary business processes of the organisation.
Costing water:Carrying out the financial analyses required to produce realistic projections of water demand and calculating the cost of water obtained from various resources using different production facilities, taking into consideration factors such as the cost of energy, the life span of the plant, discounting rates etc..
Privatisation: Assessing prospects for privatisation and investment taking into account the need for the highest financial returns consistent with adequate operation and efficiency of supply.
Operation and maintenance: Establishing operation and maintenance set-ups and recommending appropriate managerial procedures.
Investment: Determining the investment required, the procedures to be adopted and the legal agreements to be drawn up for external funding, if required.
