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EU hopefuls put COWI water services to use 

Photo: COWI

In the future, this moutain stream will provide the coastal town of Akcaabat in northeastern Turkey with its water supply.

COWI is in the midst of helping Serbia and Turkey, two aspiring members to the EU, renovate their water supply and sewage facilities.

In 2007, COWI was selected to conduct two major EU-funded projects in Turkey. 

The projects involve two parallel tenders - a rare occurrence for a single firm - which seek to improve water supply networks and wastewater treatment plants in 23 Turkish municipalities.

The completed projects, which will soon be put out to tender, will cost EUR 500 million.

About the same time, COWI was also asked to draw up a master plan for helping 25 municipalities in the Southern Morava River Basin in Serbia to live up to EU wastewater treatment directives. The value of the agreement is also expected to be around EUR 500 million.

Major EU water projects The projects in both countries are among the larger EU-funded water and wastewater projects . Their purpose is to help the two countries – both EU hopefuls – bring their water supply and sewage facilities up to union standards.

According to COWI water and wastewater project director Karsten Vesth-Hansen, such projects are few and far between, and COWI has been selected for them multiple times in recent years due in part to Danish environmental policy of the 1970s and 1990s.

"COWI established itself in the water and sewerage areas in the 1970s after the Danish parliament passed the world's first framework environmental protection legislation," Vesth-Hansen says. "After the law was passed, COWI's environment department grew significantly."

Eastern Europe experienceMuch of the growth is due to the fact that the Danish government in the 1990s supported Eastern European countries with substantial funding for environmental protection.

"That helped us establish strong relationships with environmental authorities in many Eastern European countries," Vesth-Hansen says, "and at the same time we increased our knowledge and experience, particularly on the renovation and expansion of wastewater treatment plants."

Competitive edgeCOWI was able to win the two projects in Turkey, one setting up a water supply system for eight municipalities and wastewater treatment for 15, thanks to one particular competitive advantage.

"In 2005 we finalised a detailed study of investment-intensive environmental projects throughout all of Turkey," Vesth-Hansen says. "The study included water supply and wastewater treatment, and that gave us a lot of insight into the water sector in Turkey, which gave us an edge over the 45 other companies that demonstrated interest in the projects."

With this first project completed, COWI established a local office in Turkey, which eventually took the name COWI SNS.

"Having a local presence has a big effect in terms of competition," Vesth-Hansen says, adding that the Southern Morava project also came about as part of its collaboration with COWI's office in Serbia.

The next big project Vesth-Hansen says he hopes COWI will be able to win major water projects in the years to come, and points to the Ukraine, a country the size of Turkey, as the next possible country.

"The national water and sewage action plan we created for Ukraine shows that it will need EUR 26 billion worth of investments if it is to meet EU standards."

By Kathrine Schmeichel, kats@cowi.com  
Published: 23.08.2010

Water projects in Turkey and Serbia 

Wastewater treatment  This project includes establishing sewerage and wastewater treatment systems in 15 municipalities across Turkey. Some 1.9 million people will benefit from it, at a cost of EUR 320 million.
COWI is the lead consultant in a consortium that includes the COWI Group, COWI SNS (Turkey), and Turkish companies UBM and Encon.

Water supply The water supply project includes establishing and re-establishing the water supply in eight municipalities. The project will ensure clean drinking water for half a million people and cost approximately EUR 180 million.

COWI is the lead consultant in a consortium that includes the COWI Group, COWI SNS, Turkish company Su-Yapi and Belgian/British company MWH.

One of 16 pre-qualified firms The two winning consortiums were chosen from among 16 that had pre-qualified. The total value of COWI’s contracts is EUR 6.4 million.

Both projects involve planning, feasibility studies, detailed design and preparation of tender documents.

Later this year, the first projects will be put out to tender using the tender documents prepared by COWI.

According to EU regulations, COWI cannot submit tenders for the subsequent consultancy services on the projects. Vesth-Hansen estimates that the initial five to six projects will be completed by 2015.

Master plan for sewerage in Southern Morava COWI has established a master plan for how the 25 municipalities of Southern Morava, in southern Serbia, can meet EU standards for sewerage and wastewater treatment. The cost of doing so is estimated at EUR 500 million and will benefit one million people.

The value of COWI’s contract is EUR 2.8 million.

LAST UPDATED: 13.03.2012