Background

Mbeya is the capital of the Mbeya region of southwestern Tanzania. It has a design population of 129,000 and an estimated water demand of 6,000 cu.m/day. The European Commission decided,  in conjunction with the Government of Tanzania, to fund a new water supply scheme for Mbeya and a shortlist of three consulting firms was drawn up in Brussels for the design of the project. Jennings O’Donovan was chosen from the list by the Tanzanian Ministry of Lands, Water, Housing and Urban Development (MAJI), now the Ministry of Water, and MAJI’s choice was endorsed by the Commission.

Design

There were three phases to the design consultancy and the prepared documentation for each phase required and received the approval of MAJI and the endorsment of the Commission’s delegate. The phases were as follows:-

• Appraisal and updating of  previous Feasibility  Reports.
• Preliminary Engineering Studies.
• Detailed design and Tender Documents.
  

The Mbeya project included river water abstraction, water treatment, pumping, storage, distribution and ancillary infrastructural requirements. There were approximately 22km of uPVC and ductile iron pipelines in diameters up to 500 mm.

Design included all civil, electrical, mechanical, structural, architectural, landscaping and hydrological studies necessary for the preparation of the preliminary reports,  the draft and final contract documents.

Implementation

A consultancy services contract between MAJI and Jennings O’Donovan for the implementation period was signed and endorsed by the Commission. The contract covered the services to be provided during

• The Tendering Period
• The Construction Period
• The Maintenance Period
  

MAJI prequalified nine contractors for the project and five tenders were received. These were evaluated in detail by Jennings O’Donovan and on their recommendation the French contractor S.G.E.E.M. was awarded the approximately U.S. dollar 6.5m equivalent contract.

Jennings O’Donovan’s Resident Engineer and Assistant Resident Engineer were on site throughout the construction period. They supervised the construction of all of the works and saw to it that problems encountered were expeditiously resolved and that the project was carried out to specification, within the allocated budget and ahead of time.

Jennings O’Donovan issued the Certificate of Completion of Works and the Maintenance Certificate by which time the scheme had been operating satisfactorilly for approximately one and a half years.

The President of Tanzania, Ndugu Ali Hassan Mwinyi honoured the  people of Mbeya and everybody involved in the Mbeya Water Supply project by laying the foundation stone of the project.