Malawi’s Ministry of Water Development and Irrigation is inviting expressions of interest from eligible consulting firms keen on providing consulting services, including the preparation of detailed designs for water intake works on the Shire river, water treatment works, pumpstations, pipelines and reservoirs for the Blantyre Water Board (BWB).

The assignment will be financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) as part of the second phase of the multimillion-dollar National Water Development Programme.

The programme’s procurement specialist, Anthony Msendema, says in a statement that the Malawi Government wants to undertake the project to develop new sources of water for the City of Blantyre after engineering studies carried out in 2001 with funding from IDA indicated that water from the existing sources is inadequate to meet the demand of the growing population.

Blantyre’s main source of water is Walkers Ferry, on the Shire river, about 45 km west of the city. It supplies about 90% of total potable supplies, with the balance coming from the Mudi dam, located within the city.

“The water produced by these sources is inadequate to provide a continuously pressurised supply to most of the BWB’s supply areas,” says Msendema.

He says the selected consulting firm will be required to prepare detailed designs and tender documents for the various aspects of the project, which include the building of a new intake on the Shire river, raw-water pumping infrastructure and a pipeline to the Walkers Ferry water treatment works, additional water treatment facilities at Walkers Ferry, an additional clear-water reservoir, a treated-water pumpstation, a pipeline to the BWB’s Chileka Complex, an additional reservoir and pumpstation at Chileka, a pipeline to Blantyre and service reservoirs, transfer pumpstations and pipelines to connect to reservoirs within Blantyre.

Says Msendema: “The works will be designed for a two-stage implementation over a 25-year design horizon. The full scope of the assignment is contained in the detailed terms of reference [that] will be circulated to interested consulting firms.”

He says interested consulting firms should provide proof that they have staff with the required qualifications and relevant experience.

Msendema says consulting firms may associate to enhance their chances of being selected.

The deadline for the submission of expressions of interest is August 31.