Malawi’s Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) is seeking $120-million in financing for a new dam to supply water to the city of Mzuzu.

Mzuzu and surrounding areas rely on the Lunyangwa dam, which can no longer meet increasing water demand from a growing population.

“The solution to this challenge is the construction of an additional dam,” the water board says in a statement.

The planned dam will, however, be a long-term solution, with measures to be taken to deal with the water shortage in the short term including the construction of reservoirs throughout the city, as well as a 13 200 m3 water treatment plant, using the proceeds of a European Investment Bank loan. The water board recently invited eligible contractors to submit prequalification applications for the project by April 27.

“Applicants shall . . . have satisfactorily and substantially completed a similar contract with a value of at least €7-million or at least two similar contracts with minimum values of €4-million each between January 1, 2013, and the application submission deadline,” says the water board, adding that applicants must have a minimum cash flow of €1.5-million.

Application documents can be obtained from the NRWB’s offices on payment of a nonrefundable fee of €100 or its equivalent in a freely convertible currency.

The water treatment plant will consist of a 180-m-diameter water pipeline, two reinforced- concrete settling tanks, one reinforced-concrete mixing basin, four reinforced-concrete flocculation units, four reinforced-concrete sedimentation tanks, three reinforced-concrete rapid gravity filters, a chemical dosing system, a filter backwash system, a 500-m3-capacity reinforced-concrete water tank, three pumps to convey water to a storage unit, two backwash pumps and a 3.5-km-long PVC pipeline.

The water reservoirs will include three 500-m3-capacity pressed-steel elevated tanks, one 2 000-m3-capacity ground-level pressed-steel or reinforced-concrete tank and four 1 000-m3-capacity ground-level pressed-steel or reinforced-concrete tanks.