Stabilisation of Water Supply and Sanitation Services for Refugees, IDPs and Residents of Duhok governorate in Iraq
The final workshop of the BMZ financed project “Stabilisation of Water Supply and Sanitation Services for Refugees, IDPs and Residents of Duhok governorate in Iraq” (Contract Value: 710.187,98 EUR) was held on Monday, 10th of June 2019 in Dohuk, Iraq. Apart from GIZ representatives, high representatives of the General Directorate for Water and Sewerage, the Directorate of Water Dohuk (DoWD), the Directorate of Water Dohuk Outskirts (DoWDO), the Board of Relief and Humanitarian Affairs (BRHA) and consultants from international and local NGOs participated in the workshop.
Iraq, a fragile state in an unstable region, has faced major challenges due to 215.000 Syrian refugees that fled to Iraq. Additionally, 2.1 Mio. internally displaced persons (IDPs), are now living in refugee camps. This is the main reason for the growth of the population of the Governorate of Dohuk by 660.00 refugees in the past years. The Kurdistan Regional Government thus faced great challenges to meet the IDPs’ and refugees’ basic needs. In particular, the drinking water supply and sanitation services were not sufficient and lacked capacities. The objective of the GIZ project was to enhance the resilience and to be able to maintain the drinking water supply and sanitation for refugees, IDPs and host communities in Dohuk Governorate and Dohuk Outskirts.
The specific task of the Joint Venture AMBERO/GITEC-IGIP focused on the support of the partner institutions DoWD and DoWDO to improve their understanding of water losses in the water distribution system. It consisted of developing a water loss reduction strategy and capacitating the responsible partners to implement the identified priority measures.
The final workshop summarized the main results achieved by the project, namely:
- Asset Documentation
- Introduction of Geographic Information System (GIS) projects
- Integration with existing customer data
- Non-revenue water (NRW) identification
- Water network improvements
- Water Transmission System (WTS) monitoring and calibration
- Financial analysis and water tariff determination
- NRW Action Plan
Further collateral activities initiated during project implementation comprised:
- Purchase and installation of bulk meters
- Training on NRW technologies and water balance calculation for the staff of both stakeholders
- Purchase and implementation of the initial core of the GIS infrastructure (hardware and software) for both stakeholder
- Purchase and installation of large butterfly valves
Projects for field surveys, digital mapping and a GIS upload of water network infrastructure in two small areas of DoWD and DoWDO were prepared and are undergoing a tender phase at the moment.
In the final workshop, a special focus was given to the water network improvements and NRW findings, the introduction of the GIS requirement analysis, the database design and data maintenance and quality control procedures, the latter yet to be put in place.
The project team, consisting of international and national long- and short-term experts, was highly praised by local stakeholders and GIZ for their personal commitment and achievements within a relatively short period of time (11/2017 – 06/2019). On the other hand, the support and flexibility of the GIZ team was highly appreciated by the team. “These kinds of projects are rare; capacity building and managing water networks facilities will help us to maintain our infrastructure for longer time with lower cost and serve our customers in a better way”, a senior engineer summarized the experiences made. “Helping people to help themselves is great and not everyone can do it”, was the conclusion drawn by a team member.
