Malawi invites bids for Nsanje water project

The Malawi government is inviting expressions of interest in providing design and construction supervision services for the rehabilitation, upgrading and expansion of the water-supply system in the southern lower Shire Valley town of Nsanje.

Southern Region Water Board operations manager Edward Mbesa says the project will be financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association as part of the country’s multimillion- dollar national water development programme.

The Nsanje water supply project will involve the identification of water sources and the construction of the associated water-supply intakes, in addition to the rehabilitation, upgrading and extension of the entire water-supply system in the town to meet the town’s water requirements until 2020.

Mbesa says the consultancy assignment for the project will be carried out in two phases, with the first phase involving preliminary and detailed design, and the production of tender documents, while the second phase includes tendering and construction super- vision.

“The contract for phase 1 will be paid on a lump-sum basis, while that for phase 2 will be time based. The inputs for phase 2 may change, depending on the results for phase 1,” he says.

Mbesa states that interested consulting firms must submit information indicating that they are qualified to provide the required services. This information may be in the form of brochures, descriptions of experience in similar assignments and appropriate skills among key staff members.

“Only consulting firms with demonstrated experience and a good record in similar assignments will be shortlisted. Consultants may associate to enhance their qualifications,” says Mbesa.

He says only shortlisted consultants will be invited to submit proposals, which will include specific terms of reference.

The town of Nsanje will host the port to be built as part of the proposed $6-billion Shire–Zambezi waterway project, which will link Malawi to the Indian Ocean by dredging a canal through the Shire and Zambezi rivers.

Apart from Nsanje, Malawi’s national water development programme, now in its second phase, is developing water infrastructure in the country’s major cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu and several urban centres.

The financiers of the programme are the World Bank, the European Union, the government of the Netherlands and the Kuwaiti Fund.