Proposed privatization of sanitary engineering services in the Kingdom of Bahrain

The consortium is headed by HSBC Bank Middle-East which is the lead consultant and financial advisor.

The other consortium members are Fichtner Consulting Engineers who will provide technical advice, and Norton Rose who will provide legal support services.

The consultants' scope of work, includes the following:

- To formulate a comprehensive Privatization Strategy & Implementation Plan for privatizing the state owned sanitary engineering services in Bahrain with the objective of improving efficiency and service delivery in line with international standards and benchmarks.

- To provide advisory services for the implementation (as part of privatization) of a fast track project that involves the invitation through tender process, of interested private developers/investors/consortiums, to build, own and operate a new Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), a Trunk Sewer and associated works in the Muharraq region of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The proposed STP would have a capacity of up to 500,000 Population Equivalent.

This initiative is part of the Government's policy to provide a greater role to the private sector to participate commercially in the national economy of Bahrain.

The proposed privatization of the sanitary engineering sector including the invitation of private companies and consortiums to participate in the financing, construction and operation of the Muharraq STP and related works will provide an attractive opportunity to the private sector to cooperate with the Government for mutual benefit.

The project would also pave the way for future privatisation models in the Kingdom's wastewater sector.

The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Works and the Economic Development Board have been given the responsibility for the project.

The population of Bahrain in 2007 was 1,047,000 (source - Central Informatics Organization of Bahrain) and currently 88% of the population is served by wastewater treatment plants at different locations.

The proposed Muharraq STP's service territory will include the Muharraq region.

The Government of Bahrain is expected to issue Requests for Expressions of Interest for the Muharraq STP Project shortly.