Integrated Asset Management for Water Utilities in Albania – a Never Ending Cycle, to Be Continued Beyond the SEEAM Program

On July 2022, SHUKALB finalized successfully the implementation of the 3-year project “Asset Management to Water Utilities in Albania”, which was offered to water utilities in Albania in the framework of the “Asset Management Advisory Services to Water Utilities in South-Eastern Europe” Program. The project was implemented by SHUKALB and Hydro-Comp Enterprise as the technical partner, and was supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH – GIZ ORF and the International Association of Water Supply Companies in the Danube River Catchment Area (IAWD).

During these 3 years of the project, 21 water utilities in Albania have been part of the program where they had the possibility to being introduced with the integrated asset management procedures and practices in order to improve the quality and reliability of the services and strengthening utility overall business performance.

The water utility companies that participated in the program were the Water Supply and Sewerage Companies of Berat – Kucove, Cerrik, Durres, Elbasan, Gjirokaster, Gramsh, Himare, Kamez, Kavaja, Korce, Kruje, Kukes, Lushnje, Maliq, Peqin, Permet, Pogradec, Sarande, Shkoder, Tirane and Vlore, who cover with water services around 70% of the total population in Albania. Ten (10) out of 21 water utilities had the possibility to follow all the three phases of the program which are the Silver Phase, working on GIS/network data management, the Gold Phase on maintenance management and the Platinum Phase, a more advance stage in which the water utilities had the possibility to improve and work on the management of specific topics such as commercial data, non-revenue water, water quality, rehabilitation planning and infrastructure planning. Seven (7) out of 21 followed the Silver and Gold Phase, 1(one) utility is in the Silver Phase, while 3 water utilities left the program over the years.

Before the project, most of the water utilities didn’t have georeferenced assets register of their water supply network and none of them had any asset management software.  Throughout the project, several trainings have been provided to utilities staff addressing all aspects of asset management, as well as the use of EDAMS software, in which the program was based.  Furthermore, additional technical support and assistance for the capacity building of the staff has been given during field visits from SHUKALB team of experts to water utilities staff.

During the implementation of the project, the water utilities were able to develop a comprehensive database for their existing assets and a systematic mapping of all assets with accurate and reliable data with geographical references. Seven utilities have achieved to register almost 90% – 95 % of their water supply network, 8 utilities in the range of 50% – 75%, and 3 utilities have registered less than 30% of the total water supply network. In regard to the maintenance management activities (Gold Phase), few utilities are practicing the procedures and benefiting from the program, the others are still in the process of data registering.

SHUKALB together with the technical partner Hydro-Comp Enterprise will continue to offer these services, beyond the SEEAM program. Moreover, SHUKALB is aware and will adjust the program to fit the new reality of the water sector reform and the re-organization of water utilities into 15 new Regional Water Utilities.

SHUKALB invites all the Water Utilities to join the program and benefits from it!

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