Business Daily (Nairobi)
Michael Omondi
10 November 2009
Only eight firms have shown interest in the government's tender invitation to private water providers that could hamper the success of the effort to establish a private sector solution to the country's perennial water supply.
The government invited qualified bidders to tender for the role of private water providers.
Successful bidders are expected to tap underground water to add some 300,000 cubic metres to the Nairobi water supply and that of its surrounding districts before a national rollout.
The government's aim was to identify five independent water producers from a raft of applicants to sink large boreholes around the capital to boost the supply volumes that have been declining due to adverse weather, according to water ministry officials.
The private water producers will sell water in bulk to established distributor with large networks such as the Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company - placing them at par with Independent Power Producers (IPP) who generate and sell electricity to Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC).
On Monday, however, officials at the ministry said that only eight investors had submitted their tenders in time to meet the October 19 deadline.
This means that the government could end up with fewer investors than it had initially targeted after applications have been subjected to technical and financial assessments.
"We are evaluating eight applications but at the end of it we could pick just a few," said Oyule Ngata, a director in the water ministry.
The companies that pass the preliminary evaluation stage will submit technical and financial bids and winners announced in January.
Mr Ngata attributed the lukewarm reception to the "complexity" of exploring, harvesting and purifying underground water, adding that the requirement knocked local water drillers out of contention.
The investors will be required to drill boreholes at depths of between 600 and 1000 meters and show evidence of having carried out similar assignments in the past decade.
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