Sewer System and Water Supply for the City of Korca
Project |
| Sewer System and Water Supply for the City of Korca |
Client |
| Water Supply and Sewerage Enterprise of Korca (UKKO), Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), European Investment Bank (EIB) |
Country |
| Albania |
Time frame |
| 1998-ongoing |
Full design and consulting services as well as institutional measures and construction supervision for the sewerage and water supply system of the city of Korca.
In the late 1990s, Korça did not have a sufficient potable water supply. The reasons for this supply deficiency were:
- insufficient delivery rate of the existing well field
- insufficient storage capacity
- high water losses due to leakages in the existing piping system
- poor water quality.
The project target was a safe, high-quality, 24-hour-a-day water supply which was to be accomplished by
- an improvement of the well capacity
- an enlargement of the storage capacity
- a reduction of water losses due to leakages and
- a sealing of the well field’s top aquifer.
By the end of 2003, upon completion of the first project phase, all project objectives listed above were fulfilled.
In 2005, at the starting point of project phase II, a campaign was launched to rehabilitate and extend the Korça sewer system. One of the main objectives was to reduce the health risk by providing a proper discharge and treatment of the wastewater.
At that time, Korça’s sewer system was in a desolate state and in urgent need of substantial rehabilitation. The sewer system was initially designed for a population of 20,000 but at the beginning of this century, approximately 70,000 residents were connected to the network. Hydraulic bottlenecks and frequently collapsing pipe sections prevented a proper discharge of the wastewater load generated. In addition to these shortcomings, the sewage was conveyed to the Korça well field, which already showed signs of pollution, putting the drinking water supply of Korça at jeopardy.
With the implementation of the above listed sewers, including two stormwater overflow structures, a stormwater retention tank and a siphon underneath an existing irrigation channel, the preconditions for a controlled discharge of the wastewater generated in Korça to the currently implemented WWTP will be established (estimated finishing date 12/2011).