IMPACT OF DHI TECHNOLOGY ON BULGARIAN WATER SECTOR DEVELOPMENT IN FRAMEWORK OF TECHNICAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL AID IN THE PERIOD

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1 IMPACT OF DHI TECHNOLOGY ON BULGARIAN WATER SECTOR DEVELOPMENT IN FRAMEWORK OF TECHNICAL AND INFRASTRUCTURAL AID IN THE PERIOD Prof. R. Arsov 1, Kr. Gotcheva 2, Dr. V.Bojkov 3, Dr. T.Metelka 4, 1 Bulgarian Water Association, 1, Hristo Smirnenski Blvd., UACG Bulding A, room 111, 1046 Sofia, Bulgaria, r_arsov_fhe@uacg.bg 2 Ministry of Environment and Water, 22 Maria Louiza Blvd., 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria, 3 DHI Bulgaria Ltd., 44, Hristo Smirnenski Blvd., 1164 Sofia, Bulgaria, vhb@dhigroup.com 4 DHI a.s., Na Vrších 1490/5, , Praha 10, Czech Republic, t.metelka@dhi.cz Keywords: Bulgarian Water Sector, DHI technology, Bulgarian Water Association, EU funding, challenges in the Water Sector development Abstract This paper presents the development of the Bulgarian Water Sector during last five years in the period and the DHI technology and know-how impact on this development. During the period under consideration DHI was involved in more than 10 projects in Bulgaria related to water. All of them were with international financing mainly from different European Union funds. In these projects DHI Software products and training were provided and used. Some of the projects, related to urban waters and initiatives/events done in cooperation with Bulgarian Water Association, are discussed in the paper. Challenges that now stay in front of Bulgarian Water Sector development, future steps and role of DHI are also considered. Lessons learned during the period are mentioned at the end of the paper and conclusions about future of the Water Sector/market in Bulgaria are given. INTRODUCTION Republic of Bulgaria has territory of about 111 km 2 and population of about 7.8 million. It occupies the Eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. To the North, the Danube River separates Bulgaria from Romania, to the East country border is washed by the Black Sea, to the South it borders Turkey and Greece, to the West Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia. Republic of Bulgaria is the newest European Union (EU) member state. It became a member of the EU on January 1 st Since November 1989 Bulgaria as other former socialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe began the transition from centralized to a market oriented economy. All economy sectors including the Water Sector started their reformation under new conditions. Reforms in the Bulgarian Water Sector go slowly and as the Minister of the Environment and Water stated in July 2010, it remains one of the least reformed systems in the country. The last estimates show that the Water Sector in Bulgaria (Water Supply and Sewer systems only) needs about 10 billion Euro to solve all existing problems. This considerable amount of money has to come from different sources like state budget, EU funds, Public Private Partnership and other financial instruments. Solving the Water Sector problems will take time and P062-1

2 will require a lot of efforts from all local professionals and professional organizations and companies using the state of the art technologies. WATER SECTOR IN BULGARIA BRIEF INFORMATION In terms of internal renewable water resources (IRWR) of about m 3 per capita, Bulgaria is poor in comparison with IRWR average value for Europe of about m 3 per capita. This fact requires better water resources management and planning, which can be achieved by distinct measures and means. Among them technology of Hydroinformatics and utilisation of simulation models in particular represent essential approach to understand, operate, manage and plan water systems in an optimal way. A guiding legislative document in the field of water management in Bulgaria is the Water Act, enacted in January This comparatively new act underwent many amendments during last decade, transferring the requirements and principles of the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC. The water management in the country is carried out by the Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW), which is the responsible state institution for implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Republic of Bulgaria. It is responsible for water resources management and their distribution among the main users water supply, hydro-power generation and irrigation systems. Following the principle of river basin management, stipulated in the Water Act, four river basin districts have been established in the country as shown in Fig. 1: Danube River Basin District; Black Sea River Basin District; East Aegean Sea River Basin District; West Aegean Sea River Basin District. Fig.1. River Basin Districts in Bulgaria After the establishment of the River Basins Directorates in 2002, they became the competent water management authorities. They started their activities and got actively involved in the performance of tasks regarding the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. P062-2

3 Water supply, wastewater collection and treatment services to Bulgarian population are provided by 51 regional water companies (RWCs). Out of them 29 RWCs are controlled by the state and serve biggest regional centres plus some municipalities. The rest are controlled by individual municipalities. The RWCs manage water supply networks with total pipe length more than km and sewer network with about km length. About km of the water supply networks are with asbestos-cement pipes constructed in previous century. The expert opinion for the Water Sector capacity is that there are enough water resources for normal water supply. What is necessary to be done in the Sector is to improve the RWCs management, to replace old asbestos-cement pipes and reduce the water losses, to construct required reservoirs, to build remaining sewer networks and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). A guiding legislative document in the fields of Water Supply, Wastewater Collection and Treatment Services is the Law of Regulating Water Supply and Sewer Services enacted in January The principal of the RWCs in Bulgaria is Ministry of regional Development and Public Works (MRDPW). MRDPW is also responsible for the flood protection in urban areas. According to the ownership, the RWCs are divided into three groups. First group of companies is based on 100% state ownership. There are 13 RWCs with this status, and they provide water supply and urban drainage services to about 3.0 million people. Second group comprising 16 companies is based on 51% state ownership and 49% municipal ownership. This group serves about 2.5 million of population. Third group of companies is based on 100% municipal ownership. In this group 22 RWCs serve about 2.0 million people. The water supply and sewer infrastructure constructed after 1998 is owned by the relevant municipalities. The complicated and mixed ownership in the Water Supply and Sewer Sector was the main reason that stopped EU financing of the projects in this sector until solving the ownership problem. With last amendments in the Water Act from 2009 Bulgaria has embarked on its Water Sector restructuring programme by establishing a series of new Water Supply and Sewerage Associations (WSSAs). The first one was established in the region of Bourgas at the beginning of 2010 and more than 10 WSSAs have been estasblished by the end of July this year. Operation of the region s water assets, previously undertaken by municipalities, the state, or by private operators, will now be undertaken by mediaion of the WSSAs, which may choose outsource of the assets operation and management. Associations however will not be the owners of the assets, which ownership will be shared by the municipalities, participating at the relevant WSSA. One of the main challenges in front of Bulgaria for the recent years and until 2013 is constructing the sewer systems and WTTP for settlements above population equivalent - PE (deadline is ) and for settlements between 2000 and PE (deadline is ). Along with MoEW and MRDPW there are three more ministries involved in the water management: Ministry of Agriculture and Food, which is responsible for irrigation systems and for flood protection outside the urban territories; Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism which is responsible for all water systems and structures associated with hydro-power generation; Ministry of Health which is responsible for control and monitoring of the potable water quality and mineral water resources. Another key player in the Water Sector in Bulgaria is the Bulgarian Water Association (BWA), which is nonprofit organization, established at the end of 2005 by merging Bulgarian Water Supply and Sewerage Association and Bulgarian National Association on Water Quality, both established in Currently it is the P062-3

4 biggest nongovernmental organization of water professionals that has more than 240 individual members and more than 100 corporative members. BWA represents Bulgaria at prestigious international organizations like International Water Association (IWA), European Water Association (EWA), Federation of National Water Supply and Sewerage Companies in Europe (EUREAU) etc. BWA is in a partnership with ministries, institutions, associations and unions in Bulgaria and abroad. The target of this partnership is an active common work for the successful development of the Water Sector in Bulgaria. BWA organizes national and international workshops, conferences, and training courses in the area of water. It issues every three months specialized bilingual Journal for the national Water Sector, called BULAQUA. BWA assists in establishing contacts between Bulgarian and foreign companies and investors in the Water Sector. Faculty of Hydrotechnics (FH) at the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (UACEG) Sofia is another important and influencing part of the Bulgarian Water Sector and it is also BWA and DHI partner. The FH is still the only faculty in the country, graduating engineers for the Water Sector. Since 2009 an optional teaching course on Information Technologies in Design and Maintenance of Sewer Networks is provided at the Faculty of Hydrotechnics. It is delivered by Prof. R. Arsov and Ass. Prof. T. Igneva-Danova and is based entirely on DHI software MOUSE and MIKE URBAN. Specific part of the Ph.D. thesis of Ass. Prof. T. Igneva-Danova on Risk Assessment with Sewer and Drainage Networks, based on MOUSE software as well, is implemented in the newly developing national legislation Regulation on Design, Construction and Exploitation of Sewer Systems. Development of Bulgarian Water Sector in the period can be characterized with using of two different types of EU financial instruments. First type is the so called pre-accession financial instruments, and second type the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. As it is well known, PHARE, ISPA and SAPARD are the three pre-accession financial instruments launched by EU to assist the candidate countries in their preparation for the EU accession. First two instruments provided financial support for the Water Sector, while the third one is for support of agriculture and rural development. Based on the principles that govern the EU Cohesion Fund, ISPA provides assistance for infrastructure projects in the EU priority fields of Environment and Transportation. For the period , EUR million a year (at 1999 prices) has been made available for this instrument. During its first four years of implementation ( ), ISPA grant-aided over 300 large-scale infrastructure investments in the 10 candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia). After the EU enlargement in 2004, the remaining ISPA beneficiary countries were Bulgaria and Romania, the other beneficiary countries having become eligible to the Cohesion Fund. Since the 1st of January 2005, Croatia benefits from ISPA as well. The Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund are the financial instruments of EU regional policy, which is intended to narrow the development disparities among regions and Member States. For the period , the budget allocated to regional policy amounts to around 348 billion, comprising 278 billion for the Structural Funds and 70 billion for the Cohesion Fund. This represents 35% of the Community budget and is the second largest budget item. There are two Structural Funds: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is currently the largest. Since 1975 it has provided support for the creation of infrastructure and productive job-creating investment, mainly for businesses; P062-4

5 European Social Fund (ESF) was set up in 1958 for supporting the integration into working life of unemployed and disadvantaged sections of the population, mainly by funding training measures. In order to speed up economic, social and territorial convergence, the European Union set up a Cohesion Fund in It is intended for countries whose per capita GDP is below 90% of the Community average. The purpose of the Cohesion Fund is to grant financing of environment and transportation infrastructure projects. However, aid under the Cohesion Fund is subject to certain conditions. If the public deficit of a beneficiary Member State exceeds 3% of national GDP (EMU convergence criteria), no new project will be approved until the deficit has been brought under control. These Funds will be used to finance regional policy between 2007 and 2013 in the framework of the three new objectives, namely: the "convergence" objective is to accelerate the convergence of the least developed EU Member States and regions by improving growth and employment conditions; the "regional competitiveness and employment" objective is to anticipate economic and social change, promote innovation, entrepreneurship, environmental protection and the development of labor markets which include regions not covered by the Convergence objective; the "European territorial cooperation" objective to strengthen cooperation at cross-border, transnational and interregional levels in the fields of urban, rural and coastal development, and foster the development of economic relations and networking between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Structural Fund and Cohesion Fund support for the three objectives always involves co-financing. The rates of co-financing may be reduced in accordance with the "polluter pays" principle or where a project generates income. All projects must of course comply with EU legislation, particularly with regard to competition, the environment and public procurement. In a framework of Structural and Cohesion funds EU has planned to invest 6.7 billions of Euro in Bulgaria for the period of Out of that Operational Program Environment will be financed with 1.5 billion Euro. ROLE OF DHI TECHNOLOGY Generally Bulgaria was not able to take maximum benefit from EU pre-accession financial instruments because of many reasons but mainly because of the low capacity of the central and local administration. Despite of the problems in absorption of these funding, many projects in the Water Sector were implemented. DHI with its technology was part in some of them. In the projects with DHI participation its technology was delivered, used and remained in the beneficiaries. A list of the projects in the Water Sector in the period with DHI participation is given in the table below. Table 1. List of the Water Sector projects in Bulgaria with DHI involvement by 2010 Year Project DHI Role / 2007 Integrated Management of Transboundary Groundwater between Bulgaria and Romania in Dobrudja/Dobrogea Area Europe Aid/122633/D/SER/BG Subcontractor DHI Products Involved MIKE SHE MIKE GeoModel P062-5

6 / / 2010 Technical Assistance for Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System under PHARE Project Capacity Improvement for Flood Forecasting in the BG-TR CBC Region EuropeAid/123661/D/SER/BG Integrated Water Management of the Mesta/Nestos River Basin (Phase II)" - Supply of equipment, EuropeAid/122866/D/SUP/BG Supply of Diagnostic and Modelling Tools, Training and Services for 13 Regional Water Companies in Bulgaria EUROPEAID/121561/D/S/BG Delivery of Diagnostic,Maintenance and Modeling Eqipment for Gorna Oriahovitza aand Liaskovets, LOT 2 Delivery of Diagnostic and Modeling Equipment for Water Supply and Wastewater Networks EUROPEAID/124338/D/SUP/BG Delivery of Diagnostic,Maintenance and Modeling Eqipment for the water and wastewater network LOT1 Smolian, LOT2 Varna, LOT3 Balchik, LOT4 - Shoumen EUROPEAID/120290/D/S/BG Support to Sustainable Crisis Management at Central and local Level BG 2005/ Preparation of Investment Projects for Water Supply and Sewerage Network Improvements in Blagoevgrad, Republic of Bulgaria EuropeAid/124427/D/SER/BG Delivery of equipment for diagnostic and modelling of water supply and sewer networks town Blagoevgrad under ISPA measure 2001/BG/16/P/PE/008 Technical assistance for projects preparation in water sector group A - Burgas, Gabrovo, Kustendil, Ruse, Sliven and Vratsa EU OJ 2008/S Subcontractor MIKE 11 RT, MIKE FLOODWATCH Subcontractor MIKE BASIN Leading partner contractor partner Subcontractor MIKE URBAN MIKE URBAN MIKE URBAN MIKE 11, MIKE FLOODWATCH Subcontractor MIKE URBAN Subcontractor MIKE URBAN Leading partner MIKE URBAN The spatial distribution of commercial licences of the DHI Software sold in Republic of Bulgaria for the period is shown on the map in Fig.2. Fig.2. DHI Software commercial licenses distribution in Bulgaria ( ) P062-6

7 As example, next couple of projects managed by DHI is presented bellow showing the delivery of technology and transfer of know-how on one hand and the application and use of the technology of simulation modelling for practical master plan purposes on the other hand. 13 CITIES PROJECT EUROPEAID/121561/D/S/BG During the year 2007 (January September), DHI a.s. and DHI Bulgaria executed international project Supply of diagnostic and modelling tools, training and services for 13 regional water companies in Bulgaria (ref.no. EUROPEAID/121561/D/S/BG) financed by the general budget of the European Communities for Environment in accordance with the provision of the Financing Memorandum for ISPA measure 2003/BG/16/P/PA/004. The contract comprised the supply of modelling tools for water and wastewater and diagnostic equipment as well as training for 13 Bulgarian water utility companies. These target beneficiaries included the regional water companies operating at the towns of Plovdiv, Vidin, Vratza, Veliko Tarnovo, Burgas, Sliven, Kardzhali, Kyustendil, Dobric, Rouse, Yambol, Gabrovo and Perník. DHI a.s as leading the consortium DHI Water with SEBA Dynatronic Gmbh was granted the contract of 1,7 million Euro for providing the delivery of IT hardware (comprising of 13 plotters, 24 PCs, 26 laptops, 74 printers), diagnostic equipment (comprising 27 sewer flow-meters, 42 ultrasonic flow-meters, 13 listening sticks, 13 noise loggers for leak detection, 15 acusto-correlators, 20 pipe and cable locators, 27 portable sewage samplers), modelling software for water and waste water systems (comprising 13 Mike Urban CS - collection system licenses, 11 Mike Urban WD - distribution system licenses) as well as substantial training on modelling with Mike Urban and on usage of diagnostic equipment. As contracting authority on Bulgarian side Bulgarian MoEW was coordinating the project activities and acting as a final client during project execution. Project started in February 2007 and successfully finished on September During the 8 months project execution the basic hardware and Mike Urban software was delivered, installed and tested. Diagnostic tools were delivered and local RWC staff got trained during number of short training courses. Fig.3. Mike Urban SW+HW packages Fig.4. Training course on Mike Urban The training on Mike Urban 2007 software usage was structured into two subsequent phases with in total 14 man-months of training time in Bulgaria. The first two weeks course was focussed mostly on modelling background and theory while during second phase 4 week course practical aspects of model schematization, build up, calibration and usage were of concern. At the end of the P062-7

8 training, each RWC trainees started building up water and sewerage models based on their own network data. In total, 48 local specialists from regional water utilities got trained on Mike Urban software modelling by DHI a.s. instructors. The table bellow shows the overall result of the delivery projects (table 1 projects 4, 5, 6 and 9) executed by DHI between in water supply and sewerage sector. Table 2. Summary table of RWCs included in the four ISPA Supply Projects, own DHI delivered items N: RWC Serves to [inh.] MU WD MU CS MU Trained NIVUS staff [pcs.] 1 Burgas ~ Dobrich ~ Gabrovo ~ Kurdzhali ~ Kistendil ~ Pernik ~ Plovdiv ~ Ruse ~ Sliven ~ Veliko Tarnovo ~ Vidin ~ Vratza ~ Yambol ~ Balchik part of Dobrich Shumen ~ Smolian ~ Varna ~ Gorna Oriahovitsa part of V.Tarnovo Lyaskovts part of V.Tarnovo Blagoevgrad ~ Total: ~ Technical assistance for projects preparation in water sector group A Burgas, Gabrovo, Kustendil, Ruse, Sliven and Vratsa, EU OJ 2008/S The project Technical assistance for projects preparation in water sector group A Burgas, Gabrovo, Kustendil, Ruse, Sliven and Vratsa, EU OJ 2008/S represents the example of the application and use of the technology of simulation modelling for urban drainage and water supply master plan. The project was executed by the Consortium AQUA BG BGKRSV (established by DHI a.s., NIRAS, SIAT and SCG companies) with DHI as lead project partner during period The project was financed by resources from ISPA measure 2003/BG/16/P/PA/004 Technical assistance for institutional strengthen and preparation of ISPA/Cohesion and Structural fund projects in sectors management of water and solid waste management. The main project goal was found in development and submission of urban drainage and water supply master plans and long term investment plans for 6 large regional cities providing the water services to more than 1.35 million (approx. 20%) P062-8

9 inhabitants in the territory of Bulgaria. General Goals in Water Supply Sector were defined by supply of the population with enough as quantity and god quality drinking water, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the existing water supply systems and structures, building and/or finishing construction of the water sources and for drinking water treatment plants, as well as a reduction of water losses at water supply systems and increase the percentage of population using water supply services by constructing new pipelines. General Goals in the Wastewater Sector were defined by reduction the number of direct inflows of wastewater to receiving waters by building wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), optimization of operation of the existing WWTPs through reducing leakages in sewer system and other improvements, measures for increase of percentage of population using wastewater collection services and increasing the percentage of population whose wastewater gets full treatment. Under the scope of the project six skeletal sewerage models and six full scale water supply Mike Urban models were build up, calibrated and used to diagnose the current performance bottlenecks and future potential extensions. The entire project work done under described project was in close cooperation with the client (MoEW) and Beneficiaries (target municipalities and RWCs). Thanks to close cooperation betwen DHI and local experts from target RWCs and municipalities it was possible to prepare good quality simulation models in the short project time period. This work allowed that local profeesionals got a chance to see and be part of all model built steps started with data collection and digitization, on site survey, model built, monitoring survey, model calibration and validation, running different scenarios and preparation of model report. COOPERATION BETWEEN BWA AND DHI One of the key partners of DHI in intruducing simulation modeling in the Water Sector in Bulgaria is Bulgarian Water Association (BWA), which corporative member from more then a year is DHI Bulgaria Ltd. BWA in cooperation with Faculty of Hydrotechnics, DHI Bulgaria and DHI a.s. organized in April 2009 in Sofia a workshop called Information Technology for Design and Analysis of Urban Drainage Systems. DHI presentations in the program of the workshop were two: DHI and its software products given by Dr. Bojkov, and From Modelling to Master Planning given by Dr. Metelka. These presentations gave to the participants information about DHI products and their utilization for better understanding, analysis and solution of the sewer system problems. Currently BAW and DHI opened discussion about need in adopting a methodology for assessment of the sewer systems in urbanized territories as for the purpose they provided to the professional community translated version of the Czech handbook, which was accepted in Czech Republic in March This step is necessary for both professionals and clients. For earlier to help them in doing relevant activities including modelling in accepted, identical and comparative way, with required content, and to stop non professional and low quality studies in the area, for later to be aware what to ask for and be able to check what was delivered to them after such a studies. DHI is one of the active and regular participants of the events organized or coorganized by BWA. Every year DHI participates in the annual exhibition Water Sofia and the parallel conference. DHI also participates at the biennial scientific conference BULAQUA, which is parallel event of the already mentioned exhibition, P062-9

10 to all workshops and seminars, and publishing papers at the BWA bilingual journal BULAQUA. For the time being in Republic of Bulgaria in terms of simulation modelling in the Water Sector prevail DHI Software as in majority of the related projects DHI technology was used and delivered to the local beneficiaries. Availability of the technology however does not mean solved problems. It is necessary this technology to be maintained by beneficiaries experts and to be used continuously in close cooperation with DHI experts. There are close contacts between local experts involved in using DHI technology and DHI experts, which started during the already mentioned projects implementation, which has to be kept, and local expert to be advanced in using available DHI technology. One possibility for keeping these contacts, and cooperation, and to advance local experts are events organized by BWA (workshops, conferences) as well as the DHI Software user day organized by DHI annually. It is seen that DHI technology has significant impact on the Water Sector development in Bulgaria during last five years. The goal to BWA as well as to DHI is to further spread of the simulation modelling in the country and educate local professionals in using it. CONCLUSIONS For the last five years Bulgarian Water Sector received considerable amount of DHI software (taking into account the size of the country), as well as training of about 100 professionals in using it during implementation of several EU funded projects. It is necessary to maintain and use actively available software. Based on received equipment under EU funded projects Bulgarian Water Sector has a unique opportunity to establish hi-tech standard for water industry in Bulgaria. The use of up to date modeling products is one of the conditions for achieving this objective. BWA and DHI in partnership can work for further introducing of simulation modelling and educate professionals in using it and show the benefits of it. It is necessary in Bulgaria to introduce simulation modelling in the legislation/standards, and adopt certain methodology for this activity. The role of BWA and DHI is to push officials in doing it. There is still a room for widening usage of simulation modelling in the Bulgarian Water Sector, and cooperation between BWA and DHI can be key issue in this development. References Bojkov, V., Metelka, T., (2008), Implementation of MIKE URBAN software for modelling of water supply and sewer systems in Bulgaria, DHI Software Conference, Dubrovnik, Croatia Metelka T., Mucha A., Pryl K., Kubý R. (2001), Experience with DHI Technology in a Large Scale Urban Drainage Master Planning, 4th DHI Conference, July 2001, Helsingor Dánsko, Metelka T., Suchánek M., Raikova A. (2004), Application of WaPUG guidelines on skeletal sewerage model for the city of Sofia, proceedings from NOVATECH 2004, Lyon, France,GRAIE, pp , ISBN P062-10

11 Operational Program Environment , CCI No:2007BG161PO005 Conditions of Contract for Construction for building and engineering works designed by the employer (RED FIDIC), International Organization of Consulting Engineers, 1999, ISBN EN 752, Drain and sewer systems outside buildings, CEN, 2008, EN 752:2008:E P062-11