By Matthias Hitzel
It was winter in the Caucasus region and an ice storm hit Batumi heavily. The year was 2018 and the overhead electricity lines collapsed, and the city of 250,000 inhabitants, located at the Black Sea coast in Western Georgia, was out of electricity for a full week. As the director of the local television was preparing the agenda for the next day TV news an old thought came up to her mind: For how long people will be out of water? She quickly checked her agenda and realized something strange: nobody mentioned problems with the water supply system – the opposite, people mentioned to be actually impressed that the water supply was continuing! How come? As faster as the thought came up in her mind it faded away. It was an old problem from the difficult not so long ago past when the deteriorated Soviet water supply and wastewater system in Batumi, being fully abandoned, did not function.
Since 2010, everybody in Batumi is supplied with uninterrupted, reliable and high-quality water. The non-functional wastewater treatment plant that released all wastewater untreated into the Black Sea was replaced by an award winning new and modern wastewater treatment plant that purifies the wastewater before it is released to the Black Sea, hence dramatically contributing to the Black Sea water quality and the revival of biodiversity.
The newly established municipal water utility is managing to control and reduce water losses. The MACS consultant statement “the construction of a new infrastructure is easy, compared to operate and maintain the new facilities,” was broadcasted and a new concept of sustainable managing was being introduced in the region. The qualified team of the water utility, Batumi Tskali – Batumi Water - applying modern technologies and following a very clear customer focus did a great job. More than 75% of the water that is produced reaches the citizens now and elevates Batumi on a level of France or the UK.
MACS is assisting the municipality of Batumi and the municipal utility Batumi Tskali since 2005 and alongside an over EUR 160 million investment program in the framework of the German-Georgian Financial Cooperation, through KfW Development Bank and co-financing of the European Union. Broadcast good news makes everybody proud and happy including us, at MACS.
In order to align with European standards in view of Albania`s future accession to the EU, the government has invested massively in the water sector with the support of international donors. The Government of Albania´s ongoing sectoral reform to reorganise water supply companies has a tangible positive impact on the water utility landscape in the whole country.
The overall objective is to significantly improve water and sanitation services within the DWSRU service area by rehabilitation and sustainable operation of utility facilities and by improved business, organizational and asset management of the utility's units. The project will improve operational, social, environmental and financial performance of DWSRU and will establish a management culture which will enable DWSRU to fully comply with its obligations, namely to meet the demand for continuous and quality services.
MACS participates as Consortium Member together with Posch & Partners (Lead), Hydroconseil, Emscher Wassertechnik und EWEC Water and provides assistance to AKUM in the contractual, administrative and financial management of the project. Focussing on the support of monitoring and control of the execution of works and overall project implementation through an established Project Implementation Unit (PIU) at AKUM to ensure contract compliance and adequacy of instalment statements; as well as the development of PIP and cange managmeent for the business, organizational and asset management of the utility's units.
Matthias has a degree in agricultural science and postgraduate honors in rural development and more than 20 years of professional experience in international development projects. At MACS he developed into a prolific Project Manager and Institutional Expert as well as Team Leader who played a major role during the very successful rehabilitation program for water and sanitation in Batumi (Georgia).
In the field of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Matthias has developed a profile for himself and MACS through his work of coordinating the finance division for energy projects in the framework of the Green for Growth Fund (GGF), which has earned a reputation as one of the leading EE/RE funds today.
As one of the Partners and Managing Directors of MACS, Matthias is responsible for operations and financial management at MACS.