Haya Water, under the stewardship of the Government of Oman, continues to innovate and adapt en route to its goal of facilitating a world-class water system in the country’s capital.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Haya Water, a registered trademark of Oman Wastewater Services Company S.A.O.C, was established in December, 2002 as an Omani closed joint-stock Company, wholly-owned by the Government of the Sultanate of Oman. Haya Water has been awarded the concession to develop, design, implement, operate and maintain the wastewater facilities in Muscat Governorate under the Royal Decree No. 69/2005.
Haya Water is steadily advancing to implement one of the largest engineering projects in the field of reuse of treated wastewater and is looking forward to accomplishing its primary objective of making Oman a better country by promoting higher health standards for all. This is achieved by reducing pollution caused by conventional wastewater systems, preventing the spread of diseases, epidemics and protecting groundwater resources from contamination, as well as maintaining the water reservoir for future generations.
Haya Water seeks to achieve its objectives of the water reuse project in accordance with the masterplan schedule, taking into account the construction boom and population growth witnessed by the Governorate of Muscat in order to deliver the wastewater services to the Williyats of Muscat Governorate as per the approved plan.
In view of the great achievements of Haya Water in the areas of planning, execution and management of wastewater projects in the Governorate of Muscat, the Government has assigned, in 2014, Haya Water the responsibility of the development, execution and management of wastewater facilities in all governorates (except Dhofar) where Haya Water took over the wastewater assets of 57 sewage treatment plants at 44 different wilayats.
Haya Water diligently works towards achieving its goals and mission through a structured wastewater project system and a clear vision of making Oman greener and healthier.
Services include: STPs & pumping stations (collection, conveyance and treatment of raw sewage); water reuse (distribution of treated effluent); a fully-accredited central laboratory facility; kala compost; and tanker services.
Across all strands the mission statement remains to serve society by converting wastewater into environment-friendly products.
Associated with life and greenery, the word ‘Haya’ itself means water or fertility; a poignant indicator of the entity’s core objectives.
To achieve the mission statement set out in the concession agreement, a Muscat Masterplan to develop the city’s infrastructure was conceived and the sewerage network infrastructure projects in Muscat were put in place accordingly. To date, Haya Water has grown its infrastructure to 902 Million Omani Rials.
The installation of the sewage networks was a massive undertaking as major parts of the city had to be excavated to depths of up to 15 metres to allow for the pipework to be installed. The infrastructure projects were then hampered by a super cyclone named Gonu in June, 2007 which devastated Muscat City. However, despite the project setbacks, the majority of sewage networks are now in place in Muscat.
PLANNING STRATEGIES
The collection and conveyance of sewage to the sewerage treatment plants has grown in accordance with the Connectivity Plan, while the development of green field sites for sewage treatment facilities has grown in line with the Muscat Master Plan, which is directly trended towards population growth.
Gaining momentum over the past five years in particular, a decision was made in 2013 to realign Haya Water’s Muscat Masterplan towards the rapid growth of Muscat. The expansion of the existing sites and new sites are identified in the Implementation Roadmap as part of the revised 2013 Masterplan.
Currently, 10 percent of the Regional Governorate population are connected to a sewerage network, so the current strategy is to have Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to develop the infrastructure in the Regional Governorates. In order to meet the sewage treatment requirements in the Regional Governorates the Regional Governorate Masterplan has been created and is now under review.
From this, Haya Water’s main improvement strategies are now to optimise the cost of treating sewerage to break even on revenue generated.
Inevitably, in developing such a track record and internal stability, Haya Water is in better stead to attain goods, works and services through open tenders and, of course, to ultimately realise its two masterplans.
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
Tangible examples of Haya Water’s journey towards masterplan fulfilment are numerable, and chief among them at present is the new facility at Darsait which is set for completion in 2018 to then serve the greater Mutrah area in the south of Muscat.
Haya Water currently is executing fourteen projects; four projects in A’ Seeb, four in Al Amirat, three in Baushar and three will be established in Muttrah.
Currently the Muscat Masterplan’s infrastructure development plan is reported to be between 35-38 percent complete and the current budget is estimated to be 2.2 billion Omani Rials.
The Regional Governorate Masterplan involves multiple new sewage treatment plants and sewage collection networks throughout Oman.
It is initiatives such as these which will not only innovate the rationale behind the ultimate masterplans on a national level, but will help Haya Water achieve ‘operation breakeven’ by 2022 on a more insular note.
To this end, Haya Water has recently invested millions of Rials in upgrading the facilities at Al Ansab. The substantial capital investment into the new plant has meant that the Al Ansab treatment facility can now treat double the flow on the same site.
Equipment-wise, Haya Water now has a substantial fleet of the latest Jet Vac machines. This investment now ensures that the Company can maintain its sewerage networks to prevent any unwanted blockages. Haya Water intends to expand the fleet of Jet Vac machines in the Regional Governorates.
Haya Water’s latest Integrated Unified Solution (IUS) ERP system is also under development. Phase 1 of the IUS system is expected to go live in April, 2018 which is directly linked to the maintenance of assets. Phase 2 of the IUS system will roll on directly after Phase 1 is completed.
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
Despite all aforementioned physical enhancements, Haya Water maintains that its most important and valuable asset is its people, and to this end looks to attract and maintain the best talents possible to take forward its masterplans.
Wherever there is innovative and intuitive staff, the production of the Company will increase and accelerate as required. Haya Water, therefore, pays great attention to the ‘Omanisation’ process, and the Company’s Board of Directors and the Executive Management strongly believes that Omani people are capable of carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to them.
Haya Water has been truly seeking to develop effective and carefully considered Omanisation plans and programmes for high-ranking technical and administrative positions. This has become a necessity, especially with the expansion of projects and business, which requires qualified and skilled manpower.
Haya Water’s approach to supply chain management similarly falls under the Company’s Omanisation efforts, focusing when possible on utilising and enriching local SMEs as part of its SME Development Programme; its KPIs revolving around procurement spend percentage, open tender balance, training provided to SMEs via in-house consultants, and the registration of at least 20 SMEs each year.
Overall, the registration, selection and qualifying process of vendors and SMEs is done carefully through a systematic approach to ensure it will not affect operational efficiency in the long run.
And long-term efficiency is indeed the general key to everything that Haya Water aims to achieve in the years to come. Oman differs from other GCC countries in that Haya Water’s model is commercially-driven; but it also differs from Europe from a more operational point of view – making efficient, adaptable strategies a necessity.
In conclusion Haya Water’s masterplans and breakeven goal look to not only harness such differentiators but to leverage them in its journey towards a more sustainable Oman.
