The municipality of Rožaje is located in the northeast part of Montenegro, in the triangle which connects Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo. It borders the municipalities of Berane, Petnjica, as well as Peć and Tutin. The surface area of the municipality is 432 km2, while in accordance with the latest estimate by the national statistical office – MONSTAT the population of the municipality is 23,180. Most of the population lives in the urban settlements, the town of Rožaje and Ibarac settlement.
Current urban wastewater management and services in the municipality of Rožaje can be summarised as follows:
- The sewerage system can be categorised as underdeveloped, although the service coverage is reasonably high (around 77%) the service itself is very much inadequate, the system comprises a large number of sub-catchments discharging via the shortest available path to the nearest water course (the Ibar River and other local water courses).
- Wastewater discharges, outfalls, are scattered along the local water courses and uncontrolled both in terms of volumes and pollutant loadings.
- Extensive technical measures are needed to provide communal wastewater collection services in line with the national regulations and standards, namely extension of the wastewater collection system in the urban part of the municipality and design and construction of the corresponding wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with the appurtenant infrastructure.
- is currently implementing the phase 1 sewer system upgrade, based on the Main Project OF Fecal/Urban Sewage System of Wastewater in Rožaje phase I (Hydrogis, 2016). This upgrade refers to the construction of two main collectors on the left and right bank of River Ibar, all the way to the planned pumping station.
- The Municipality is currently developing the design documentation for phase 2 and 3 sewer system upgrade (designer Aqua engineering“ doo Podgorica), for the reconstruction of existing and construction of new sewer network, mainly in suburban areas.
Activities for solving the issues with communal wastewater collection services were recognized as a strategically significant infrastructure project within the EU Support to Project Preparation for Environment and Climate Change Sector, Montenegro(PPF) which represents technical assistance financed from the European Union pre-accession funds..
This was conducted through the system for prioritizing of infrastructure projects, named Single Project Pipeline (SPP), which had an aim to identify those projects which will make the largest contributions (impacts) towards the achievement of national policy objectives for accession and socio-economic development, having in mind maturity/readiness for implementation (prepared spatial planning and technical documentation, resolved legal property issues, institutional capacity of the project proponent.
The SPP has been developed by the Secretariat for Development Projects, and approved by the National Investment Committee (NIC) and subsequently by the Government in 2015. It was last time updated and approved in July 2020.
After the last update of the list in July 2020, the SPP in Montenegro is made out 63 infrastructure projects from Environment sector. It mainly includes projects related to the infrastructure for implementation of the National Waste Management Plan as well as projects related to water supply and wastewater treatment amounting to approximately EUR 483 million.
Purpose
This report constitutes the Inception Report for the selected sub-project and serves two purposes.
- It contributes to a common understanding of the scope of the project, its objectives, outputs and activities. For this purpose, the main text of the report has been kept brief.
- It forms the basis for project monitoring by the Beneficiaries ((MESPU), Municipality of Rozaje and its Public Utility Companies), the Contracting Authority (PWA) and other stakeholders.
This Inception Report is based on the initial findings in the inception phase, that lasted for one month and the discussions with stakeholders during the monthly progress meetings held during Inception Phase, site visits and other bilateral meetings. Meetings held during inception phase are summarised in Section.
Overview of Inception Report
The present report has been prepared for the sub-project ” Technical and tender documentation for construction of the sewer network & WWTP in Rožaje ” in the framework of PPF.
This report aims to describe the activities carried out during the Inception Phase of the project, mainly focused on determining the scope of necessary surveys being the background for development of technical documentation. The report also provides detailed planning of activities for the subsequent phase and finalisation of the sub-project as well as full composition of the PPF team necessary for delivery of the planned sub-project outputs.
Chapter 4 summarize the activities conducted in the Inception Phase and presents the findings during the inception period while Chapter 5 indicates the activities planned to be implemented following the Inception Phase, including deliverables, resources, budget and detailed time schedule.
Background
The Sub-Project has been approved for further development under PPF Environment and Climate Project on 23 June 2021. In the period since the sub-project approval, the PPF project team had number of meetings with the MESPU and the Municipality of Rožaje to define detailed Terms of Reference for the Sub-Project. The final Terms of Reference for Detailed Design (DD) for the main collector and for the connections to the WWTP have been agreed on 08 September 2021 creating the basis for further development of the technical and tender documentation.
Technical and tender documentation that will be used as the background documentation for further elaboration of sub-project outputs is the following:
- WB15-MNE-ENV-01 Montenegro wastewater and water supply projects, Rožaje Wastewater Collection and Treatment – Feasibility Study Update, 2020
- Feasibility Study for water supply and wastewater projects, Rožaje, 2012
- Preliminary Design of Sewerage System, 2014
- Detailed (Main) Design of Sewerage System – Phase 1, 2016
- Tender documentation for the Construction of the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in the Municipality of Rožaje, 2020
- EIA Study for WWTP in Rožaje, 2020
Objectives
The sub-project overall objectives are the following:
- Ensure compliance with Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (EC/91/271) and 98/83/EEC (Drinking Water Directive) as well as national regulations;
- Development of Detailed Design (DD) for the main collector (length app. 2 km) and central pumping station (of capacity 130l/s) along with number of smaller pumping facilities to resolve the collection of water from the industrial zone.
- Detailed review and if necessary update of the existing EIA
- Study on potential options of processed sewage sludge management
- Review of the DD for the wastewater network (once it is available)
- Update of the existing TD for the WWTP and preparation of TD for the main wastewater line to the WWTP.
- Prepare a TD for the wastewater collection network on the basis of the technical documentation that is being arranged by the municipality.