Water Prices in CEE and CIS Countries. Volume II: Case Studies
Chapter 3.
Technical Profile
The objective of the technical profile is to provide technical background infor-ma-tion necessary for the assessment of the households' acceptability of water and wastewater tariffs.
The profile is brief, and is based on data collected from available reports and discussions with water utility staff.
The Kaliningrad Vodocanal (KVK), which is a municipal company, provides the water and wastewater services.
3.1 Overall service levelKaliningrad has about 450,000 inhabitants. KVK serves 92% of city territory. 90% of the city population have the in-house water services, 2% - consume the water from the water taps in the streets (within KVK water supply network) and the remaining 8% - are either not connected to the KVK water network or are connected to the other utilities water supply networks.
With regard to the wastewater system the KVK serves 90% of the city inhabitants. At the same time about 1.5 % of domestic wastewater is collected by KVK from the territory not served by the utility.
The total production of drinking water is estimated as 186,300.00 m3/day. This estimate is based on the capacity of pumps at pumping stations. It is thus more a reflection of a norm-based production than of actual consumption. The norm for issuing bills for water consumption depends on the type of housing and on certain living conditions, e.g. apartments with or without hot water, wastewater collection etc.). Therefore the norms vary from approximately 85 l/c/d - for dormitories/hostel up to approximately 300 l/c/d for the apartments with in-house water supply and wastewater collection.
3.2 Existing water supply systemKaliningrad utilises three different sources of water:
 | Water from the river Pregolia (Southern water intakes No.1 and No.2); |
| Water from reservoir storage - about 8.7 mill m3, filled by precipitation (Central water intake); |
| Ground water. |
There are four water purification and pumping stations in Kaliningrad:
- South water intake No 1, which delivers water from the riv. Pregolia with raw water storage for 7 days;
- South water intake No 2, which delivers water from the riv. Pregolia with raw water storage for 10 days;
- Central water intake, which delivers water from the storage (around 8.7 mill m3);
- Underground water.
The first two stations deliver about 120,000.00 m3 per day while the central water intake gives about 35,000.00 m3 per day. The underground water intake gives about 33,000.00 m3 per day although the maximum capacity of this intake is 230,000.00 m3 per day.
All surface water is treated with chemicals (Aluminium) and chlorinated and ground water is also chlorinated. There is no strict division of the city into water supply zones as it was constructed as a circuit supply system.
The water network comprises of 481.5 km of water pipes, and 121.4 km of water mains. About 190.5 km of the pipe network is in dimensions less than 300 mm. More than 95% of the pipes are of cast iron and about 5% are of steel.
3.3 Existing wastewater collection
There are two types of wastewater collection system in Kaliningrad:
| Combined sewerage system; |
| Separate sewerage system. |
The wastewater system comprises of 536 km of sewers. Concrete is the main material used for the pipelines.
3.4 Existing waste water treatmentThere is only one wastewater treatment plant. The plant is only for mechanical treatment. Treatment process consists of:
| Screens; |
| Sand traps; |
| Primary clarifiers. |
The design capacity is 68,000.00 m3 per day. Factual (estimated) capacity is about 160,000.00 m3 per day. Treated water is discharged into the bay.
Sludge from the clarifiers goes to the sludge beds. The sludge is then (illegally) used for private gardening.
Regional Environmental Committee has approved temporary discharge limits for KVK and does not charge fees or penalties because of environmental activities in connection with the EBRD project.
3.5 Consumer groups, unit water consumption and meteringThe information, available to the team, about the "water balance" is presented in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1
Water Balance Information, based on October 1999 data
All figures concerning water production are very rough estimates. There are no water meters installed at the water purification plants, which means that water production is calculated as design capacity of pumps multiplied by operation hours. Several years ago several Russian produced ultrasonic water meters were installed at the water purification plants but after operating for one year they were damaged and their usage was cancelled.
Domestic consumption is also calculated on the norm basis. In reality household consumers are likely to receive significantly less water than the norm of 85-300 lcd. In other words while the billed tariff is very low the real m3 tariff is likely to be somewhat higher.
The overall situation with regard to water metering in the city is very poor. Only some of the buildings are equipped with group water meters (industrial enterprises, administration, office etc. but not housing). These water meters are not properly maintained so measurement results are not reliable.
In total there are about 2,500 apartments equipped with meters and about 500 the households who reside in private houses pay according to the meters installed.
In 1997, the KVK made a calculation of the costs involved in installing group meters in the city. The result was that the expense for equipping all buildings with group meters would amount to 20 billion roubles (in 1997 prices) and this was not affordable. Besides the financial problem there is also a technical problem : due to the poor condition of some of the pipelines in the buildings it is difficult to install new water meters. However, all newly constructed living apartments are equipped with individual water meters for hot and cold water.
The KVK, as well as other firms, provide services for the installation of individual meters according to personal request of inhabitants. They charge approximately 1,500 RUB (700-800 RUB for the meter itself plus 700-800 RUB for its installation).
3.6 Water supply system operations3.6.1 System performance
The water supply does not provide a 100% coverage of the 24 hours supply. The reason is the lack of capacity of the water purification plants. That is why some of the plants (central water station) stop delivering water during the night (from 24:00 till 05:30) and then treat the water and store it in order to have enough water during the day.
The pressure in the network also differs, 28 - 30 meters in one district to 8 - 10 m in another. Often flats on the 4th and 5th floors have insufficient water during the daytime.
The performance of the network is very poor. The number of breakdowns are about 100 - 130, per kilometre, per year. The network is designed so that in order to repair some of the breakdowns it is necessary to switch off whole districts of the city. This of course reduces the service level to customers. Currently, neither capital repairs nor rehabilitation of the network are carried out and this has been the situation for several years.
3.6.2 Water qualityThe sanitary authorities in the region have established a good system for monitoring the quality of drinking water. According to data presented, the quality of drinking water generally corresponds to the federal standard. However, there are some deviations from the standard (failed tests). The failed tests typically relate to:
| Colour (likely to be a result of water treatment process and lack of 24 hour supply); |
| Residual aluminium (in particular where water is supplied by Southern treatment plant No. 2); |
| Residual chlorine (likely to be a result of water treatment in particular during periods where additional chlorine is used due to poor quality of raw water supply). |
The main source of water is river Pregolia. The river is very shallow. During strong westerly winds, water flows from the bay into the mouth of the river. As a result the discharge from WWTP reaches the water intakes. When this occurs the supply of water to the two water intakes (No 1 and No 2) is shifted to two emergency reservoirs which have limited capacity of about one week. If this situation lasts for more than a week there may be a problem with adequate raw water supplies.
Sometimes the central water source, which is refilled by precipitation, may substitute the missing river water. However, if the summer has been dry the source may not be able to provide sufficient water.
In these cases the city water supply faces a predicament. The Sanitary authorities will authorise the use chemicals and chlorine above standard levels for water treatment. As a result, the residual concentration of Aluminium and Clorine can be higher than standard. In extreme cases (last in 1997) use of water for drinking and cooking may be prohibited and water is then supplied to citizens in cans.
One of the complaints of inhabitants is the colour and the taste of delivered water. The reason can be the way in which the system operates i.e. the fact that the water supply is cut off at night.
Data presented by the sanitary authorities shows that since 1991, significant improvements in the quality of water have been achieved for chemical and for microbiological contamination. The authorities explained that this is due to the closure of a paper and pulp factory (which polluted the river with large amounts of phenol and other substances) and to an improved co-operation with the KVK.
3.7 Wastewater collection system operationThe main problem of the sewerage network is the lack of capacity. Some of the main gravity pipelines work in pressure mode.
Flooding of ground floors and streets occurs from time to time. During heavy rainfall it is sometimes necessary to open direct emergency discharges.
3.8 Implications of the planned projectThe feasibility report from Krüger estimates the total cost of the project to be USD 592 million , and this includes physical and price contingencies, financial cost, PIU support and institutional strengthening.
Furthermore, the report from Krüger concludes that an increase in tariffs of 287%, compared to the 1998 level, is needed in order to make the project feasible, cf. Table 3.2.
Table 3.2:
Necessary tariff increases in order to have a feasible project
However, the actual total payments were halved in the first half of 1999 so the necessary increase of payments was not fulfilled. Due to the increase in the water tariff in July 1999, the real water tariff was 17% above the 1998 level by the end of 1999.
Hence, when compared to the 1999 level, it is necessary to increase tariffs at a higher level than that shown in Table 3.2. This is discussed in Chapter 6.