SOLICITATION NOTICE
B -- Romania: Siret River Basin WATFRAME Project
- Notice Date
- 8/2/2004
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- United States Trade and Development Agency, TDA, USTDA, 1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1600, C/O US TDA 1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1600, Arlington, VA, 22209-3901
- ZIP Code
- 22209-3901
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-0470037A
- Response Due
- 9/1/2004
- Archive Date
- 9/16/2004
- Point of Contact
- Evangela Kunene, Procument Data Manager, Phone 703-875-4357, Fax 703-875-4009,
- E-Mail Address
-
ekunene@tda.gov
- Description
- POC: Evangela Kunene, USTDA, 1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1600, Arlington, VA 22209-3901, Tel: (703) 875-4357, Fax: (703) 875-4009 PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT THE CONTRACTS OFFICE PROPOSAL SUBMISSION PLACE: The Grantee invites submission of qualifications and proposal data (collectively referred to as the "Proposal") from interested U.S. firms which are qualified on the basis of experience and capability to develop a feasibility study for a pilot project to improve existing and/or develop new drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities in four municipalities in the Siret River Basin region in Romania. Romania has a very fragmented water resource infrastructure system that is unequally distributed within a large territory (232,000 square km) and among a large population (22 million inhabitants). In Romania, 13,000 villages and more than 200 small and medium towns lack facilities for drinking water and wastewater treatment. The necessary investments needed to bring the water quality of these townships up to European Union (EU) standards will exceed 14 billion euro, which exceeds state and local budgetary resources. As part of Romania?s compliance with EU regulations, the country must adopt a comprehensive water management policy known as the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD became effective December 22, 2000 and aims to expand the scope of water protection to all waters, surface waters, and groundwater. Within the WFD, the EU outlines the best model for a single system of water management based on a river basin management system. The river basin is a natural geographical and hydrological unit that brings together upstream and downstream interests, including local, regional, and national authorities, as well as NGOs and other stakeholders. Each EU member state must identify individual river basins and assign them to individual river basin districts. For each river basin district, some of which traverse national frontiers, a ?river basin management plan? will need to be established and updated every 6 years. The goal of the WFD is to coordinate in a river basin context the application of EU local level measures, such as the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, the Nitrates Directive that addresses particular pollution problems, and the Drinking Water Directive. The Government of Romania (GOR), acting through the Ministry of Environment and Water Management, is currently negotiating the environmental chapter of the acquis communitaire and has adopted the river basin management approach to water management within the WFD. The GOR has identified the Siret River Basin as the first area of priority to try and implement the WFD, as it is the largest river basin in Romania located in the northeast section of the country adjacent to Moldova. The Siret River Basin is a semi-arid area with water shortages and difficulties in maintaining water supply during certain periods each year. Only about 1.2 million of the 2.6 million inhabitants, or 45% of the total population benefit from centralized water supply systems. Nearly 30 Siret River Basin municipalities require modernization, improvement, rehabilitation or expansion of their drinking water and wastewater treatment systems. Therefore, implementation of the Water Framework Directive in the Siret River Basin will be the largest project in Romania?s water sector. Due to the overall goal of the project, the GOR refers to this project as the WATFRAME project. The objective of the proposed feasibility study is to prepare a pilot project to examine four (4) municipalities in the Siret River Basin and design a solution to improve existing or develop new drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities. These four localities, to be identified by the Ministry of Environment and Water Management (the Grantee), are small to medium-sized localities, which are not eligible or likely to receive EU financing. The four municipalities will represent the most common drinking water and wastewater planning situations in the river basin from the perspectives of population, pollution dischargers, watershed, receiving stream, and existing infrastructure characteristics. These four localities will serve as a demonstration of the river basin planning approach to municipal drinking water and wastewater management for the remaining 11 river basins in Romania. This feasibility study will examine the technical, economic, and financial feasibility of implementing the River Basin Management Plan in the Siret River Basin. The U.S. firm selected will be paid in U.S. dollars from a $562,080 grant to the Grantee from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). A detailed Request for Proposals (RFP), which includes requirements for the Proposal, the Terms of Reference, and a background definitional mission report are available from USTDA, at 1000 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1600, Arlington, VA 22209-3901. Requests for the RFP should be faxed to the IRC, USTDA at 703-875-4009. In the fax, please include your firm?s name, contact person, address, and telephone number. Some firms have found that RFP materials sent by U.S. mail do not reach them in time for preparation of an adequate response. Firms that want USTDA to use an overnight delivery service should include the name of the delivery service and your firm's account number in the request for the RFP. Firms that want to send a courier to USTDA to retrieve the RFP should allow one hour after faxing the request to USTDA before scheduling a pick-up. Please note that no telephone requests for the RFP will be honored. Please check your internal fax verification receipt. Because of the large number of RFP requests, USTDA cannot respond to requests for fax verification. Requests for RFPs received before 4:00 PM will be mailed the same day. Requests received after 4:00 PM will be mailed the following day. Please check with your courier and/or mail room before calling USTDA. Only U.S. firms and individuals may bid on this USTDA financed activity. Interested firms, their subcontractors and employees of all participants must qualify under USTDA's nationality requirements as of the due date for submission of qualifications and proposals and, if selected to carry out the USTDA-financed activity, must continue to meet such requirements throughout the duration of the USTDA-financed activity. All goods and services to be provided by the selected firm shall have their nationality, source and origin in the U.S. or host country. The U.S. firm may use subcontractors from the host country for up to 20 percent of the USTDA grant amount. Details of USTDA's nationality requirements and mandatory contract clauses are also included in the RFP. Interested U.S. firms should submit their Proposal in English directly to the Grantee by 4:00 P.M., September 1, 2004 at the above address. Evaluation criteria for the Proposal are included in the RFP. Price will not be a factor in contractor selection, and therefore, cost proposals should NOT be submitted. The Grantee reserves the right to reject any and/or all Proposals. The Grantee also reserves the right to contract with the selected firm for subsequent work related to the project. The Grantee is not bound to pay for any costs associated with the preparation and submission of Proposals.
- Record
- SN00635195-W 20040804/040802212604 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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