Approval of technical specifications by funding agencies has opened the way for the invitation of tenders for two large water supply projects valued at a total of $1,670 million for Istanbul. The client for the Greater Melen river project and the Yesilcay scheme is the State Hydraulics Works (DSI - Water, MEED Special Report, 28:1:94).

The need for the projects has been highlighted by expectations of water shortages this summer due to low reservoir levels from meagre winter rainfall. The DSI plans to advertise tender invitations by mid-April for the Greater Melen project. In November, Japan's Overseas Economic Co-operation Fund (OECF) signed the first $495 million tranche of a total $1,050 million it has agreed towards the overall $1,400 million cost of the scheme.

The main features of the Greater Melen project are the construction of a dam and water regulator near the mouth of the river on the Black Sea to the east of Istanbul, together with a 174-kilometre pipeline to the city. Other components include pumping stations along the pipeline, and reservoirs and a water treatment plant with a daily capacity of about 700,000 cubic metres in the city itself.

Tenders will be invited soon for the Yesilcay project by the DSI from a shortlist of about seven bidders now being finalised. The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has agreed to finance 60 per cent of the total $270 million cost. The project includes the construction of two regulators on separate rivers, a 60-kilometre transmission pipeline, and a water treatment plant with a daily capacity of 500,000 cubic metres.

The DSI has turned down recent bids as being too expensive for a contract to provide construction supervision services for the Manavgat water export scheme on the southern Mediterranean coast (MEED 11:3:94). The low bidder in February was a venture of France's DVO Consulting with local firms Yuksel Proje and Temel Su. Rebids will be sought by the DSI, however. Israel recently expressed keen interest during a visit by its President Weizmann in buying the water. The project aims to ship water to Middle East states.