POST – MARKET DIALOGUE SESSION, Q&A
Engineers Without Borders Norway (EWB-N) and Field Ready Türkiye are partnering to tackle water challenges in Northwest Syria, focusing on the Azaz region. This initiative addresses the critical lack of clean water for 4.1 million people by seeking innovative, locally manufactured water treatment solutions. The project aims to improve infrastructure and empower communities through sustainable practices.
The procurement process begins with a market dialogue to refine the tender strategy, targeting the delivery of safe drinking water to approximately 60,000 people. The dialogue aims to inform potential suppliers about the project’s goals, assess available solutions and upcoming innovations, and gather insights to shape an effective procurement strategy. Key topics include technical specifications, expertise, innovation potential, supply chain logistics, costs, and local capacity enhancement.
Interested parties are invited to contribute by completing a questionnaire by April 20, 2024. The process includes virtual discussions, with an emphasis on protecting intellectual property and ensuring fair competition. The tender is set to be announced on April 2, 2024.
This effort marks a critical step towards sustainable water access in an area deeply affected by crisis, focusing on community-driven solutions and private sector engagement for long-term impact.
For the full information, please click on the links below:
Questionnaire and participation
To participate in the market dialogue, the respondent is required to submit a response to the following questionnaire
The scope of the project is to enhance access to safe drinking water targeting indirectly 40,000 to 60,000 individuals in Azaz district, while the objectives are:
a. Co-develop with local communities (local innovation team) a local based, innovative, cost-efficient and sustainable solution to build/renovate water filtration system. This includes exploring local sources of filtration components and
other materials that meet quality standards. Involving local suppliers and utilizing indigenous resources helps establish a sustainable supply chain and reduces dependence on imported materials.
b. Adopt participatory approach and empower a local community/entrepreneur (local innovation team) with technical trainings, consultancy and mentorship to develop, construct, operate, maintain and test a locally made water filtration system utilizing a Field Ready Türkiye’s existing Innovation Lab in Azaz. Thus, enhancing local knowledge and skills in water resource management, maintenance, and conservation.
c. Foster long-term partnerships between the local entrepreneurs (local innovation team) and the local authorities, NGOs, and community-based organizations for extended impact through Public-Private Partnership to drive sustainable water management initiative. Also, expand ana replicate in similar areas to scale up the impact.
2. Are we expected to conduct a project that solves all water issues in Azaz City, because such a project looks very big, which is expected to cost millions of dollars?
The project is not expected to address all of Azaz’s water issues, it should provide a solution for a specific area in Azaz City or the camps. It’s also not conditional to provide an intervention that is built from scratch, an improvement of the water quality and access to water is the key objective. The project should provide access to safe drinking water to indirectly 40 to 60 thousand individuals.
The project is not expected to address all of Azaz’s water issues, it should provide a solution for a specific area in Azaz City or the camps. It’s also not conditional to provide an intervention that is built from scratch, an improvement of the water quality and access to water is the key objective. The project should provide access to safe drinking water to indirectly 40 to 60 thousand individuals.
Our aim from this condition is to have a sustainable intervention, which is why the more reliance on the local market the better the project will be, while considering exploring alternatives to expensive materials and products and finding alternatives that maintain quality and safety while reducing costs. Unless the imported equipment and/or materials are not essential to the project or can be imported under all circumstances. We also consider that an innovative project can support a production activity of some equipment that is not available in the local market.
What we are looking for is a smart solution, that mainly uses the local capacity and the equipment and materials that are available in the local market. In the meantime, we’re looking for new solutions for the water issues, not using the same solutions that are already used, where this solution can guarantee sustainability and efficiency, which also can be expanded in the future using the local capacity to cover all Azaz. Furthermore, using localized innovation by incorporating modifications, adaptations, or customization to align with the region’s environmental and socio-economic factors, demonstrating a context specific approach to innovation. Finally, integrating technology with localized innovation by utilizing novel technologies for water management, treatment, and monitoring, to improve the efficiency of water infrastructure, enhance water quality control, and enable real-time data collection for informed decision-making and foster carbon emission reduction practices through renewable energy usage.
We are open to any solution that provides quality water for indirectly 40 to 60 thousand individuals in Azaz City and its camps. So, we expect the service providers to think about the best intervention that can achieve this objective using the local capacity, in addition to providing capacity building and coaching for many people in Azaz to guarantee the availability of local expertise that can operate it after the end of our contract.
Sure, we welcome any type of coalition that helps achieve the project objectives.
Field Ready Türkiye has already communicated with the local stakeholders and discussed the idea of this project with them, which means we are planning to provide the necessary support to overcome any challenges related to this point.
It’s expected that you send your field team to check all the things related to the intervention that will be proposed, and this should be conducted before submitting your proposal to guarantee that your project considered all details and got all the information needed to give a good proposal.
The intervention is not limited to this solution, what we’re looking for is any intervention that uses the local capacity to improve the water quality and access to water for indirectly 40 to 60 thousand people.
What we know is that all used interventions are not conducting what we’re trying to do, all of them are using non-sustainable solutions, which should overlap with this project. Also, this project aims to complement the other interventions.
We can’t increase the budget, which is why you are expected to work on the financial cost of your intervention carefully to reduce the risks related to the budget.
According to the needs assessment conducted, and according to several sources, water is available in Azaz City through the water network and in the camps through wells or water trucks. Water is treated with chlorine, but it is not filtered from sediments and impurities, so it is not suitable for human use and causes many cases of water-related diseases.