May 16, 2023

Syria: Project Closure – Al-Sen Water Supply System will provide drinking water to 3.6 million people!

Project Title: Diagnostic and Rehabilitation Feasibility Study on Al-Sen Water Supply System in Syria

Assignment Location: Syria, Latakia and Tartous Governorates

Client and Origin of Funding: International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

We are proud to contribute to a highly significant project for the Syrian people, namely the refurbishment of the Al-Sen water supply system. This system is one of Syria’s largest water supply systems, commissioned in 1978 and supplying drinking water to approximately 1.9 million people in the Latakia and Tartous Governorates. After the refurbishment and upgrading, the Al-Sen water supply system will have adequate capacity to provide about 3.6 million people with drinking water.

The Al-Sen water supply system is managed, operated and maintained by the Water Resources Directorate (WRD) in Latakia under the authority of the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR). Until 2009, the WRD could perform limited repair and rehabilitation work to keep the system operational. Later, during the Syrian crisis, the system naturally deteriorated further.

Water Source Al-Sen Lake, © HYDROPHIL / Danie Theodorus Nel

HYDROPHIL diagnosed the water supply system, its hardware components, operations, and maintenance processes. As part of this diagnosis, we identified the required rehabilitation and upgrading works. Therefore, a phased risk-based implementation approach was chosen. Furthermore, designs for rehabilitation and upgrading works were prepared, catering for the coming 25 years.

The essential rehabilitation and upgrading measures comprise the following:

  • Measures to monitor and improve the water quality in Al-Sen Lake: environmental monitoring, improving the function of the on-site laboratory and sand filtration process.
  • Upgrading of the Tartous and Latakia pump stations: structural improvements, upgrading of electrical supply, pumps and motors.
  • The installation of new pipelines from Al-Sen Lake feeding a higher quality and capacity of water from the source directly into the Latakia Water Supply Sub-system.
  • Modifications to the Latakia water supply sub-system pipework, providing flexibility in operations.
  • A range of capacity-building measures aiming to improve the performance of the management and the operations and maintenance staff.
Al-Sen Pumping Station, © HYDROPHIL / Danie Theodorus Nel

Jens Liebelt, HYDROPHIL Project Manager and Capacity Building Expert: “We are proud to have been commissioned by ICRC for this highly relevant project. We are also pleased that ICRC continues to entrust in HYDROPHIL’s work performance with the recent award of two more projects in Syria. The region has been facing complex challenges for years, and our team was deeply impressed by how the people there are coping with it.”