The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) has signed a $3.8 million contract with a Spanish company to improve service to consu- mers.

It has also signed another agreement, worth more than $1 million, with a utility company from Uganda to train WASA staff members and develop strategies.

On January 26, WASA, following approval of its board of directors, entered into an agreement valued at US$594,280 ($3,833,106) with Spanish firm Aquagest Solutions (a subsidiary of Agbar), for the provision of consultancy services for the design, preparation and presentation of an operational transformation plan for the utility, WASA said in a statement yesterday.

"The project is being executed over a four-month period, during which time Aquagest Solutions will conduct water and wastewater project audits in accordance with WASA's strategic goals, review the organisation's processes and analyse selected business models to determine the best model for the organisation," the Authority said.

The Aquagest Solutions arrangement was announced by WASA chief executive officer Ganga Singh on January 25, a day before the formal signing, at the launch of the Water and Wastewater Sector Advisory Committee and the establishment of WASA as a workforce assessment centre— both initiatives resulted from a collaboration between WASA and the National Training Agency.

Apart from the agreement reached with Aquagest for the provision of an operational transformation plan, the Authority, in August 2011, signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) of Uganda to allow for collaboration on performance improvement initiatives and capacity building.

This is expected to result in an agreement being signed with NWSC for the development of a performance improvement plan for WASA that includes staff training, development of a decentralisation strategy and the development of successor annual plans.

The project spans a 14-month period, beginning this month, and is being carried out at a cost of US$309,325 ($1,961,120), WASA said.