In the past two decades, two of Jordan’s public water utilities, Aqaba Water and Amman Water Company (now Miyahuna), were successfully corporatized, leading to more efficient and reliable service and enhanced financial sustainability. However, utilities in other governorates lagged behind. The Government of Jordan’s National Water Strategy (2016-2025) laid out an ambitious plan to merge water systems under the control of the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) into the two corporatized utilities to boost sector performance. As subcontractor to Tetra Tech under the Water Management Initiative (WMI), SEGURA played a lead role in helping the GoJ implement this plan and providing technical assistance for utility performance improvements. 

Sector restructuring and reform

SEGURA assisted with the merger of Madaba and Zarqa Water Administrations into Miyahuna, which will serve as the new regional entity serving the Middle Governorates (Amman, Madaba, and Zarqa). SEGURA produced a pre-feasibility study of the merger, as well as an implementation action plan, covering financial, administrative, organizational, and operational aspects. To support the mergers, our team reengineered utility policies and procedures and assisted in the transition of employees from civil service status to independent status. We also helped restructure Miyahuna into several Regional Operating Units (ROUs). Decentralizing management allowed Miyahuna to improve customer service, reduce maintenance response times, and address non-revenue water more effectively. 

Consolidating Jordan’s utilities required the integration of processes and systems across the utilities. Collaborating with the finance units at WAJ and the water companies, SEGURA developed a standardized financial statement following international accounting principles. To enable accurate performance reporting and streamlining of business flows across utilities, our team assisted in the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Customer Information System (CIS) platforms. We also developed and implemented risk-based internal auditing protocols to ensure that all departments and branches adhere to approved policies and procedures and can take action as necessary. Finally, SEGURA supported Miyahuna, WAJ, and other utilities in transforming Miyahuna’s call center into a National Customer Complaint Center (NCCC) responsible for receiving and responding to customer complaints throughout Jordan. Having a common set of systems across Jordan’s utilities is allowing the whole water sector to achieve economies of scale and improve operations, while mitigating performance risk.

SEGURA also assisted with the creation of a new independent water regulator to support the autonomy of the utilities and their accountability to WAJ. Over the past ten years, the originally envisaged independence of Jordan’s corporatized utilities was eroded, underscoring the need for a neutral guardian to serve as an intermediary between the utilities, the GoJ, and customers. SEGURA contributed to an options analysis that led WAJ to commit to establishing a regulator to monitor, regulate, and improve the performance of all Jordanian water companies. SEGURA provided support for the establishment of the entity, including for the development of by-laws, position descriptions, and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Promoting the regulator’s budget independence from other GoJ entities, SEGURA helped develop the regulator’s financial sustainability strategy.

Utility-level improvements

At the utility level, SEGURA supported the adoption of improved utility management practices, including efforts to reduce non-revenue water (NRW) and improve cost recovery. 

SEGURA supported the Ministry of Water and Irrigation (MWI) to implement the IMF Action Plan to Reduce Water Sector Losses. SEGURA helped design and implement NRW reduction work plans for each of the utilities, prioritizing the most urgent, cost-efficient, and expedient activities. These included a training and certification program for water operators in NRW reduction, the identification and rectification of double connections, and the creation of NRW offices across all utilities. SEGURA also helped develop a strategy to more effectively deliver subsidies and implement tariff increases to both meet IMF cost recovery commitments and protect the most vulnerable people. Following the main objectives in the IMF Action Plan related to private sector participation (PSP), SEGURA assisted MWI to develop and implement a capacity-building initiative to enable WAJ and all utilities to design, procure, and implement small PSP contracts. The project ultimately completed transactions related to wastewater treatment plant O&M and energy efficiency in pumping stations.

Our team also concentrated on the development and implementation of utility-wide Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) and business plans. Each PIP proposed technical assistance and staff trainings to enable management improvements, NRW reduction, and enhanced cost recovery, and included Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to capture desired outputs and outcomes. Business plans went a step further, not only defining performance objectives and improvement pathways, but also providing financial models, investment plans, and monitoring tools for companies to successfully execute projects. 

As part of Yarmouk Water Company’s PIP, SEGURA helped implement a new organizational structure for the utility, introducing more efficient ways of operation and establishing clearer lines of responsibility and accountability. SEGURA also led the development of several business plans for YWC, with a strong emphasis on PSP options for various areas of the company. SEGURA provided training to YWC’s new Strategic Planning Directorate in business planning and forecasting, budget preparation, and implementation. YWC is now in a much better position to formulate and execute their own business plans, which will be critical for the utility to access GoJ, donor, and private sector funding for investments and operations. Furthermore, SEGURA worked to harmonize YWC’s internal bylaws and procedures in line with USAID’s Public Financial Management Risk Assessment Framework (PFMRAF), which later resulted in USAID’s approval of the company as an accredited organization for direct grants and the utility receiving $16 million in grants.

Parallel to the establishment of a new organizational structure at YWC, SEGURA provided technical assistance to the utility related to human resources management (HRM). Our team led the development of a new organizational chart for the utility that defined clear job responsibilities, chains of command, segregation of duties, and distributions of resources. We also helped draft policies, manuals, employee periodic performance evaluations, and procedures that define and reward staff performance, including company-wide technical protocols, and a performance compensation system. Finally, SEGURA supported the implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to automate the utility’s financial, procurement, managerial, and HR transactions. This system integrated 11 ROUs and 33 locations of the utility in the four governorates of the service area.

Selected Results

  • Successful restructuring of Miyahuna, including mergers and establishment of Regional Operating Units and National Customer Complaint Center

  • 100% utilization of new Enterprise Resource Planning programs

  • Non-revenue water reduced from 62.2% to 55.4% at Zarqa Water Administration from 2016 to 2019

  • Operations and maintenance (O&M) cost recovery achieved at Yarmouk Water Company

Client:
Tetra Tech | USAID/Jordan

Years:
2016-2021

Location:
Jordan

Technical Areas:
Infrastructure & Environment