WHAT WE DO

SECTORS covered

infrastructure sector

water & Wastewater

Providing access to fresh water resources for human and animal consumption, agricultural irrigation and for industry has been a challenge of societies and civil engineers for many millennia.  Since ancient times, societies have learned to build vast systems of dams, levies, canals and viaducts in order to transport fresh water for consumption in cities and farmlands in order to sustain civilization.  In modern society, many of the world's population growth centers occur in arid lands or in lands that are insufficiently endowed with fresh water resources.  These societies are facing significant and increasing pressures to support growing water demand to serve their growing urbanized area populations, industries and agriculture.  Further complicating the dynamic or regional population growth and agricultural intensity, there is also evidence that climate changes are altering global weather patterns and changing seasonal precipitation and runoff patterns, resulting in negative impacts within watershed regions which may have historically contributed sufficient freshwater resources for human and agricultural uses. Therefore, in many countries and regions, it is becoming increasingly necessary to implement water policies and programs which include a combination of well-planned freshwater supply infrastructure (wells, water treatment plants, storage tanks, dams and watershed diversion projects, canals, viaducts and water pipelines and water distributions grids and water desalination plants, if relevant and feasible), together with well-planned and well-implemented long-term water-demand management policies and programs, water re-use/recycling initiatives and water conservation measures. 

In addition to the provision and management of freshwater, wastewater infrastructure and systems planning and management are critically important.  The wastewater segment includes the collection, management and treatment of sewage, industrial and storm water runoff.  Even prior to the dawn of modern science, the risk of sewage contaminating freshwater supplies in urban areas with dangerous pathogens has been a well-understood human health concern.  Of course, with modern science, it has become common knowledge that also chemical, biological, molecular and radiological discharges into the regional water tables can cause significant human health and environmental harm.  Providing both adequate drinking water treatment and sewage treatment facilities is a key role of national, municipal, regional and local governments in modern society.  While, access to safe and clean fresh water and sewage treatment may be taken for granted in many more developed societies, providing adequate drinking water and sewage facilities remains a very significant societal problem in many underdeveloped and developing countries' urban areas.  Furthermore, in some regions within more developed countries, many of the water and wastewater supply and treatment infrastructure assets are ageing and may be suffering from insufficient investment in maintenance, upgrades and modernization over many decades.  Consequently, many of these water and wastewater assets may be susceptible to failure and contamination, which results in significant human health and environmental risk to many.  In all cases, universal access to clean drinking water is a basic human need and the proper development and maintenance of these assets should be a policy priority, so as to protect human and environmental health.

We not only help our clients finance, develop and efficiently operate and maintain the water & wastewater infrastructure assets, but we also aim to assist in developing sustainable long-term plans and programs for regional water use, management and conservation, and aligning capital investments in infrastructure assets and sound asset renewal and maintenance programs.  The following links provide more specific information related to our advisory coverage of the specific water and wastewater asset classes that we cover.

• Water Desalination Plants
• Water & Wastewater Treatment Plants
• Sludge Energy Recovery Plants
• Water Distribution & Wastewater Collection Systems
• Irrigation, Flood Control, Storm Water and Water Diversion

In the water and wastewater sector, DCS experts can add significant value through application of innovative technologies and processes, and public-private partnerships.  Our advisory services help our clients align the capabilities of private sector capital, innovation, "know-how", efficiencies, life-cycle operational and maintenance discipline, and management resources with the public sector objectives of most efficiently providing and ensuring safe, clean and microbiologically controlled water and wastewater treatment to citizens and institutional, commercial and industrial water consumers at affordable prices (water and wastewater tariffs and fees and taxes).  We can also assist our clients in identifying and procuring suitable vendors, technology and service providers in the water and wastewater treatment sector.   Our experts also have significant experience and competence in delivering water and wastewater infrastructure assets within the various market model contexts, including under a regulated or deregulated utility regime, long-term water offtake agreements, and public-private partnership contracting methods such as regulated user-fee, availability or hybrid concession agreements.  

In many client cases, there may also be a significant nexus between water and energy assets (and potentially other infrastructure sectors that we cover).  For example, there may be existing or planned hydroelectrical or pump-storage power plants that also provide a reservoir source for regional fresh water.  There may also be existing or planned co-located Water and Power Plants (WPPs) or Independent Water and Power Producers (IWPPs) within a water network.  As part of an energy conservancy initiative, water and wastewater systems may be able to take advantage of significantly lower price off-peak electricity, perhaps produced from renewable energy resources, by shifting significant pumping and treatment operations operations to off-peak periods and utilize gravity fed distribution and collection during peak-periods of electricity prices.  We take a client-focused, multi-sectoral approach to our advisory services, where combining our expertise in both water and energy (and other complementary sectors) will result in added-value and innovative results for our clients.

Please click on the below links to learn more about the specific services related to the water and wastewater infrastructure sector that DCS experts can offer:​

• ​Transaction Advisory
• Project/Program Management
• Strategic Planning
• Feasibility Studies
• Debt and Equity Capital Raising
• Contract Drafting & Negotiation
• Financial Modeling, Review and Audit
• Business and Asset Valuation​
• Tender Management: RFEI/RFQ/RFP
• Mergers & Acquisitions Advisory
• Corporate Governance
• Training and Capacity Building

DCS focuses on providing the above services in the water & wastewater infrastructure segment to the following categories of clients:

• Financial Sponsors
  
• Corporations
  
• Governments
  
• Utilities
  
• Lenders
  
• Regulators​
  
• Advisors & Investment Banks
  
• International Financing Institutions
  
• International Organizations