I joined WSS Bulancak as Contractor's Representative and Project Manager mid-execution, after the previous PM left. Pipes were already in the ground, reservoirs were half built, and the clock was running. The mandate was to finish what was unfinished and get the whole system commissioned, tested, and handed over. Nine point eight million euros, EU IPA-financed with Turkish national co-contribution, FIDIC Yellow Book, June 2016 to January 2017.
The town it serves had been on twelve-hour daily water rationing through the summer months, with residents storing water overnight or hauling it from community points, and 40 percent of what was produced lost through decades-old corroded distribution pipes. Three legacy wells were operating below safe yield, which put the whole supply within sight of failure.
The completed system runs seven wells - four new artesian wells drilled into aquifer layers identified by hydrogeological survey, and three legacy wells stripped back to casing and rebuilt with stainless-steel screens, variable-speed submersible pumps, and flow instrumentation. Ten reservoirs, six new and four rehabilitated, are sited to give gravity-assisted pressure zones across the terrain rather than relying on pumping to hold pressure.
The distribution work was the largest front: 125,417 metres of new HDPE transmission and distribution pipe, laid by six crews working simultaneously across different zones, replacing every corroded segment and roughing in new connections at 4,700 properties. Non-revenue water fell by 67 percent. Capacity is 12,368 m3 a day, secured for 45,000 residents into the 2040s.
My side of it was pre-commissioning, commissioning, and start-up, running on all of it at once - seven wells, ten reservoirs, five pumping stations, and the network - because a seven-month window does not allow a sequential approach. That meant an immediate deep dive into as-built reality against design intent, restructuring the commissioning sequence, and managing the JV partner relationship on a compressed schedule.
It was also a multinational site working inside an EU IPA audit framework, with a Scottish contract administrator checking every certificate. Five work packages were parallel-tracked with a dedicated site supervisor for each, which is what kept the reporting honest and the programme intact.
The project closed with EU final acceptance in January 2017 and zero lost-time incidents. Some nights we sat with the reservoirs until three in the morning, following the process valve by valve and reading by reading, because at three in the morning in the Turkish mountains there is nobody else to call.
WSS Bulancak, Turkiye - Project Summary and Related Work
PROJECT SUMMARY