The Government of Montenegro
Bolje Sestre, Montenegro
COUNTRY OF REFERENCE: MONTENEGRO
A country perched on a beautiful coastline just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy, Montenegro has been experiencing a steady growth in both tourism and population following the Bosnian War in the mid 1990s. However, this increased popularity has also placed increased demand on their fresh water supply. This is especially true during the summer months when the coastal region of the country can suffer from a lack of rain.
To help meet this need, Xylem Austria and Vogel pumps worked with the Government of Montenegro on a major water supply project that required transporting water from a pumping station under a lake and over very rugged terrain up to a mountain reservoir.
The major construction project was originally conceived, and work had begun, in the 1980s but was stopped due to the war in former Yugoslavia in 1991 and commenced again in 2008.
Local level expertise and proven Xylem technology
Binemikom, Xylem’s representative in Serbia with a subsidiary in Montenegro, worked closely with several suppliers to access the needs of this two-year project. Based on their relationship with the local decision-makers, alongside the experience of Xylem Austria in similar projects, made it clear that Vogel pumps were the proven choice to meet the challenging requirements.
The water source for the project is a pumping station at Bolje Sestre, located on the waterfront of Skadar Lake, which features very clean water. Each of four Vogel vertical long shaft pumps LT 300-400 SL 31504 deliver 410 l/s water at 61.2 m head to the Water Treatment Plant. It is then transported by gravity to the Reljici pumping station via a 30 km pipeline, of which 18 km runs beneath Skadar Lake. At Reljici, six Vogel horizontal multistage pumps P 254/3 SC 211-71004 further transport water through hydro-technical tunnel Sozina with 6 km steel pipeline up to the Djurmani reservoir.
From this reservoir the coastal water supply system is divided to the northern branch – 73 km towards the Croatian border; and the southern branch 35 km towards Albanian border. Xylem Austria was also involved in the installation of three horizontal multistage pumps P 254/2 SB 211, each delivering 250 l/s at 130 m head to the Budva pumping station in the North.
The pipeline route, which totals around 130 km, goes through highly inaccessible inland and coastal terrain, through populated areas, and alongside highways and beaches. The pipeline has numerous connection points for local water supply systems.
Following this very successful installation, another upgrade phase of this Regional Water Supply System is in design and evaluation phase, and due to the already proven reliability and efficiency of Vogel pumps in this project, Xylem Austria and Binemikon are already being considered as partners on this major project.