1.                                          Introduction

1.1              Background

This Project Preparation Technical Assistance (TA) titled ‘Ebeye Water Supply and Sanitation Project – ADB PPTA 8306- RMI’ is located in Ebeye Islet, Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI). The RMI consists of two groups of atolls and islands – Ralik in the west and Ratak to the east – both located within a rectangular area extending 1150 km north-south and 1300 km east-west, about 4,100 km from Sydney and 3200 km from Honolulu. Four of the small raised coral islands are inhabited, as are 22 of the 29 atolls. The islands are typically several km long but rarely over 200 m in width. The combined land area of the Marshall Islands is seventy four (74) square miles, but the total of 1225 islands are scattered over an area of 775 square miles.

Figure 1.1: Republic of Marshall Islands     Figure 1.2 – Location of Marshall Islands.

Figure 1.3 – Ebeye Islet

The focus of the TA activities is on the islet of Ebeye. Located at Latitude: 8⁰ 47' 33" N, Longitude: 167⁰ 44' 56" E, Ebeye islet sits at the southern end of Kwajalein atoll, the world’s largest atoll.  Kwajalein atoll has a total land area of 16 square kilometers, with about 90 islets surrounding a 1,700 square kilometer lagoon. Ebeye is a small low-lying coral islet comprised of a land area of 40 hectares (100 acres), with a maximum elevation of about 3 meters (10 feet) above mean sea level. 

1.2             Preparation of the Asset Condition Assessment Report

The water supply, sewerage and electricity assets on Ebeye are managed, operated and maintained by the Kwajalein Atoll Joint Utilities Resources (KAJUR) under the supervision of the Combined Utilities Board. The Combined Utilities Board is based in Majuro and is responsible for the Marshalls Energy Company (MEC), the Majuro Water Supply and Sewerage Company (MWSC) and KAJUR.  At the commencement of the TA, KAJUR possessed little in the way of records of any assets. There were some limited schematics of the water supply and electricity systems and some hand-drawn maps of the electricity transmission and distribution systems. Financial records, including asset valuations of water supply, sewerage and electricity assets were available from KAJUR as well as records of all households with electricity meters, water supply, sewerage and salt water flushing connections.

Some GIS based maps of the water supply, sewerage and electricity systems were available from within the MWSC and also from the Ebeye Infrastructure Survey conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers for the United States Army Kwajalein Atoll (USAKA)[1]. These maps, however, were not available to the KAJUR operating personnel and were not comprehensive, although they did provide a useful base for the project to develop more detailed asset mapping. During the course of the Inception period, the team managed to obtain a set of design and as-built plans from USAKA of the sewerage extensions and rehabilitation and of the sewage treatment plant constructed in 1983. These plans also incorporated details of much of the water supply and salt water flushing system pipelines that existed at that time. No plans of the electrical transmission and distribution systems were located.

The asset plans and condition surveys for this report were therefore developed using a combination of the existing maps prepared by MWSC and USAKA, the 1983 sewerage design and as-built plans, survey using hand-held GPS instruments and information from long-term KAJUR operations staff.