［ Facility Management Services ］ Takahiro Konishi, Introduction of “Comprehensive Keiichi Tsukiashi, Kou Ozaki, BPO Services ‘Water Supply Sakae Hagihara Operations and Facility Expansion Work, etc.’” for East Gunma Water Supply Authority Keywords Waterworks, Comprehensive BPO services, Public-private partnership, PPP, DBO, Third-party outsourcing, Facility operation, Water purification, Water pipe, Water supply devices, Water bill collection, Clerical work management, Wide-area integration, Aged facility, Facility renovation/renewal The water utility services for three cities and five towns in the eastern area Abstract of Gunma Prefecture (Ota City, Tatebayashi City, Midori City, Itakura Town, Meiwa Town, Chiyoda Town, Oizumi Town, and Oura Town) were integrated and the business project of East Gunma Water Supply Authority (EGWSA) started its operation in April 2016. The water supply service covers about 450,000 people and the daily maximum water supply rate is approximately 200,000m3/d. The annual business income is about 10 billion yen. As a member of the consortium of four private-sector firms, the “Consortium” we bid for a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Contractor Selection for “Comprehensive BPO Services ‘Water Supply Operations and Facility Expansion Works, etc.’” and were selected as the BPO Contractor. The purpose of this bid was to provide sustainable water utility operations for a wider area water supply. As a Public-Private Joint Venture company (“a PP JV company”) with EGWSA, we established Gunma Tobu Water Supply Services Co., Ltd. (“GTSS”). This company utilizes the private sector firms engineering resources and exper- tise to secure public interest. With such a framework (scheme) for business, this company started its operations in April 2017 and we helped this leading-edge public private partnership initiative. ( 1 Preface Prefecture Ota City, Tatebayashi City, Midori City, Itakura Town, Meiwa Town, Chiyoda Town, Oizumi We actively promoted Business Process Town, and Oura Town) newly established East Outsourcing (BPO) services for water processing Gunma Water Supply Authority (EGWSA) through facilities. We view such plants as our focused target integration. Through BPO Contractor Selection to exercise our lifecycle engineering. After the Bidding, EGWSA se lected a consortium headed by amendment of the Waterworks Act in Japan in 2002, our company as the BPO contractor. The consor- we worked hard to deploy our BPO services across tium then established a Public-Private Joint Venture Japan. By working closely with the water utility- company (“PP JV company”) with EGWSA, called related service providers through our business alli- Gunma Tobu Water Supply Services Co., Ltd. ance, we gained the experiences of comprehensive (“GTSS”). It started a “Comprehensive Outsourcing outsourcing services for water utility operations Service (Water Supply Operations and Facility including water bill collection, facility management Expansion Works, etc.)” in April, 2017. This paper of water pipes, and management of water supply introduces the back ground and history for this devices. advanced Public-Private Partnership (PPP) busi- Recently, the water utility services for three ness. cities and five towns in the eastern area of Gunma 40 MEIDEN REVIEW Series No.176 2019 No.2 2 Background viduals. The renewal of facilities must be done based on the long-term vision and according to the The business conditions surrounding water established plan. Further, in order to secure suffi- utilities across Japan are increasingly more chal- cient funding, we have to set up an appropriate lenging every year. There are now many issues water bill rate considering the declining water sup- such as the “decrease of water-supplying popula- plying population and declining water supply vol- tion, water supply volume, and water utility income,” ume. Efficient business operation and optimized “rising needs to renew aged water processing facil- scale of water supply facilities are needed. ities,” “increasing risk of source water quality deteri- Against the above background, the most oration,” “deterioration of utility service quality by urgently required actions to address these issues the decrease of water utility personnel,” and “needs are, a wide-area water supply service by working for the readiness for Business Continuity Plan (BCP) with other water utilities, public-private partnership, after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.” introduction of asset management, and appropriate In order to solve the above issues, the Ministry pricing of water bill rates. of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan drew up a This paper introduces the “Comprehensive new vision of waterworks and announced it in March, BPO Services ‘Water Supply Operations and Facility 2013 (see Fig. 1). This vision is based on “Safety,” Expansion Work, etc.’ ” for EGWSA. “Resilience,” and “Sustainability.” It defines the ideal Such outsourcing is an example of a solution state “to realize water utility operations that can con- applying the measures of a wider area water supply tinually supply safe quality water by using earth- service and a public-private partnership initiative. quake-resistant facilities.” In order to realize such an ideal state, we must 3 Introduction of EGWSA manage the water utility business adapted to the times and the environment by securing safe quality 3.1 Outline of Water Supply Service Business water and earthquake-resistant facilities. In addi- Fig. 2 shows the member local governments tion, it is necessary to secure qualitative and quan- of EGWSA and their locations in a graph. The water titative human resources who are responsible for supply service area of EGWSA is for the east side operation under the circumstances of decreasing of Gunma Prefecture. The main area is placed water utility personnel, and the aging of these indi- between the Watarase River and the Tone River. The area is near Tochigi and Saitama Prefecture. In Fiscal 2012, a study group for expanding the water Ideal image of waterworks supply serv ice area for East Gunma was estab- ■ Water services that ensure a supply of uninterrupted water in compliance with quality standards in the required quantity at any lished and the group decided a framework for the time, and at any place and to any person, at a reasonable cost, while correctly responding to time and environmental changes. integration of water supply service areas covering 〔Safe Waterworks〕 〔Robust Water Service〕 three cities and five towns. This wider area water supply service was started in Fiscal 2016. The scale Safety 〔Sustainable Water Resilience Services〕 of this water supply service is supplying water to a Waterworks providing Waterworks minimizing population of about 450,000 people, daily maximum palatable drinking water suffering from natural Sustaina- 3 to all the people at any bility disaster, while flexibly water supply volume of approximately 200,000m /d, time, and any place and quickly recover from Waterworks ensuring a damage , when suffered. and a business income of about 10 billion yen/year. sound, stable water supply in spite of dimin- This water supply service scale is the biggest in ishing population to receive the supply of Gunma Prefecture. water and decreasing supply of water The ideal image of waterworks for the next 50 years and the century 3.2 Outline of Key Facilities ahead is presented, and the ideas are shared among the parties concerned. As an integration of water supply services, Source: “New Waterworks Vision ‘Reference’” by Waterworks Section, Health Bureau, EGWSA was established. At that time, however, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare released in April, 2013. EGWSA had 20 drinking water treatment plants and total length of 3056km of water pipes and conduits, New Vision of Waterworks (Ideal Image of Fig. 1 Waterworks) and the consolidation of key facilities to rebuild for An ideal image of waterworks is explained with the three key wider water supply service was not attempted. words of “Safety,” “Resilience,” and “Sustainability.” The big challenge then was to introduce effi- MEIDEN REVIEW Series No.176 2019 No.2 41 Katashina [Member Local Governments] Village Minakami Town Ota City Tatebayashi City Kaweaba Village Midori City Itakura Town Takayama Village Meiwa Town Chiyoda Town Kusatsu Town Numata City Nakanojo Town Showa Oizumi Town Oura Town Village Midori City Shibukawa Tsumagoi Higashiagatsuma City Village Town Maebashi Shinto Village City Kiryu City Takasaki City Yoshioka Oizumi Town Naganohara Town Town Annaka City Oura Isesaki Town Tatebayashi Kanra Ota City City Town City Shimonita Takaoka City Town Tamamura Fujioka Town Nanmoku City Village Chiyoda Meiwa Itakura Kanna Town Town Town Town Ueno Village Fig. 2 Member Local Governments of EGWSA and their Locations in Graph EGWSA was formed by integrating the water supply service utilities of three cities and five towns in the east area of Gunma Prefecture. Situation of Drinking Water Treatment Facilities Situation of Water Pipe Facilities Just before Table 2 Table 1 Just before the Starting Wider Area Water Starting Wider Area Water Supply Service Supply Service EGWSA has water pipe facilities with a total length of more than As a result of parallel integration of water supply services cover- 3000km. ing three cities and five towns, EGWSA had 20 Drinking Water Treatment Plants (DWTPs) in operation. Member local Total length of water pipes and government conduit tubes (m) Member local No. of operating Ota City 1,437,954 government Name of DWTP