In November 2006, the NSW Minister for Planning gave concept and project approval for the desalination plant at Kurnell and the seawater intake and outlet structures. The plant will use reverse osmosis technology to remove salts and other impurities from seawater to produce drinking water.

Manidis Roberts’ involvement was in three distinct parts.

First, we were engaged to develop the overall communications strategy and plan for the project’s development and approvals phases. This involved seconding a senior Manidis Roberts’ employee into the Sydney Water integrated team.

Second, we worked with the private sector delivery consortia, dmt (a joint venture of Degrémont, Multiplex and Thiess), to deliver the following services during the expressions of interest (EOI) and multi-stage requests for tender (RFT) phases:

• Technical tender inputs on community relations, approvals and environmental management.
• Bid strategy (including pitch document content), management and production.

As part of this engagement, Manidis Roberts was also commissioned to deliver the environmental management and communications if dmt was successful.

Third, we provided key strategic communications advice to Sydney Water’s Project Director. This advice involved developing and implementing a project communications strategy for the delivery phase. The strategy coordinated Sydney Water corporate, transfer alliance and plant contractor communications.