A large sewage pump installation has been constructed under the FIDIC Yellow Book (edition 1999).

The Employer should check on the Appendix to Tender, Employer's Requirements and / or Particular Conditions. There could very well be specific requirements regarding the language in those. If that is not the case, the language of the Contract determined in Sub-Clause 1.4 and the language of the Operation and Maintained Manuals should in this case be English.

If French is indeed an official second language of the region where the Plant is built, the Contractor is entitled to deliver the documents in French. The usability in terms of language is not described in Sub-Clause 5.7, so the Employer should accept the Operation and Mantained Manuals in French.

Golden Principle no. 1 states: The duties, rights, obligations, roles and responsibilities of all the Contract Participants must be generally as implied in the General Conditions, and appropriate to the requirements of the project. In this case this means it is appropriate that the Operation and Maintenance Manuals are in French, as the maintenance is based in France.

As the Contract is written in the English language, Sub-Clause 1.4 dictates that the Operation and Maintenance Manuals should be written in English as well.