Lake Tanganyika Region Water, Sanitation and Environmental Management Initiative (LT-WATSAN)

UN-HABITAT in association with the Governments of Burundi, DRC Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia, is currently preparing an important initiative to address the water and sanitation needs of the population, particularly the poor, in the secondary towns around Lake Tanganyika. The objective of the Lake Tanganyika Region Water, Sanitation and Environmental Management Initiative (LT-WATSAN) is to support secondary urban centres in the Lake Tanganyika Region to enable them to achieve the water and sanitation related MDG’s and, generally, to contribute to an equitable and sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – of the Lake Tanganyika Region, to the benefit of the people living in the area.

The Initiative has been designed to demonstrate that the MDG targets for water and sanitation in these towns can be met with modest investments targeted primarily to rehabilitation of existing infrastructure, with due emphasis on capacity building at local level to ensure the sustainability (including financial sustainability) of these services. Achieving the MDG targets for water and sanitation in these towns could be an important entry point for addressing other MDGs related to poverty alleviation and integrated water resources management. The interventions in a few selected towns should also serve as a model-setting exercise that could inspire other towns and national authorities to replicate these interventions to create a basin-wide impact.

The Initiative has a clear pro-poor focus, and is intended to generate desirable outcomes that would have a lasting effect on the poor. These outcomes include improved access to water and sanitation services in the project areas, functional and gender focused arrangements for sustainably managing and monitoring the rehabilitated systems, institutionalised capacity building programmes to regularly update the capacity of stakeholders, and a contribution to the reduction in pollutant loads entering into the Lake Tanganyika. It is envisaged that these outcomes, within a reformed environment, would lead to improved health status and productivity of the population in the secondary towns participating in the programme. It presents a real opportunity to improve the situation on the ground by combining physical investments in infrastructure provision, with targeted capacity-building, while at the same time protecting the Lake environment on which the region depends for survival. The spirit of regional cooperation is under-pinned by the programme and opportunities for region-wide capacity-building will further enrich the region's ability to manage itself.

Overall Objective of the Consultancy

The overall objective of this consultancy is to carry out an environmental rapid appraisal to identify key environmental issues or linkages that should be incorporated into the LT-WATSAN project design of immediate physical and capacity building interventions in water and sanitation infrastructure, solid waste management and drainage, and propose the scope of environmental assessment for long term interventions in the selected towns. The overall purpose is to minimize potentially adverse impacts that planned interventions might have on the environment and to enhance the overall quality of LT-WATSAN project.

Specific Objectives:

• Identify key environmental issues and concerns to be incorporated in the project designs.
• Specify alternative design options and alternatives to be considered based on the analysis of the environmental issues and concerns.
• Recommend measures for mitigating adverse effects and enhancing potential benefits of the proposed project designs.
• Assess whether the identified environmental issues and concerns require further detailed assessment or whether the specified mitigation measures will be enough.
• Analyse key stakeholders and develop methods for their participation in the environmental assessment, including the mitigation of the likely adverse environmental effects of LT-WATSAN project.
• Ensure that the environmental assessment is in compliance with existing national legislation.
• Develop a guiding framework on environmental monitoring.
• Prepare terms of reference and tender documents for environmental impact assessment of proposed interventions.

Activities and Outputs:

Under the supervision of the Programme Manager of UN-HABITAT and in close consultation with the LT-WATSAN project team, the Consultant will, together with the design mission team, undertake the following activities and produce the following outputs:

Output 1: Inception Report, including a detailed work plan 

• Carry out a review of existing documentation, including the LT-WATSAN Initial Rapid Assessment Report, Guidelines for Environmental Assessments for UN-HABITAT Activities and the national environmental legislation (a list of relevant documentation is available at UN-HABITAT offices). The Consultant should ensure that the environmental assessment follows UN-HABITAT guidelines and is in compliance with existing national legislation.
• Hold consultations with relevant UN-HABITAT programme staff.
• Prepare an Inception Report outlining the environmental assessment methodology and a detailed work plan.

Output 2: Field Mission Report:

• Undertake one field mission, together with the design mission team, to collect and analyse all local, regional and national information on environmental issues (including health and social concerns), with particular focus on the project area.
• Participate in meetings with all stakeholders at town level, as and when directed by the Mission Team leader.
• Prepare field mission report.
• Overview of environmental legislation at national and town level, and its application in practice.
• Key environmental issues and concerns to be incorporated in the LT-WATSAN project designs.
• Review design options or alternative ways of mitigating adverse effects and enhancing potential benefits of the proposed project designs.
• Overview of key stakeholders and methods for their participation in mitigating the adverse effects of the LT-WATSAN project.
• Guiding framework on environmental monitoring.

Output 3: Participation in the preparation of the Action Fiche, in particular on all environmental-related issues of the proposed interventions.

• Provide environmental-related inputs for the short-term physical and capacity building interventions based on specific environmental and social needs of the towns, as part of the Action Fiche reporting.

Work plan and Timeline:

The Consultant will be expected to submit the following outputs within the timelines given below:

• Timeline Outputs
  1 week Inception Report, including a detailed work plan
  3 weeks field mission Mission Report
  4 weeks reporting Technical inputs for the Action Fiche Report

Reporting:

The Consultant shall report to the Human Settlements Officer, UN-HABITAT and Programme Director of LT-WATSAN. The consultant shall be required to present the field mission findings and recommendations to UN-HABITAT project team. The report will be produced in accordance with UN-HABITAT’s reporting format contained in the Environmental Assessment for UN-HABITAT Activities. The report is to be submitted in two hard and electronic copies each.

Education:

• Postgraduate degree in environmental science with relevant experience in carrying out environmental assessment of water and sanitation projects.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years experience in the environmental assessment of community-based urban water and sanitation projects.
• Proof of registration with the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA).