Objective and Purpose of the Assignment
 | ADB is supporting the Government of West Bengal, Public Health Engineering Department, in implementing the West Bengal Drinking Water Sector Improvement Project (WBDWSIP). The project will provide safe and sustainable drinking water as per the standards set by the Government of India to over 1.65 million people in the arsenic, fluoride, and salinity- affected selected areas of Bankura, North 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts of West Bengal (project districts). It will introduce an innovative and sustainable institutional framework and advanced technology for smart water management to enable efficient service delivery in project districts. Under a grant from the Urban Climate Change Resilience Trust Fund under the Urban Financing Partnership Facility, technical assistance was provided by ADB from March 2019 to November 2022 in strengthening smart water management and climate and disaster resilience in selected districts of West Bengal. During the project it was found that salinity ingress from the Bay of Bengal into ground water and surface water resources are one important climate change impact which will pose a threat to future access to freshwater resources. This is critical for a wide range of sectors besides from the water supply sector depending on water resources, such as agriculture, fishery, shipping. A salinity action plan was therefore drafted. The proposed extension of the Technical Assistance will support development of a proposal to the Government of West Bengal for establishing an Integrated Coastal Area and River Basin Management framework with participation from various departments, a proposal for monitoring and modelling center under such framework, and project preparation of a suite of mitigation measures to reduce impact of salinity ingress. The project’s tentative outcome will be enhanced climate change and disaster resilience against salinity ingress along the coastline of West Bengal. |
Scope of Work
| The preparation of an Integrated Coastal Area and River Basin Management (ICARM) plan aims not only to solve salinity ingress issues but also related river basin and coastal area issues which mutually influences the suitability and feasibility of mitigation measures. Groundwater management is equally important as surface water management, so careful preparation with engagement and involvement of relevant stakeholders across departments and sectors, is therefore essential. The ICARM should solve the salinity ingress issues for Public Health Engineering Department, as well as other issues in other departments in a holistic and integrated manner which overall secures enhanced climate change and disaster resilience in exposed coastal regions. The assignment is for a national water resource and groundwater specialist to assist the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) in developing the concept of ICARM, in incorporating the interests and concerns of other related departments, and in preparing a proposal from PHED to the Government of West Bengal for establishing ICARM and related subprojects in coordination with the international water resource specialist cum team leader, and the national water supply specialist. |
Detailed Tasks and/or Expected Output
| The expert is expected to (i) Assist in review and refine the first draft ICARM description prepared by the TA Consultants Firm (ii) Support in liaison with and collect feedback from departments and incorporate their comments in an update, in particular with focus on surface and groundwater resources (iii) Participate in establishment of a taskforce between key department from January to May 2023 hosted by and lead by PHED for preparation of proposal (iv) Assist in meetings and proposal preparation within the taskforce, with completion of proposal and terms of reference for ICARM including subprojects (monitoring and modelling center, salinity ingress mitigation projects such as nature-based solutions of freshwater storages) (v) Support the team leader in activities associated with this assignment Reporting and Timing The expert will work for 5 months with 44 days of intermittent inputs starting from 2 January 2023 (expected commencement) under the guidance of international water resource expert cum team leader under this technical assistance. The consultant will together with team leader (i) present a detailed work plan in the first week of the assignment indicating the dates of onsite visits and meetings as well as how to collect feedback and relevant data, (ii) interim report and presentation after 2 months with the draft TOR and proposal, and (iii) final report and presentation after 4½ months with final TOR and proposal. The consultant is expected to be based in West Bengal. |
Minimum Qualification Requirements
| The individual consultant will have 15 years of general civil engineer experience or similar (MSc), and 10 years of specific experience in water resources and groundwater projects. Foreign experience from similar areas as in West Bengal is desired which should projects in South Asia supported by development banks. |
