CONSULTANCY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF WATER SAFETY PLAN FOR KIBWEZI MAKINDU WATER AND SANITATION COMPANY LIMITED

MWA is a permanent global alliance of leading humanitarian and private organizations that convenes opportunities and partnerships, accelerates learning and effective models, and influences the WASH space by leveraging the expertise and reach of its members and partners to scale quality for sustained WASH services. Founded in the year 2002, MWA seeks to advance high standards for program quality, transparency, and accountability and work with its members, governments, communities, private sector partners, and other key stakeholders to scale effective and sustainable water, sanitation, and hygiene education solutions.

Kibwezi Makindu Water and Sanitation Company Ltd (KIBMAWASCO)

Kibwezi-Makindu Water & Sanitation Company Ltd (KIBMAWASCO) is a private company limited by shares, incorporated on August 16, 2011, following the merger of Kibwezi-Mtito Andei Water Company and Makindu Water Company. The company provides water services to the towns of Kibwezi, Makindu, Kambu, Machinery, and Mtito Andei, along with their surrounding areas in Makueni County.

KIBMAWASCO operates in a jurisdiction covering 2,450 km², of which approximately 967.8 km² (39.5% of the total service area) is included in its service coverage. The population within this service area is around 285,530 people. Currently, KIBMAWASCO serves about 102,784 customers, representing 35.9% of the local population. The company has a total of 9,672 connections, with 6,423 active and 3,149 inactive.

The utility’s main water sources include Umani Springs, which serves Kibwezi and Mtito Andei with 4,902 m³ per day through pumping and gravity systems. Kwa Venge Spring supplies Makindu with 906 m³ per day via pumping. Kambu Springs provides 160 m³ per day for Kambu town through pumping and 432 m³ per day for Kiteng’ei by gravity feed.

The DWA Dam delivers 480 m³ daily to the lower Masongaleni Ward and Lower Ngandani sub-Ward. Additionally, the Makindu Borehole produces 324 m³ per day for Makindu town. The non-revenue water rate is 52%. Together, these sources effectively meet local water needs.

SASaWa Program

MWA is implementing the Sustainable Access to Safe Water (SASaWa) program, funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation (TCCF). The program seeks to enhance water resilience and sustainability in Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs). SASaWa aims to improve access to water and the reliability of water services. It is specifically designed to reduce the burdens of water collection, particularly affecting women and children, and to decrease health risks associated with poor water quality in 9 ASAL counties. As the program increases the availability and quantity of water through infrastructure development, it will also ensure improvements in water quality.

Water Safety Planning

Water supplies are faced with a wide range of risks from various pollution sources, which significantly impact water safety. One major concern is microbial pollution caused by pathogens. Existing policies, regulations, and strategies related to water quality, along with the establishment of institutional arrangements, reflect the governments’ awareness and commitment to ensuring the safety of drinking water and addressing the effects of climate change on the sustainability of water supply sources.

To enhance the resilience of water supply utilities in managing risks, water safety planning has been deemed essential. It is important that all utilities, regardless of their size, proactively identify and manage the risks they encounter. Through SASaWa program, MWA plans to initiate the development and operationalization of water safety plans with selected water service providers to control risks that may arise in water quality across the water delivery chain**.**

Therefore, a Water Safety Plan (WSP) is a risk assessment and management approach that covers all stages of the water supply system, from catchment to consumption. This method is increasingly recognized worldwide as an effective practice for ensuring safe drinking water. The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized the importance of WSPs during expert meetings in 2000 and 2001 and continues to advocate for their adoption. Water agencies must ensure that the water supplied is safe for all human uses, including drinking, bathing, and washing while meeting regulatory health standards.

WSPs focus on managing health risks proactively rather than relying solely on end-of-pipe monitoring. To create a WSP, water providers must assess the entire water supply process, identify potential hazards, and implement measures to mitigate risks. The Water Services Regulatory Board (WASREB) has created guidelines to help utilities develop water safety plans, ensuring the quality of water supplied to consumers is acceptable.

Consultancy Objectives

Support the development of a Water Safety Plan for Kibwezi-Makindu Water and Sanitation Company Ltd (KIBMAWASCO) to enhance the delivery of quality water.

Scope of Works

This will include but is not limited to the following tasks and shall make reference to the Guideline on Water Safety Planning 2019 (WASREB) and the WHO 2024 Water safety- Guidelines for drinking-Water Quality.

1. Assembling the core WSP team is a prerequisite step for identifying stakeholders to participate in water safety planning, advocating for the process, raising awareness, and involving all concerned parties. The WSP team will comprise of:

• Representatives from the county government’s relevant departments.
• Representatives from the utility, including the technical team, engineers, and water quality staff.
• Representative(s) of national government agencies responsible for water resources management, regulation of drinking-water quality and surveillance, and environmental management.
• Representative(s) of government agencies responsible for water infrastructure investment policy and regulation of utilities.
• Representative from private sectors, community-based organizations, Water Resource Users Associations (WRUAs), community leaders, water users, and institutions.

The consultant will coordinate a consultative workshop with the relevant identified stakeholders to ensure they are appropriately briefed to create awareness of the water safety plan and to discuss the concept of WSPs, their benefits (provide presentation), and how they are developed and implemented. The consultant will also assemble a WSP development and implementation team that has a wider knowledge and expertise of the entire water supply system, i.e. understand water abstraction, transmission, treatment, and distribution, including the corresponding hazards that can potentially affect the water safety from the catchment to the consumer. Besides the involvement of the experts with the desired WSP knowledge, the team may also include relevant identified stakeholders.

1. Describe the existing water system, including flow charts showing sources, control points, and users. The basic elements for describing the water supply system would cover the whole system from the source (catchment) to the endpoint of supply (the customer) and document the inputs and outputs even if they do not operate all the time. The flow diagram could be taken on-site to check its accuracy and local knowledge.
2. Identify hazards and hazardous events and risk assessment for the preparation of a preliminary WSP**.** This would establish the:

• Chemical, physical, and/ or biological properties determine mobility and persistence in the water supply system.
• Health relevance of the identified hazards.
• Possible maximum amount of pollution.
• Type and time pattern of pollution i.e. point versus diffuse sources and continuous or periodic release of contaminants into the water supply system.
• Relevant pathways of contaminants / or pollution transport in the entire water supply system.
• Indicators by which drinking-water safety improvements will be measured.
• Level and responsibilities of ongoing WSP coordinating functions or teams; and
• Cost implications for any of the recommendations proposed including for any goods, equipment, and capacity building during project implementation (expressed in capital and recurrent costs).
• Identify the need for institutional capacity and infrastructure improvements to improve water safety.

1. Determine and validate control measures, re-assess and prioritize risks identify control measures for each of the identified risks that are considered relevant, and validate by monitoring and other checks, including monitoring plan (when, frequency, criteria).
2. Develop, implement, and maintain an improvement plan – The process will involve review, documentation, and formalization of the practices that are not working and address any areas where improvements are needed.
3. Define monitoring of control measures – describe the complete water supply system, from catchment to consumer. The system description should also include non-piped water supply and water vending within the utility service area.
4. *Prepare management procedures:*develop an elaborate management procedure for the routine operation and maintenance activities when the system is operating under normal circumstances as well as a specific procedure in case the system is operating in ‘incident situations. This is an essential part of the WSP that should be developed by experienced staff and should be updated regarding the implementation of improvement plans and revision of incidences/emergencies. All activities undertaken including the duties of each staff should be well captured in this management procedure to ensure nothing is left out and to enhance the accountability of each staff.
5. Develop supporting programs: Develop activities that will enhance the development of peoples’ skills and knowledge are referred to as supporting programs. They include training, research, and development. Programs may be in place but may not be regularly done. In such a case, these programs should be reviewed to check why they don’t run regularly and address all loopholes/constraints.
6. Water Quality sampling and testing. As part of the scope, the consultant will conduct water quality testing for all raw water sources, treated water at storage points, and at selected consumer points to establish the baseline. The utility will provide a list of these sampling points. Further, the consultant should map the current sampling points (if they exist) and determine the optimal number of sampling points based on the size of the water supply network. All water quality tests should be conducted in accordance with acceptable sampling and sample transportation techniques that mitigate sample contamination. Water quality testing should be done at an accredited laboratory.

Deliverables

The successful bidder will be required to provide deliverables along the timelines specified in the table below within an overall timeframe of 4 months from contract signing.

Deliverables

Timelines

Inception Report elaborating the methodology that will be used for the development of the WSP.

2 weeks after contracting

Draft Water Safety Plan for review by stakeholders. All water quality test results should be annexed.

1 month after the WSP team assembly

Stakeholder Validation Workshop: one-day stakeholders’ workshop to validate the draft WSP and obtain feedback

2 weeks after the submission of the draft report

Final Water Safety Plan in soft copies incorporatingall feedback from stakeholders. The plan should be graphically designed

1 month after the validation workshop

Qualifications and Experience

The technical expert/firm should have relevant qualifications in Water Engineering, Water Resources Management, Public Health, or other relevant disciplines. The technical expert/lead technical expert should have at least 10 years of relevant sector experience. The expert should be able to demonstrate previous experience in leading the preparation of Water Safety Plans. Knowledge of current Water Sector Acts, policies, and regulations is highly preferred.

MWA Responsibilities

• Logistical (Travel only) support while in the field during the development of WSP
• Conference facilities for workshops
• Organizing and mobilizing relevant stakeholders

Duration of the Assignment

3.5 months.

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated to ensure that they meet all mandatory requirements and are responsive.” To determine responsiveness, a proposal must include all documentation as requested under the proposal submission section. Proposals that fail to meet these requirements will receive no further consideration. Responsive proposals will be evaluated and ranked according to the criteria below.

Technical Qualification

• Education and technical experience of the expert/firm.
• Understanding of the scope and/or assignment.
• Proposed methodology and approach.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting and coordinating similar assignments.

Consultants with a minimum score of 70% will be considered technically qualified, their applications will proceed to the financial evaluation stage, and they will be invited for an oral interview.

Financial Proposal

Only the financial proposal of the technically qualified consultants will be evaluated. The lowest-priced proposal will receive the maximum number of points, and all other financial proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Proposal Submission

Each application must consist of:

1. An application/cover letter. The letter should be no longer than two pages.
2. Technical proposal for the evaluation not exceeding 10 pages. With the following as annexes:

• The CVs of the team lead and key team members in a similar format and not exceeding 4 pages per CV.
• Previous similar assignments within the last three years.
• Contact details of three organizations that have contracted the firm for a similar assignment within the last 3 years.

1. A separate financial proposal. The fees proposed must be a total “fixed price” quotation indicating the overall total amount in Kenya Shillings inclusive of all taxes.
2. The calculation of fees should indicate a detailed breakdown of cost calculation, specifying:

• Details of daily professional fees and time input.
• Detailed breakdown of reimbursables, including logistics, travel, per diem, communication, and any other related costs.
• Payment terms.

1. Statutory, administrative, and fiscal documents.

• For firms, copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, certificate of incorporation, and company KRA PIN certificate.
• For individuals, copies of a valid Kenyan certificate of tax compliance, KRA PIN certificate, and National Identification Card.

How to apply

Interested individuals/firms should submit their applications by 31st January 2025 at 5 PM EAT. All applications should be submitted electronically to the following email address: mwakinfo@mwawater.org. The email subject should be titled “KIBMAWASCO Water Safety Plan Consultancy.’’