IRC Jobs | Post Project Environmental Impact Assessment Consultant Job in Kenya

The IRC is currently carrying out an intervention funded by Sida, in Ethiopia and Kenya, in response to the severe drought the wider Horn of Africa is experiencing.

As part of the intervention, the IRC is providing approximately 38,000 drought-affected refugees and 5,000 local community members in and around Bokolmayo refugee camp with access to safe water through the trucking of water from an already existing temporary and permanent water treatment plant.

Additionally, the project is addressing issues of water access and hygiene in schools and health facilities/nutrition centres in three districts in the larger Turkana County, Kenya. 7,440 beneficiaries in Loima, Turkana Central and Turkana West districts are being provided with access to safe water and safe hygiene promotion.

The IRC would like to engage a consultant to carry out a post-project Environmental Impact Assessment for the project in Bokolmayo, Ethiopia and Turkana, Kenya.

Ethiopia Response

In search of food, water, and safety, refugees fleeing drought and continued unrest in Somalia are entering the southern Somali Region of Ethiopia in large numbers, requiring immediate assistance and resources.

The intervention was designed to benefit refugees residing in Bokolmayo Camp and the camp’s adjacent host communities. Sida funding provides approximately 38,000 drought-affected refugees and 5,000 local community members with access to safe water.

The intervention entails the trucking of water from an already existing temporary and permanent water treatment plant. The only feasible water source for the camp is the Genale River, which has highly turbid and bacteriologically unsafe water.

The IRC runs a water treatment plant on the bank of the Genale River, where water is flocculated and then disinfected with chlorine. From the treatment plant, water is loaded onto trucks and transported to the camp, where it is offloaded into storage tanks at temporary distribution points.

The IRC monitors chlorine residuals of the water exiting the water treatment plants and points of delivery for quality assurance. Currently, the IRC is trucking water supplies to 20 distribution points in Bokolmayo Camp and to camp and host community schools, feeding centres, and health posts. In collaboration with local community and refugee leaders, the IRC has recruited and trained volunteer water attendants for each distribution site.

Kenya Response

In Kenya, 37% of the total population in Turkana depend on shallow wells/boreholes as a source of water. However, the recent drought affected the recharge rate of most shallow well/boreholes, leading to dry wells. As a result, existing wells were overused, leading to their breakdown. Through this Sida-funded project, the IRC is providing water storage facilities, water trucking and emergency repair of broken down shallow wells/boreholes.

The targeted beneficiaries are pupils attending primary schools and drought affected community members served at health facilities/nutrition centres in Loima, Turkana Central and Turkana West districts, Turkana County. Furthermore, the IRC is supplementing its water trucking activities through promoting hand washing and hygiene awareness.

The IRC provides sufficient soap and water for hand washing at the health facilities and schools. Community Health Workers are also trained on hygiene issues, enabling them to undertake hygiene promotion activities in schools and the communities with supervision from the Environmental Health Manager and other local staff members.

The IRC is also training teachers on critical hand washing times and general hygiene practices.

Rationale, scope, and objectives of the evaluation

The environment is an inseparable part of the intervention context in all emergencies/disasters. As water provision is connected to the state of the environment and the existence of natural resources, an integral component of this IRC project is an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

Due to the nature of the project’s activities, it is expected that the environmental impact assessment will inform IRC of both positive and negative impacts the project has had on the environment, providing the opportunity for resulting lessons and recommendations to feed into future programming.

The specific objectives of this EIA are to determine:

• Nature and extent of environmental impacts (positive, negative, direct, indirect) the project had on the environment. These include project impacts on:

1. Human population: (The impacts on women, men and children should be presented separately when relevant, as well as a breakdown of impacts on different groups in other respects, with special consideration given to vulnerable groups and to future generations)
2. Physical Environment : Drainage patterns especially in relation to surface water, storm water and other run off related aspects; state of underground water sources including quality and production potential and sustainability of wells/boreholes ; contamination and landscape alterations/ degradation(based on aesthetic aspects) associated with the project; alternative renewable energy sources and the associated costs;
3. Impacts to the ambient environment (natural environment) : Planted flora and other biotics adjacent to the site and abutting land; soil conditions; impacts on adjacent streams and/or dry river beds (pollution indicators, impacts on water flow patterns and quality aspects user interference and contamination; topography and other pertinent issues

• Land, water, air and climate
• Material assets and cultural heritage
• Effectiveness, efficiency, applicability and success of the deployed environmental mitigation, monitoring and management activities
• Lessons to inform delivery of environmentally–responsive emergency WASH interventions in similar contexts.
• The analysis should be quantitative, supplemented by qualitative observations and assessments.

Methodology & Activities

• Desk review of IRC programme documents identifying any potential environmental hazards and impacts
• Further description of parameters to be assessed in the field, methods to be employed, sampling locations, and frequency of measurements
• Use Sida Guidelines for the Review of Environmental Impact Assessments, in particular the checklists for Water-related Activities to structure analyses and investigate programme activities
• Field visits to project sites in Turkana, Kenya and Bokolmayo, Ethiopia:

1. Further study of areas of environmental impact identified
2. Meet with and discuss environmental impacts of the project with other stakeholders, including appropriate local government representatives as well as civil society groups in Kenya and Ethiopia

• Assemble, review, and analyse Kenya (EMCA 1999) and Ethiopia environmental law which pertains to project implementation and verify that all programme activities are in line with statutory regulations

Outputs & Deliverables

• A report (hard and soft copies) of not more than 20 pages addressing all objectives
• The EIA report should include clear statements that inform the (lay) reader of the project’s impacts in the environment – positive and negative, intended and unintended.
• The EIA report should also relate the environmental impacts to the resultant impacts on the projects’ environmental mitigation, monitoring and management activities, and ultimately on the target population.
• This information needs to be presented in the findings, discussed in the conclusions and lessons learned, and used to create concrete recommendations to inform environmental mitigation and management in future programming in similar contexts.
• The final EIA Report will contain Methods and sources used, including participatory methods.

All EIA Report components will be written to conform with standards set out in the “Sida Guidelines for the Dialogue on Strategic Environmental Assessment”.

Timeframe

The evaluation is expected to take place in 21 days during the commencing on 10th January 2012, and to be submitted by 31st January 2012.

Any necessary revisions relating to feedback would be expected to be made in the following week.

A final work schedule with dates will be developed in agreement with IRC and the consultant.

Required Consultant Experience & Qualification:

An environmental/BIA expert with significant experience consulting for INGOS.

How to apply:

If you feel you/your organization fit the required profile and are available for the assignment between 10th -31st January 2012 please submit short technical proposal detailing your interpretation of the above ToR, how you will undertake the assignment and how your qualifications and experience fit this ToR and a separate financial proposal to consultant@rescue.org.

Please provide also a Curriculum Vitae (CV) that contains details of the consultant proposed for the job.

Proposals should be submitted by e-mail by 4th January 2012.

Deadline for submission: 16.30hrs on 4th January 2012