Develop Faecal Sludge Management by-laws assignment

Terms of Reference (TOR) 

Develop Faecal Sludge Management by-laws

1. Background

The Constitution of Nepal (2015) has provisioned with different fundamental rights to “live in a clean and healthy environment”, “Every citizen shall have the right to access to basic clean drinking water and sanitation service”, “The exercise of Nepal’s State power shall be used by Federations, States and Local units”. Based on the Constitution of Nepal, GoN has elaborated functions and responsibilities of the Local level on basic health and sanitation. Local Level is empowered to formulate, implement, and regulate water supply and sanitation related policies, laws, and standards. Local Level is made responsible to provide safe drinking water and quality and launch awareness activities to improve sanitation to improve health condition of the people. 

Municipality’s strong willingness to provide safe sanitation facilities are challenged by environmental impacts, climate change, population growth in addition to the increasing urbanization and haphazard settlement growth, lack of enabling policies, laws. 

Municipality being the duty bearer in providing access to safe and sustainable faecal sludge management at the local level and they have also initiated the formulation of this policy, by laws on FSM considering the local needs and the legal obligations in providing services to improve public health and environmental sanitation in the municipality. Even though most of the elected members are energetic and enthusiastic, and understood their roles and responsibilities but they do have some limitations in their experiences, technical capacities. So, the four municipalities under WASH SGD programme located in Province 2 (Khadak), Province 5 (Nepalgunj sub-metropolitan city), Province 6 (Chandannath, Birendranagar) have asked SNV for the technical support to develop FSM by laws in a joint meeting between SNV’s staff and Municipalities. In the meeting, it was agreed that SNV would provide technical support to develop FSM by laws and municipality will take lead in its effective implementation, endorsement, and finalization. 

2. FSM Problems and Challenges

The construction of toilets merely cannot achieve the goal of better public health and improved environmental sanitation. For this, the entire sanitation value chain, users’ interface, safe containment, regular desludging and transportation, treatment and safe disposal & reuse should be duly considered.  This entire process is called Faecal Sludge Management (FSM). The unsafe FSM may result in serve impact on public and environment health, while the proper FSM may have possible economic benefits from the proper reuse of faecal sludge.

There are prominent challenges in managing the entire service chain of faecal sludge management. In the context of total sanitation movement, there is a challenge to identify and reach out the last mile of populations without access to basic sanitation facilities.  The improvement of existing substandard on-site containments (Septic Tanks and Pit latrines) is another big FSM challenge. The arrangements of scheduled desludging, fully mechanized method of emptying and transportation is very challenging in the present context.  The land acquisition for the establishment of Faecal Sludge Treatment System, unclear selection criteria for treatment options, inadequate capacity to operate and maintain the treatment systems are some of the prominent FSM challenges. In addition, as the result of inadequate awareness and viable business plan, there is a challenge to create a conducive environment for the private sector engagement in FSM business. 

Lack of local level laws, policies and plans and enforcement of legal provisions has restricted improvement of sanitation facilities and limited the performance monitoring. So, effective policies, plans, standards, guidelines are required for effective functioning of sanitation facilities on a sustained manner.

3. Rationale for developing FSM by laws:  

Currently, the country has declared Open Defecation Free, as result it is required to move towards upgrading from basic sanitation - SDG1.4.1 to reach the ‘Safely Managed’ sanitation service ladder - SDG 6.2.1 (JMP, 2017). Local Government Operation Act 2074 (2017) which provided local government with huge responsibilities for planning and implementation of activities allows the officials to prepare their own guideline and service delivery. However, development of FSM implementation standard is required to assure quality of the overall performance in service chain.  

As of now, most of the households in the municipality are managing faecal sludge by on-site application in the land which can potentially cause risks to the public health and environment. In such scenario, the proper FSM can significantly contribute in improvement of public health and environment including in waste management and sustainable sanitation in the municipality.  The successful implementation of this FSM policy /by laws will also support in achieving other development objectives of this municipality including agriculture and tourism. 

Besides financial and technological interventions for Faecal Sludge Management (FSM), strong institutional and regulatory framework including robust regulation and monitoring are needed to ensure proper execution of sanitation services. The development of municipal level FSM by-laws will provide legal and strategic mandates to the municipal authorities including decision makers towards effective and safely managed sanitation service provision. In addition, it will also provide clear roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders involved in the FSM sector avoiding conflicts and duplication. The FSM by-laws will also provide guidance to develop policies, strategies, plan of actions and guidelines as per the local need and context. 

4. Objectives:

The main objective of this assignment is to prepare municipal level Fecal Sludge Management (FSM) by laws in the 4 municipalities(Nepalgunj sub metropolitan city – Province-5 , Birendranagar municipality- Province - 6 , Khadak municipality – Province- 2  , and Chandannath municipality – province - 6) under WASH SGD Programme.

5. Scope of work

This Terms of Reference (TOR) aims to develop an understanding on the process, outputs and roles and responsibilities of different institutions involved for the development of Municipality’s by laws related to FSM. The Municipality will lead the process with the technical support of SNV and other relevant institutions.

The following steps will be followed for FSM by laws development along with the roles and responsibilities from each end: 

• Preparatory Phase 
• Planning Phase 
• Analysis Phase 
• Sharing and dissemination, finalization 
• Endorsement of by laws 

Step 1: Preparatory Phase

• Development of TOR
• Sharing of TOR with municipalities 
• Feedback collection and finalization of TOR
• Publication of TOR 
• Collection of technical and financial proposal 
• Review and selection of Vendor 
• Agreement signed 

Step 2: Planning Phase

• Kick off meeting with municipality 
• Collection of required resources from municipalities, SNV 

Step 3: Analysis Phase

• The collected information, document, sanitation policies, by laws, strategies will be reviewed and analyzed to use them in drafting by laws.  

Step 4: Drafting by laws

• The outline of the bylaws will be shared with municipalities for their inputs and finalization 
• Drafting By laws in close coordination and consultation with municipalities, M-WASHCC members, Palikas members. 
• Share with municipality’s authorities for preliminary inputs
• Develop second draft by incorporating feedbacks from the municipality authorities

Step 5: Sharing and dissemination 

• The team involved in the assignment in coordination with SNV will prepare workshop, schedule, finalize participants, event date, venue etc.) will share draft by laws.
• The feedbacks obtained from municipality (if any) will be collected and incorporated for finalization. 

Step 6: Endorsement of the by laws

• FSM by laws endorsement by Municipal Council 

6. Roles and Responsibilities 

The concerned Municipality will take overall leadership role throughout the process, including coordination with relevant stakeholders. SNV will be primarily responsible for providing technical backstopping for overall process including engagement of experts while drafting by laws. The Municipality will be responsible for bringing all the concerned stakeholders together for reviewing providing feedbacks, attending meetings at various levels, and finally endorsing the laws. 

6.1 Roles and Responsibilities of the Municipalities

• Providing the available sanitation related documents during data collection and their analysis
• Organization of meetings and workshops 
• Managing experts other than those provided by SNV if required 
• Sharing of by laws in the MWASHCC members 
• The respective municipalities will also monitor and provide important feedbacks whenever requires for finalization of FSM by laws. 
• Coordination with relevant stakeholders
• Endorsement and effective implementation of FSM by laws

6.2 Roles and Responsibilities of SNV

• Input on data collection and analysis
• Arrangement of experts as mentioned in the human resource section 
• Design of various workshops in coordination with municipalities 
• Incorporate feedbacks and inputs provided by municipalities 

7. Deliverables

• Deliverable 1: Workshop report on sharing and finalization of FSM by laws 
• Deliverable 2: By laws in English and Nepali language Inception report

8. Timeframe 

• This assignment will commence from August 1, 2021 and complete the tenure of assignment by Oct 30, 2021. 

9. Qualifications of Applicants 

9.1 Sanitation Expert

• Minimum a Bachelor or degree in Civil Engineering, wastewater engineering or environmental engineering.
• A minimum working experience of 5 years in faecal sludge management.
• Experience in formulating sanitation (Faecal sludge management/Wastewater management) Act/By-law of municipalities.

9.2 Environment Law Expert

• Minimum master’s degree in law with specialization in environmental law
• A minimum working experience of 3 years in sanitation particularly in faecal sludge management 
• Experience in leading to formulate environment/sanitation (Faecal sludge management/wastewater management) Act/By-Law.

10. Selection criteria 

SNV will establish a selection committee, which will assess applications based on the following criteria: 

• HR Team: Relevance of experience 
• Company’s relevant work experience 
• Activity and Time Planning
• Cost

11. Application process

Eligible applicants are requested to provide following documents:

• Cover letter including statement relevant to the assignment
• Company Profile
• Curriculum Vitae of proposed experts 
• Detail time schedule of expected work and deliverable (Annex-2)
• Financial Proposal (Annex -1)
• A sample FSM by laws in English or Nepali  
• Copy of Company Registration
• Copy of VAT registration
• Copy of tax clearance FY 2076/77

12. Mode of Payment

• 20% after Signing of contract 
• 40% after Sharing and Finalization of FSM by laws Workshop report (Deliverable 1)
• 40% Submission of Final by laws in English and Nepali language (Deliverable 2)

13. Reservations 

SNV reserves the right to disregard incomplete applications, communication regarding selection process will not be entertained. SNV’s decisions concerning the selection are not appealable. SNV can withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if deliverable(s) are incomplete, not finalized or for failure to meet deadlines. The report cannot disseminate or published without prior written permission of SNV. 

14. How to apply 

Applicants are required to submit their applications, inclusive of all the documentation and information as indicated above, to SNV Nepal at nepal@snv.org no later than 14 July 2021.

*SNV commits to treat this to high levels of confidentiality and for the sole purpose of this selection process.

Please go through the link below to download Template and detail time schedule:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/169EdpdzC_cSf9yT9S84NbjU0t5XyquZM/view?usp=sharing