Mekong River Commission

Transcription

1 Mekong River Commission Office of the Secretariat in Phnom Penh (OSP) 576 National Road, #2, Chak Angre Krom, P.O. Box 623, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Tel. (855-23) Fax (855-23) Office of the Secretariat in Vientiane (OSV), Office of the Chief Executive Officer 184 Fa Ngoum Road, P.O. Box 6101, Vientiane, Lao PDR Tel: (856-21) Fax: (856-21) Project Title: Consultant Position: MRC Programme: Type of Appointment: TERMS OF REFERENCE Domestic and Industrial Water Use International Consultant Environment Programme (EP), Environment Division Special Service Agreement Duration: 60 working days, intermittent inputs, from March September 2015 Duty Station: Report to: MRC Secretariat in Vientiane/Environment Programme, Lao PDR and home-based. EP Programme Coordinator and EP International Technical Advisor (ITA) 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND The Mekong River Commission (MRC) aims for sustainable development of the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) for the benefit of its people. The MRC s Strategic Development Plan and the MRC Basin Development Strategy states that basin development is to follow Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) principles. Moreover, the need to improve the sustainability (in all its aspects) of the basin s overall development is a key priority in the MRC s Basin Development Strategy. This is therefore reflected in the MRC framework and its IWRM approaches, which steer the MRC countries and the Programmes towards this central objective. On 8 December 2011, the Council of the MRC (at its 18th Council Meeting in Siem Reap) agreed in principle to implement the outcome of the verbal discussion by the Member Countries Prime Ministers at the 3rd Mekong-Japan Summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2011, to approach the Government of Japan to support the conduct of a study on sustainable management and development of the Mekong river including impacts by mainstream hydropower projects. Some Member Countries (MCs) however required an additional national approval process and thus agreed to bring this matter back to their respective governments for their internal discussion and necessary actions. Other development partners might consider providing support to MRC in this regard 1. Since then, the MRC has drafted a concept note to conduct a Study on Sustainable Management and Development of the Mekong River including impacts by mainstream hydropower projects. The draft of the concept note was finalized in January The 1st Planning Meeting for the Council Study was held on 7-8 November 2013 at the Office of the MRC in Vientiane, Lao PDR with the aims of seeking how MRC Programmes could contribute to this study as well as of identifying the need for external resources and expertise inputs. 1 Paragraph 21 & 22 under the minutes of the 18th meeting of the MRC Council (Session 1), which was held on 8 December 2011 in Siem Reap, Cambodia

2 As indicated in the Concept Note of the Council Study, the main objective is to further enhance the ability of the MRC to assess the positive and negative impacts of water resources development on people, economies and the environment of the Mekong River Basin (MRB). The Council Study will reduce the uncertainty in estimating these impacts, providing the MCs with higher confidence information towards informed decision-making. The three objectives, also as agreed to in the Concept Note, provide a logical link between the main objective of the Council Study and the outputs and activities. The first objective is for the generation of knowledge on the positive and negative impacts of developments, the second objective is for the enhancement of long term MRCS process using the new knowledge generated and processes tested and the third objective focuses on capacity development. 1.2 RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY The economic development in the Lower Mekong Region has been rapidly growing, of which the industrial sector is quite modest. North-eastern Thailand and the Mekong Delta have been reported as the most advanced industrial areas in the region 2. Thailand is one of the world s major primary products and agro-industrial producers. In 2010, the industrial sector contributed about 45.6 percent to the country s GDP and employed 19.7 percent of the total workforce 3. Automobile is one of the most important industries, and so does electronics. In 2012, the industrial sector in Viet Nam contributed to the country s GDP about 41.4 percent 4, which was accounted for more than one third of the country s GDP. The heavy industrial facilities are mostly located in the north while the medium- and light-size factories are mainly situated in the south (the Mekong Delta). The factories located in the Mekong Delta include agro-industries, breweries, canneries, and aqua-food processing industries. The industrial sector in Lao PDR has been booming since 1996, which has played an increasingly important role in the country economy, growing from 15.4 percent in 2000 to 34.8 percent in The large- and middle-size factories are mainly located in Vientiane Municipality. In 2012, the industrial sector in Cambodia contributed to the country s GDP about 22 percent 6, which slightly increased compared to the year of 1999 (20.4 percent 7 ). Most manufacturing is situated in Phnom Penh along the Tonle Sap River and the Bassac River. Water demand by industrial and domestic sectors significantly varies by country. In 2002, the water demand for the industrial sector was estimated about 0.5 percent, 5.7 percent, 4.8 percent, and 24.1 percent for Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Viet Nam respectively Industrial water use prepared by the Basin Development Plan of the MRC Programme in 2002 (p. 1) Economy Watch, extracted on 10 January 2014 Data from Global Finance s website ( extracted on 13 January 2014 Data from Global Finance s website ( extracted on 13 January 2014 Data from Global Finance s website ( extracted on 13 January 2014 Data from Royal Government of Cambodia, Second Five Year Socioeconomic Development Plan (p. ii) Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Statistic yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 2011, extracted from on 14 January 2014 Version: 9 January 2015 P a g e 2

3 The industrial sector development and urbanisation in the four countries in the LMB have been rapidly booming in the last decade. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation can be resulted in the pollution of water bodies in the adjacent to the development areas, where wastewater have been discharged untreated into natural water systems or leached into ambient soils. However, the degree on which the rapid industrialisation and urbanisation impact the water bodies and public health is limited. Also, the water withdrawal for industrial and domestic sectors is limited compared to other sectors. Additionally, water demand conflicts between industrial and domestic sectors and other sectors in the LMB have not been well known. Since its inception, the MRC has undertaken a number of targeted studies through its implementation programmes to inform its river basin planning and development. Adopted by the MCs of the MRC, a Basin Development Strategy with a fundamental objective of the 1995 Mekong Agreement is cooperation to achieve the full potential of sustainable benefits to all riparian countries and the prevention of wasteful use of Mekong River Basin waters. This aim is complemented with the Shared Vision for an economically prosperous, socially just and environmentally sound Mekong Basin 9. The Strategy defines a dynamic basin development planning process that will be reviewed and updated every five years to ensure that decision-making on water and related resources is based on up-to-date knowledge and feedback. A first update of the Strategy is expected in The BDP Assessment of Basin-wide Development Scenarios allow the Member Countries to identify the development space available for the use of basin resources based on when unacceptable environmental and social repercussions set in. Based on expert opinion estimates, it assessed six scenarios over a 50 year timeframe including broad-based developments in the tributaries, the mainstream and the Lancang River providing a useful tool for the four Member Countries to plan their development initiatives in the basin. However, considering the broad based approach, it does not provide significant resolution on the impacts of large-scale projects planned or already underway in the mainstream of the Lower Mekong Basin. Considering the urgency of understanding the sectoral, cross cutting and cumulative impacts of these impending developments, the Council Study will be conducted to close this gap 10. Domestic and industrial water use is one of the major thematic areas that needs to be studied to address the current uncertainties in assessing the impacts of industrial development and urbanisation in the LMB. The results of the study will contribute to facilitating informed basin development planning in the LMB with a clear, strategic, pragmatic and actionable set of recommendations. 2 OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE OF THE STUDY 2.1 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The main objective of the Domestic and Industrial Water Use Thematic Study is to further enhance the understanding of the negative and positive impacts of water resources development in the domestic and industrial sectors on water resources, people, economies, and the environment of the 9 10 MRC s Basin Development Strategy for the Council Study on the sustainable management and development of the Mekong River, including impacts of mainstream hydropower projects Version: 9 January 2015 P a g e 3

4 Lower Mekong River Basin. This study will fill knowledge gaps and reduce the uncertainty in estimating these impacts, providing the Member Countries with higher confidence information towards informed decision-making. 2.2 SCOPE OF THE STUDY This thematic study is part of the overall study that involves determining both separate (i.e., sectoror theme-specific) and cumulative impacts, both positive and negative, of water resource development projects in various sectors such as irrigation, agriculture and land use, domestic and industrial, flood protection and floodplain management, hydropower, and navigation. The scope of this thematic study will include the following main activities: Review and analyse existing domestic and industrial sector development plans; Assess domestic and industrial water consumption; Identify key impacts resulting from industrialisation and urbanisation development; provide clear, strategic, pragmatic and actionable set of recommendations; and Coordinate with and support activities of the other Council Study thematic and discipline teams. A thematic report will be prepared to document the results of this thematic study. 3 CONSULTANTS SPECIFIC DELIVERABLES The respective International Consultant is responsible for achieving the following deliverables: Development Scenarios for use by the assessment teams. The scenarios will take into account domestic and industrial sector development plans; water demand and consumption; and general effluent and waste discharge. Thematic Report A Thematic Report on the Positive and Negative Positive and Negative Impacts of Domestic and Industrial Water Use on the Social, Environmental and Economic Conditions of the Lower Mekong River Basin and Policy Recommendations. Working Paper - Specifications and Map of Selected Domestic and Industrial Water Use in the Lower Mekong River Basin for Use in Hydrological Modelling. 4 APPROACH The figure below illustrates the overall unified approach of the Council Study which requires close coordination of the activities and incremental contributions of the various thematic and discipline teams for the Study to complete successfully. The major activities include the following in sequence: Each Thematic Team (Irrigation, Agriculture/Land Use, Hydropower, Flood Protection, Domestic and Industrial Water Use, and Navigation) formulates the water-resource development scenarios. The Cumulative Assessment Team formulates the cumulative development scenarios in conjunction with the various Thematic Teams. The Hydrologic Discipline Team performs the hydrologic and hydraulic assessments the baseline scenario and for each the development scenario, provides the relative time-series to Version: 9 January 2015 P a g e 4

5 other study, and document results in a Technical Report and Working Papers, including providing relevant sections for the individual Thematic Reports and cumulative Report; The Biological Resource Discipline Team performs the biological-resource assessment and document results in a Technical Report and Working Papers, including providing relevant sections for the individual Thematic Reports and cumulative Report; The Socio-Economic Discipline Team performs the socio-economic assessment and document results in a Technical Report and Working Papers, including providing relevant sections for the individual Thematic Reports and cumulative Report; The Macro-Economic Discipline Team performs the macro-economic assessment and document results in a Technical Report and Working Papers, including providing relevant sections for the individual Thematic Reports and cumulative Report; The Climate Change Discipline Team will provide technical support to the Discipline Teams to account for climate change impacts during the assessment; and to all the teams in preparation of the various Thematic Reports, Technical Reports and Working Papers, including providing relevant sections for the individual Thematic Reports and cumulative Report. The Discipline Teams will prepare technical reports and working papers to document the results of their respective assessment studies. The Thematic Teams will prepare the Thematic Reports and incorporate the assessment results provided by the Discipline Teams from their Technical Reports. The Cumulative Assessment Team will prepare the Cumulative Assessment Report and incorporate the cumulative assessment results provided by the Discipline Teams from their technical reports primarily based on the results of the cumulative scenarios. Version: 9 January 2015 P a g e 5

6 5 CONSULTANT RESPONSIBILITIES The International Consultant will have the following responsibilities: Coordinate technical work of the team including compiling/analysing data with national experts in formulating development scenarios; and with the assessment teams during the assessment Prepare an overview of internationally recognized methods for assessing water use and discharges from industrial and domestic sources, including World Bank s Environmental, Health and Safety Guidelines; Prepare, in conjunction with the discipline teams, a detailed proposed methodology for assessment of scenarios for water use and discharge from industrial and domestic sources in the Lower Mekong Basin, applicable to the Council Study context; Guide national consultants in collecting relevant and necessary information on water use and discharge for projected development scenarios at a geographical and temporal scale applicable to the Council Study context; Create an overview of the collected information from national development plans and recommend a three scenarios to be assessed; Assess, using the agreed detailed methodology on the agreed scenarios, the impacts of industrial and domestic water use on a select subset of parameters (indicators) of water quality in the LMB; Preparing thematic reports and other related reports; Represent the project team as required at meetings and workshops; and Provide technical expertise as needed. 6 SUPERVISION The engagement of the international and national consultants is managed by the Environment Programme under the overall guidance of the EP Coordinator and technical supervision of the EP international Technical Advisor (ITA). 7 CONSULTANT QUALIFICATIONS Master s degree in water resources planning, development, and management; At least 15 years international/regional professional experience in water resources planning, development, and management, and domestic and industrial water supply; Proven experience in the management and coordination of multi-disciplinary teams and getting outcomes in complex technical, organisational and international environments; Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; and Familiarity with the situation in developing countries, particularly in the LMB and the Mekong River Commission would be beneficial. 8 TERMS OF PAYMENT The terms of payment will be made as following: 10% of the total contract value will be paid after signing the contract; Version: 9 January 2015 P a g e 6

7 50% of the total contract value will be paid upon acceptance of a first draft of the thematic report (including formulation of development scenario, assessment of water use and discharges from industrial and domestic sources, and impacts resulting from domestic and industrial water development plans); and 40% of the total contract value will be paid upon acceptance of a final draft of the national review report. MRC will pay for airfares from home base and appropriate DSA according to MRC Secretariat procedures. In addition, all the costs of associated regional travel and facilities for workshops, reimbursable costs, etc. will be paid by the MRCS. 9 SIGNATURE BLOCK EP Coordinator: Date: Division Director: Date: Consultant: Date: Version: 9 January 2015 P a g e 7