Feasibility Study on Reverse Osmosis Technology and Drip Irrigation via ReliefWeb

This is a consultancy funded by Johanniter, impemented by AICHM who is Johanniter’s partner in Kenya

1. Background and Rationale

AICHM-JUH has been working with the Nasinyono community in Turkana West, Turkana County since 2011 and has successfully created a strong working relationship with the community members. Nasinyono community has a population of about 10 000 people, who are facing chronic food and nutrition insecurity. While land is available in abundance, expansion of land under effective agricultural use is limited by constraints. These include labour, limited access to water for both household use and irrigation; and waterlogging owing to excessive flash floods; soaring prices due to low supply and high transport, unaffordable amongst others. A Kenya Government water analysis report for Loitikipi indicates that the water is neutral, soft and very highly mineralized[1]. Thus efforts to break the cycle without addressing some of these challenges, especially those related to access to water, may be in futility. Evidence shows that resilience building in the ASAL counties like Turkana can increase household income and reduces the net cost of humanitarian response by a significant margin. Furthermore, previous drillings in the area reported high levels of salinization in the water thus making it necessary to look at ways of making the water fit for human consumption.

2. Purpose

The purpose of this study is to conduct a feasibility study to determine the viability of using drip irrigation for the demonstration farm as well as setting up a reverse osmosis system attached to a borehole for providing potable water in Nasinyono, Turkana West.

The study shall be used for the proposal writing and used as a guideline during the implementation of the activities.

3. Objectives of this study

Carry out a feasibility study:

1. For drip irrigation

a) Assess the feasibility of irrigation through drip irrigation for the demo farm in Nyasinyono.

b) Develop a Bill of Quantities for the drip irrigation system and infrastructure required if any.

1. On aquifer and reverse osmosis.

a) from secondary data and KII, determine the characteristics of the aquifer of drilling a borehole in the area and any risk on this aquifer

b) review impact and lesson learned on reverse osmosis pilot interventions recently conducted in the country

c) Determine the feasibility of applying reverse osmosis as a means of desalination on water extracted from the borehole and its relevance in that specific context

d) Identify and define any concerns on the aquifer by extracting water from the borehole and the required aquifer management that may be required

e) Define the system required by the community or other actors to ensure adequate monitoring of the aquifer levels in Nyasinyono

f) Define the required community or other actor’s management system required for maintaining a reverse osmosis system in Nyasinyono as to ensure sustainability of the system

4. Scope of Work

The consultant is expected to undertake the following in close coordination with the commissioning agencies:

1) Consolidate and analyse data available from secondary sources and develop a strong inception report, presenting key findings from secondary data, existing information gaps, and recommendations for the sampling, methods, and tools to be applied for primary data collection based on this analysis of secondary sources.

2) Validate, select, consolidate tools for data collection and ensure a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods that is appropriate to the purpose of the study.

3) Coordinate and lead data collection in the field. Data should be collected in electronic form including GPS positions for the survey and other tools being applied. Geo-tagged pictures should be part of the qualitative assessment tools.

4) Work closely with focal organizations during data collection.

5) Prepare a comprehensive final report with key findings and recommendations.

Assessment Methodology

The consultant is expected to propose scientifically, culturally and socially appropriate approaches that will be used to meet the objectives of this assessment. A mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches should be used as well as primary and secondary data. The consultant is expected to demonstrate the ability to undertake the evaluation by providing details of the process including the tools, formats, and methods that might not be limited to the following key process.

• Desk/Secondary Data Review: The consultant will review relevant existing strategies, research documents, articles, etc. This will include a review of underground water surveys, previous drillings among others to provide insights into what has been explored so far.

• Structured Key Informant Interviews: To gain stakeholders’ perspectives on key needs, the consultant will conduct KIIs with county water and other water stakeholders, the CEC to determine their management capacities.

• Field Visits/primary data collection: The consultant will be expected to visit Nyasinyono to do carry a site survey and soil analysis and other necessary tests to determine the feasibility of both the drip irrigation as well as the reverse osmosis.

5. Process:

The assessment shall be conducted between the 03^rd and 12^th February 2020. A total of 10 consultancy days.

The consultant should submit the final report by the 14^th of February 2020.

The evaluation shall be undertaken within the following phases.

Planning Phase

1) An inception meeting between the consultant and AICHM-JUH.

2) Submission of short inception report with clear assessment design and data collection tools.

3) Desk Review and secondary data collection

Field Work phase

4) Primary data collection

Data analysis and report writing phase

5) Analysis of data

6) Drafting of the report

7) Submission of the draft reports

8) Presentation of key findings

9) Final report submission

6. Outputs and Deliverables

• Inception report

• Final assessment report

*The complete ToRs can be requested at [email protected]**