International Sanitation Systems and Wastewater Management Specialist

The purpose of the assignment is to engage a technical assistance (TA) consultant for the preparation of 
an investment project to undertake all required due diligence including technical, financial, economic, 
social, resettlement, environment, and indigenous peoples safeguard, institutional, financial and 
procurement management and risk assessments, etc. The Sanitation Systems and Wastewater Management 
Specialist will provide guidance and support to the government and the design institute (DI) on the 
analysis of the WASH sector and the inclusion of Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) principles in the 
project design.

Guangxi Guilin Comprehensive Ecological Rehabilitation Project Background

The proposed Guangxi Guilin Ecological Rehabilitation Project aims to improve water quality and reduce 
water pollution in the Li River, reduce air pollution, promote non-motorized transportation, and develop 
targeted measures for poverty reduction in several impoverished counties in Guilin. The project will 
spread across the Li River National Park, which covers two counties and three districts along the way, 
namely Lingchuan County, Yangshuo County, Yanshan District, Qixing District and Diecai District, 
starting from Sanchawei, Lingchuan County and reaching Pukou Village, Yangshuo County, with a total 
length of about 90km; and villages in Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County.

Households along the Li River and in Longsheng County dispose liquid and solid sanitary waste directly 
into water bodies as several villages do not have proper sanitation systems. It is necessary to improve 
the sanitation service systems and facilities in these villages to protect the environment.

The ADB together with the Government of Guilin is planning to undertake an analysis of the WASH Sector 
to inform the Government, the ADB, and development partners on policies, strategies, and practices 
designed to improve the quality of WASH services and increase overall human development in Guilin.  The 
main objective of the assignment is to support the preparation of a Feasibility Study (FS), including:

1.	Assessment of the current sanitation service provision and the related institutional setup and 
consider its given land-use planning recommendations in the future; assess baseline sanitation 
conditions in selected target areas to identify immediate, intermediate and long-term improvements 
needed to provide equitable and safe sanitation services for all to the whole population;

2.	Analyze the current institutional setup for the operation and maintenance of current sanitation 
systems; analyze current tariff structures and revenue models and the financial and technical 
sustainability of the institutions that are responsible for the management of the sanitation systems; 
identify and evaluate customized options that take into account current and future realities of the 
land, including social, institutional, technical and financial limitations and opportunities;

3.	Integrate small components on Storm Water and Solid Waste Management (SWM), and provide 
recommendations to related policies as they affect the sanitation systems;

4.	Perform surveys and calculations to determine the volume of fecal sludge and sewage for use in 
designing investment plans taking into account sources, volume and profile of current sludge generation; 
based on the current situation and future projections of the population growth and tourism numbers, 
identify capacity gaps in the sanitation systems. Identify institutional gaps for the project 
preparation and implementation, and strengthen the existing Institutional System by providing Capacity 
Development (CD) to close these gaps;

5.	Develop most appropriate sanitation systems options, whether on-site or off-site, sewered or non-
sewered, centralized or decentralized, with the ultimate goal of increasing coverage of sanitation 
service to reach the last mile;

6.	Identify, evaluate, and recommend appropriate technologies that are suitable for operators’ current 
skills level, present and future volume generation and financing capabilities; provide technical 
information to investment packages that are being developed; and provide advice to the DI on design 
requirements and specifications;

7.	Identify and evaluate possible funding options and financing modalities, including cost recovery 
options;

8.	Review regional and international sanitation management practices, and determine optimal approaches 
for the target area; develop management, disposal and reuse models for sludge and sewage management 
(including containment, transportation, collection, transportation, treatment and reuse) and develop an 
associated action plan for their introduction and implementation; determine potential sludge management 
reuse and disposal pathways under relevant local conditions.

9.	Review relevant sludge management policies and standards and identify opportunities for optimization 
and alignment of standards and legal framework;

10.	Assess needs, develop and conduct training and advocacy activities on sludge management operation in 
project towns;

11.	Identify further CD and policy developments components to be included in the project design.

The Sanitation Systems and Wastewater Management Specialist will work closely with, government agencies 
in Guilin, the DI and the TA team to support the preparation of the projects in drainage, wastewater 
collection and treatment and fecal sludge collection, transport, treatment, disposal, etc., and 
facilitating the participatory development and design of these main outputs. The specialist will assist 
to ensure that cross cutting issues such as the environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and 
gender are integrated into the study and outputs clearly. He/she will coordinate closely with the TA 
team and ensure that all relevant stakeholders are engaged in the development of the FS. The expert will 
study the sanitation systems in the Guilin area including the existing management of wastewater and 
fecal sludge along the whole sanitation service chain, future and projected loads based on population 
growth and tourism, operational problems and thereby propose a suitable new sanitation management system 
with regard to different technical systems, including centralized, decentralized, on-site and Fecal 
Sludge Management to meet the capacity up to 50 years.

The expert is expected to:

• Facilitate and ensure appropriate participation of all counterparts and project stakeholders in the 
development of the wastewater and septage management projects in the FS.

• Ensure, together with the  team and the DI, the deliveries and quality for the FS report by collating 
inputs from other specialists, structuring them and writing as one FS.

• Review capacity (current and planned), demand (current and projected) and service quality in each of 
the priority areas for a time-horizon of up to 50 years.

• Analyze the interconnections of fecal sludge management, sewer systems and open drainage canals in 
order to provide options to collection and treatment, and find solutions for the unsewered areas.

• Support all review and data collection and analysis tasks in the development of the wastewater 
treatment facility projects of the FS.

• Support the design and execution (as appropriate) of surveys to supplement existing data on wastewater 
treatment facilities including sewerage and septage applications. 

• Support all tasks in the development of the FS including the technical, institutional, management, 
social and capacity development aspects. 

• Support the writing of the wastewater management and related aspects of the FS in line with ADB 
reporting standards. 

• Explore the sewerage and septage applications for the target area.

• Provide inputs ADB’s loan processing documents, including a WASH summary sector assessment and project 
performance indicators.

Expected Deliverables are:

A.	Fecal Sludge Flow Diagrams (SFDs)
In line with the principles laid out by the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (https://sfd.susana.org/), 
an SFD should be developed for Guilin that clearly shows the portion of waste that is managed (safely 
and unsafely). In addition to presenting an SFD that shows fecal flows for the entire city, a second SFD 
should be prepared that specifically shows how fecal sludge flows are managed in selected villages in 
Longsheng County, and along the Li river.

B.	Maps of the cities showing level of sanitation service coverage in each area 
To complement the SFDs, for Guilin and selected villages in Longsheng County and along the Li river, a 
geographic map should be prepared that shows access to sanitation services, considering the full 
sanitation service chain. The map will need to show relative coverage levels with different types of 
service for each section of the city/village. It is particularly important to map the type of household 
facilities in use in different parts of the city. If available, locations of existing sewer networks and 
treatment plants should be shown. Household surveying, complemented with other relevant data, will be 
necessary to generate these figures. Additionally, the results of the survey will need to be 
complemented with a small review of household on-site solutions, particularly aimed at assessing the 
extent to which septic tanks are properly designed and functioning.

C.	Stakeholder assessment
This assessment should aim to present a map highlighting key stakeholders and their relationships to one 
another. The assessment should document the range of formal and informal public and private sector 
stakeholders involved in sanitation service delivery (including service providers and users), as well as 
oversight/regulation of these service providers. The stakeholder assessment should also include the 
relationships between different stakeholders and their roles along the different parts of the sanitation 
service chain (again, separated by city, if relevant). The assessment should also map the existence of 
the formal public sector, the formal private sector and informal actors currently involved, and with the 
potential for being involved, in sanitation service delivery, with a focus on their institutional 
structures and the general resources and human resources at their disposal system.

D. Written Reports
To complement the mapping and stakeholder assessment, written reports have to be submitted with the 
schedule in the table. 
The final report will be written to cover the following topics:
•	A summary of the current status of access to WASH facilities at households;
•	Summary of ongoing or recently completed projects on urban sanitation;
•	A summary of other relevant information on the status and quality of existing sanitation service 
coverage in the project area;
•	Financial flows, including: a description of payment systems (how are payments made; who pays; amount 
and frequency; collection mechanisms; financial management of the payment systems; etc.); current costs 
faced by households (split by what fees they face for CAPEX and OPEX for each stage of the service 
chain); and any existing microfinance/loan products available for investing in water supply and/or 
sanitation; 

The assessments should be undertaken in line with Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) principles. To 
that end, special attention will be given to ensuring both sewered and on-site sanitation services are 
included and a range of parts of the city are included (e.g., poor households, informal settlements, 
etc.) 

The final report should also include a full description of the sample frames used, all survey and 
sampling instruments, and a summary of activities completed in developing the report. Reports are to be 
submitted in digital form using Microsoft Word.

Citywide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) Concept. To achieve the SDG 6.2 targets, it is necessary to adopt 
new approaches and to apply alternative sanitation concepts. The CWIS concept aims to provide equitable 
and inclusive sanitation services that address the realities found in developing countries.

CWIS implies the following principles:
i.	everyone, including people living in unserved, low-income, and vulnerable communities, benefits from 
equitable and safe sanitation service delivery outcomes;
ii.	gender and social equity are included in planning, management, and monitoring;
iii.	human wastes are safely managed along the whole sanitation service chain (capture, containment, 
emptying, transport, treatment, and safe reuse or disposal);
iv.	authorities operate with a clear, inclusive mandate, performance targets, resources, and 
accountability;
v.	a diversity of technical solutions is embraced for adaptive, mixed, and incremental approaches that 
include sewered and non-sewered sanitation solutions;
vi.	comprehensive long-term planning fosters demand for innovation and is informed by analysis of needs 
and resources;
vii.	political will and accountability systems provide incentives for service improvements in planning, 
capacity, and leadership; and
viii.	resource recovery and reuse of water, energy, and nutrients are considered (circular economy 
approach).

There is a need to accelerate CWIS in DMCs through

i.	developing holistic, integrated planning and design approaches that consider both sewered and non-
sewered sanitation solutions;
ii.	assessing and developing institutional arrangements to delineate responsibilities and ensure 
ownership and leadership of the government, and develop regulations, policies, and standards that 
address current and emerging trends, and their enforcement;
iii.	determining optimal technical designs utilizing appropriate innovative technologies, resource 
recovery, and information technology applications;
iv.	promoting knowledge sharing with development partners or leading knowledge platforms;
v.	promoting private sector participation in service delivery;
vi.	increasing awareness about the negative impacts of insufficient sanitation services through 
strategic communication campaigns; and
vii.	building awareness at all levels to strengthen the profile of proper sanitation services.