Expertise: Water, sanitation, hygiene, public health, water quality monitoring, surveillance
Expertise Group: Biological Sciences & Ecology
Consultant Source: International
TOR Keywords: Water, sanitation, hygiene, public health, water quality monitoring, surveillance
Objective and Purpose of the Assignment
ADB’s Pacific Department (PARD) provides support to its clients on urban development and improving basic
services through investments, capacity building and knowledge solutions. The Pacific Department’s Urban
Development, Water Supply and Sanitation (PAUW) division requires professional services to provide
support for several projects and initiatives.
This assignment for the Water Safety Planner/ Environmental Health Specialist will be until end of
December 2021, with the potential to extend depending on performance and PAUW’s needs.
Scope of Work
ADB is implementing a regional knowledge and support technical assistance (TA-6551) which aims to
strengthen Pacific developing member countries’ (PDMCs) capacity to prevent disease transmission through
enhanced water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices and the associated enabling environment.
Interventions in the 14 PDMCs will directly address the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic by (i)
improving WASH practices through behavioral change campaigns; and (ii) strengthening the capacity of
WASH service providers and other stakeholders so that WASH improvements will be sustained and expanded.
The Communications Specialist will provide support to the TA-6551 team as required to identify
opportunities to showcase TA activities and outcomes, and to facilitate documentation of lessons,
results and progress.
A foundational aspect of improved WASH service delivery is a well-functioning government-led health
regulatory system that is backed with national standards and compliance programs. The role of public-
and environmental health in WASH cannot be overstated to effectively protect individuals and
communities, and provide the basis for better planning and decision-making on pandemic resilience. WASH
facilities and infrastructure needs to be supplemented with relevant environmental health interventions
to employ a holistic assessment of health needs and priorities and in mitigating potential impacts of
COVID-19 in the Pacific population.
The development of robust water safety plans is an integral activity to support the resilience of water
utilities and other WASH service providers to pandemics and is one activity to be supported by the
Environmental Health Specialist. Water safety plans involve a risk assessment of all of the steps from
catchment to tap in a water system and the implementation and monitoring of controls to manage the
identified risks.
The Specialist will work with the TA-6551 team to provide environmental or public health related inputs
as required across the TA activities. The expert may also develop a general framework and implementation
strategy for the provision of an effective and operational country environmental health service package
to promote better access to safe and secure WASH for communities, schools and health care facilities
by: (i) providing technical advice on health risks and impacts; (ii) delivering programs on risk
management practices for WASH; and (iii) overseeing and strengthening of WASH policies, regulations and
standards to protect public health in the Pacific DMCs.
Detailed Tasks and/or Expected Output
Specific support for TA-6551 on environmental health and including water safety planning will include
the following:
(i) Identify opportunities to facilitate risk assessment and risk management approaches to WASH by
proposing established step-by-step processes that enable robust evaluation of COVID-19 impacts and
related water-borne diseases, natural disasters, long-term climate variability to WASH systems and
practices;
(ii) Provide technical advice in response to PDMCs request to develop or improve surveillance programs,
response services to WASH-related outbreaks or environmental hazards, regulatory standards, and
supporting compliance activities in the sector;
(iii) Assist in the development, review and implementation of water safety plans for water utilities and
service providers, including facilitation and engagement with village-level operators and community
stakeholders;
(iv) Advise utility partners on the relevant water quality needs and issues, review documents upon
request of clients and prepare monitoring templates and sample reports;
(v) Support the preparation of relevant training materials and conduct of capacity building activities
for utility clients and water service providers;
(vi) Contribute to identification of potential investment needs to improve environmental/public health;
(vii) Support the preparation or packaging of related knowledge products, including developing and
rolling out the dissemination of field experiences and lessons learned on environmental health programs
and water safety planning.
Minimum Qualification Requirements
The Environmental Health Specialist will have at least a Bachelor’s degree in water engineering,
environmental health, public health, or a relevant discipline with at least 10 years’ experience in
urban water supply and sanitation operations and at least 3 years WASH sector experience. The Specialist
must have experience working with public utilities and preferably experience working in informal
settlements. Other desirable experience includes facilitation of trainings, preparation of training
materials, working experience in bilateral- and multilateral development bank financed projects, and
implementation of government development programs and projects. Relevant experience in the Pacific
region is preferred and background in gender-related work will be an added advantage.
