Regulatory and compliance input package for the national technical guideline on decentralised wastewater systems, Cambodia. 2026/ESC-03

Terms of Reference

Regulatory and compliance input package, national technical guideline on decentralized wastewater systems, Cambodia. 2026/ESC-03

1. Assignment at a glance

2. Background

Environmental Sanitation Cambodia (ESC) Cambodian non-profit, and non-governmental organization (NGO). ESC has a long-standing partnership with BORDA implement the BMZ-financed project “Decentralized Water and Sanitation Solutions for Small Towns in Cambodia and Laos” (2026–2028).Output 1 of the project requires that a national technical guideline for the gender-responsive and inclusive dissemination of decentralized sanitation solutions is available, formally adopted by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) and integrated into the national wastewater legislation and the corresponding regulatory and planning processes.

The project agreement between BORDA, ESC and MPWT governing this work was approved by the Minister of Public Works and Transport on 20 August 2026. At the request of the General Department of Wastewater Management, ESC held the combined project inception and technical working group formation event on 28 August 2026. The technical working group therefore exists, and its mandate, work plan and calendar are established, before this assignment begins. MPWT has made clear that it regards itself as the owner of the guideline, with ESC in a supporting role. The Ministry has further stated that a guideline alone would not be sufficient for it to act on: it requires detailed instructions, forms and templates — a quality management and compliance apparatus — that departments and provincial offices can use directly.

Two substantive issues have been identified in project preparation. First, Cambodian effluent standards are becoming more stringent, and conventional decentralized treatment cannot meet nutrient standards without an additional treatment step, which has implications for what a guideline can require and where. Second, compliance monitoring and enforcement for privately operated decentralized systems is weak, which undermines operation and maintenance, self-monitoring and operator training, and leaves the associated environmental and public health risks unmanaged. A technical guideline that is not accompanied by workable compliance arrangements is unlikely to change practice.

Decentralized systems serve residential compounds, commercial premises, public institutions and industry across the country, and are a necessary part of service delivery wherever centralized sewerage is absent. The regulatory framework is developing, which creates an opportunity to translate national requirements into practical compliance arrangements while the guideline is still being drafted.

3. Objective, and what this assignment is not

The objective is to provide ESC and the MPWT technical working group with the regulatory foundation, the practical compliance instruments and the development roadmap needed for the national technical guideline on decentralised wastewater systems, and to build the capacity of the ESC team to lead the stakeholder process themselves.

This assignment does not draft the technical guideline. The guideline is drafted by ESC and validated by the MPWT technical working group. Offers proposing to author the guideline will not be considered. The consultant supplies the regulatory baseline, the compliance and monitoring instruments, the facilitation input and the roadmap, and coaches the team; the drafting, the ownership and the relationship with the Ministry remain with ESC and MPWT.

Institutional framing. ESC is the implementing partner and the counterpart to MPWT. ESC is the contracting party and the signatory to the ministerial agreement. All outputs, presentations and correspondence must reflect this: the consultant supports ESC leads towards the Ministry.

4. Scope of services

Work Package 1 — Desk review of the Cambodian framework (home-based)

Review Cambodia’s legal, institutional and procedural framework for decentralized wastewater systems, covering permitting and approval, effluent standards, self-monitoring and reporting duties, compliance inspection, enforcement and sanctions, and the role of accredited environmental laboratories. Bidders should note that the applicable instruments include the law on wastewater management and the relevant sub-decrees; the consultant is expected to verify the current status, numbering and content of all instruments cited, including any amendments, at inception.

• Map responsibilities, capacity and actual workflows across the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Ministry of Environment, sub-national administrations, system owners, operators and laboratories, identifying where mandates overlap, where they are silent, and where procedures exist on paper but not in practice.
• Identify what the technical guideline must contain in order to be enforceable under the current framework, and what would instead require regulatory change. Where this conflicts with the outline direction agreed by the technical working group in August 2026, the conflict is to be stated plainly with a recommendation, not resolved unilaterally.
• Assess the existing MPWT guideline on faecal sludge management using drying beds, and the updated DEWATS quality management system for Cambodia, as source material — stating what can be carried over, what must be updated and what is missing.

Output: a drafted regulatory baseline section, written so that ESC can insert it into the guideline as a chapter, together with a gap table listing each identified gap, its consequence and the recommended treatment.

Work Package 2 — Regional benchmarking (home-based)

Benchmark compliance-monitoring arrangements for decentralized and privately operated wastewater systems in Cambodia against two comparator countries in the ASEAN region, to be proposed and justified at inception. The benchmarking must be selective and applied: the test is not what is most advanced but what is transferable to Cambodia at Cambodian levels of administrative capacity and cost.

• For each comparator: the compliance instrument used, who monitors, at what frequency, at whose cost, what is done when a system fails, and what evidence exists that the arrangement works.
• A transferability assessment for each practice, stating the preconditions it would require in Cambodia.

Output: a benchmarking note, and a set of draft compliance and self-monitoring procedures with the accompanying forms and templates — inspection checklist, self-monitoring record, reporting form, non-compliance notice and follow-up procedure — in a form MPWT departments and provincial offices could use directly. This set constitutes the quality management component the Ministry has requested.

Work Package 3 — Stakeholder engagement and coaching in Cambodia (one mission)

One mission to Cambodia of a maximum of six working days on site, in November or December 2026, delivering:

1. Facilitation of the technical working group through its first substantive working session on the structure and content of the guideline, presenting the findings of Work Packages 1 and 2 as the input to that session. The working group is convened and hosted by MPWT with ESC; the consultant provides technical input and facilitation, not ownership.
2. A session at the fourth-quarter meeting of the CamSan sanitation practitioner network, presenting the compliance findings and drawing out practitioner experience of what is and is not enforced in practice.
3. Coaching of the ESC team in preparing, facilitating and following up engagements of this kind, so that the process continues without external support. A short written facilitation guide for the team, covering preparation, agenda design, facilitation of a technical working group, and documentation of outcomes, is part of this deliverable.

Sequencing. The technical working group was formed at the inception event of 28 August 2026, before this call closed. The consultant is therefore not engaged for the formation event, and is not asked to propose a competing structure for the guideline. Instead this mission delivers the working group’s first substantive session on content, at which the regulatory baseline and the draft compliance instruments are tabled, building on whatever outline direction the working group agreed in August. Dates are fixed jointly at inception, in coordination with MPWT and with the CamSan fourth-quarter meeting so that one journey serves both.

Bidders must price Work Package 3 as a separately identifiable amount, so that it can be adjusted if MPWT scheduling requires it.

Work Package 4 — Guideline development roadmap and advocacy note (home-based)

Convert the findings of Work Packages 1 to 3 into a stepwise roadmap for completing and adopting the guideline over 2027 and 2028. The roadmap must contain:

• A chapter-by-chapter content plan for the guideline, identifying for each chapter who drafts it, who validates it, and by when.
• An explicit statement of which chapters or annexes are to be drafted in-house by ESC, and which require external technical input in 2027, with the indicative number of expert days and cost for each — so that the requirement can be entered into the 2027 activity and budget plan.
• The pathway to formal adoption by MPWT and to integration into the national wastewater legislation and the relevant sub-decrees, with the decision points, the responsible offices and the realistic time required at each step.
• A distinction between short-term measures that can begin under the current framework and medium-term regulatory or institutional reforms.
• A short advocacy note, of no more than four pages, usable by ESC in national dialogue, including with the national sector working group.

Cross-cutting requirement — gender and social inclusion

The project logical framework requires that the guideline be gender-responsive and inclusive. This is not satisfied by a paragraph of general language, and the assignment must address it in substance:

• In the analysis: how compliance and monitoring arrangements affect women, poor households and residents of informal and indigenous settlements differently — for example the affordability of mandatory desludging, who is held liable for a non-compliant shared facility, and whose complaints are in practice acted on. Recommendations must follow from this.
• In the instruments: the forms and procedures developed under Work Package 2 must not create requirements that are unaffordable or unenforceable for low-income households, and must record enough information for inequitable outcomes to become visible.
• In the engagement: practical measures to raise women’s participation in the events under Work Package 3. It is recognised that departments in the public works sector are predominantly male and that the government pool alone will not produce balanced participation; the response is therefore to widen the pool — inviting women from the CamSan network, academia, environmental laboratories and the private sector — and to state the request for women participants explicitly in invitation letters. Participation is to be reported disaggregated by sex, with a short written explanation of the figure achieved and of the measures taken. An honest, documented shortfall is acceptable; an undocumented one is not.

Bidders must state in their technical offer how they will meet this requirement.

5. Deliverables and payment schedule

Three instalments, per ESC policy for assignments of EUR 5,000 and above. The inception note is a quality milestone and is not separately paid. All deliverables must be accepted and invoiced before 31 December 2026. No deliverable may be dated retroactively.

Public holidays. Bidders must account for Cambodian public holidays in their work plans. Several fall in October 2026, and the Water Festival in November 2026 is a multi-day national holiday during which government offices and partner staff are largely unavailable. Work plans that assume continuous availability through October and November will be treated as unrealistic at evaluation.

All deliverables must be accepted and invoiced before 31 December 2026. No deliverable may be dated retroactively.

6. Budget and cost breakdown

The maximum budget is USD 13,200, all-inclusive. The financial offer must itemise:

• Professional fees, as number of days per work package multiplied by the daily rate, with the daily rate stated.
• International travel to and from Cambodia.
• Accommodation and subsistence for the mission.
• Domestic travel and any other reimbursable costs.
• Work Package 3 shown as a separately identifiable subtotal, so that it can be descoped under the contingency in section 4 if required.

International flights are included in the all-inclusive price and are booked by the consultant. The consultant must provide boarding passes, accommodation invoices and a daily travel report for the project file, and subsistence must be quoted at or below BMZ rates. Should ESC determine that BMZ rules require the flight to be booked through a contracted travel agency, the quoted flight amount is deducted from the contract sum and the flight is arranged accordingly; bidders should quote on the assumption that either route may apply.

7. Required qualifications

Essential

• At least ten years of professional experience in wastewater or sanitation regulation, policy or compliance.
• Demonstrated experience drafting or advising on national-level technical guidelines, standards, regulations or ministerial instruments in a low- or middle-income country, evidenced by at least two assignments in which the applicant held a substantive role.
• Technical knowledge of decentralised and on-site wastewater systems, including their operation, monitoring and effluent performance.
• Demonstrated facilitation and capacity-transfer experience: coaching a partner team is a deliverable of this assignment, not an incidental benefit.
• Professional experience in the ASEAN or Mekong region.
• Availability to travel to Cambodia for one mission in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Advantageous

• Prior experience in Cambodia, and familiarity with MPWT and Ministry of Environment procedures.
• Experience with quality management systems, inspection regimes or laboratory accreditation in the water sector.
• Experience of national open consultation processes for technical guidelines.

8. Content of the offer

Offers must be submitted in English and must contain the following. Incomplete offers may be excluded from evaluation.

• Technical offer (max. 4 pages): understanding of the assignment, proposed methodology, work plan with indicative dates per deliverable, and named team members with their role and days.
• CV(s) (max. 4 pages per expert), highlighting the experience relevant to the qualification requirements in section 6.
• Two reference assignments of comparable nature completed in the last five years, each with client name and a contactable reference person.
• Financial offer in USD, showing the daily fee rate, the number of days per work package, and all reimbursable costs itemised separately. The offer must state the total price inclusive of all taxes, duties and charges.
• Proposed comparator countries for Work Package 2, with a short justification of why each is transferable to the Cambodian context.
• Statement on gender and social inclusion setting out how the requirement in section 4 will be met in the analysis, the instruments and the engagement.
• Work Package 3 priced separately within the financial offer, including the travel element, so that the contingency in section 4 can be applied if required.
• For companies and firms: registration and legal documents — certificate of registration or incorporation, tax identification number, and a valid tax patent or equivalent where applicable. These are required with the offer, not after award, so that evaluation is not held up. Individual experts submit a curriculum vitae and do not need company documents.
• Confirmation of availability for the contract period stated in section 1.
• Signed declaration of (i) no conflict of interest in relation to ESC, the partner organization, or the institutions covered by the assignment, and (ii) acceptance of ESC’s child protection and safeguarding policy.

9. Evaluation of offers

Offers are assessed by an evaluation panel of at least three persons from the ESC and the partner organization. Scoring is 70 points technical and 30 points financial. The lowest compliant financial offer receives the full 30 points; other offers receive points in proportion (lowest price ÷ offer price × 30). The offer with the highest total score is recommended for award.

10. Contractual and administrative conditions

• Contract type: short-term expert consultancy contract with the contracting party named in section 1, under its partner contract with ESC. The maximum contractual duration for short-term experts is three months; the contract period in section 1 may not be extended beyond that limit.
• Payment: in instalments against deliverables accepted by the ESC, as set out in section 4. Payment is made by the contracting party within 30 days of receipt of a correct invoice and written acceptance of the corresponding deliverable. All deliverables must be accepted before 31 December 2026; no deliverable may be dated retroactively.
• Language: all deliverables in English. Presentation material for the MPWT event may be required in Khmer; translation is arranged by ESC and is not part of this assignment.
• Ownership and publication: all outputs, data and underlying working files are the property of ESC and the partner organization named in section 1. The consultant grants the right to publish, adapt and disseminate the outputs, including on the SuSan A knowledge platform and in ESC case studies, with due attribution of authorship.
• Confidentiality and data protection: the consultant shall treat all information received as confidential and shall handle personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law. Data from focus group discussions and interviews may not be published in a form that identifies individuals.
• Safeguarding: the consultant is bound by ESC’s child protection and safeguarding policy, which applies to the contracting party through its partner contract with ESC. and forms part of this contract.
• Procurement: this assignment is awarded by the contracting party following an open call for offers under BMZ procurement rules. The contracting party, in agreement with the ESC, reserves the right not to award the assignment, to award part of the scope, or to request clarification of offers. Costs of preparing an offer are not reimbursed. Offers remain valid for 60 days.
• Travel: One mission to Cambodia, maximum six working days on site, priced within the all-inclusive maximum budget. Flights are booked by the consultant unless the BMZ travel-agency route applies, as set out in section 6. Subsistence at or below BMZ rates, evidenced by boarding passes, accommodation invoices and a daily travel report.
• Independence and conflict of interest: the consultant must disclose any financial, employment or advisory relationship with ESC, the partner organisation, or any institution covered by the assignment. Any relationship that could give rise to a conflict of interest must be disclosed before contracting.

11. Submission

Offers are to be submitted by e-mail, in PDF, with the subject line “2026/ESC-03 – Offer”, to:

Vira Riel, Project Manager, Environmental Sanitation Cambodia — vira@esc-cambodia.org

Deadline: 25 September 2026, 17:00 ICT. Questions of clarification may be submitted to the same addresses up to four working days before the deadline; answers are shared with all bidders who have registered their interest.

This assignment is financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the project “Decentralised Water and Sanitation Solutions for Small Towns in Cambodia and Laos” (2026–2028).