Country: Uganda
Closing date: 14 Jan 2020
1. Introduction
The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) is a partnership of the 10 Nile Basin riparian states with a shared vision objective to promote sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of and benefit from the shared Nile Basin water resources. NBI has three programs, namely, the Basin-Wide Program implemented by the NBI Secretariat located in Entebbe, Uganda, the Eastern Nile Subsidiary Action Program (ENSAP) implemented by the Eastern Nile Technical Regional Office (ENTRO) located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program (NELSAP) implemented by NELSAP Coordination Unit located in Kigali, Rwanda.
The ENSAP and NELSAP focus on preparation and implementation facilitation of investments in water infrastructure in the Eastern Nile sub-basins and the Nile Equatorial Lakes sub-basins, respectively. The Basin-Wide Program has a geographic scope of the entire Nile Basin and focuses on facilitating the dialogue among the riparian countries, carrying out analytic work (such as strategic water resources analysis) to inform the dialogue, formulation of transboundary policies, strengthening basin monitoring and data sharing and capacity development for cooperative water resources management.
2. Background
Inland water navigation is an important economic activity for the Nile riparian countries. A number of river reaches and in-land water bodies in the Nile Basin are navigable. Examples include: Lake Victoria, the White Nile between Malakal (South Sudan and Khartoum), Baro-Sobat River between Gambella (in Ethiopia) and Malakal (South Sudan), Lake Tana in Ethiopia, to name few. It is believed that Navigation will continue to play key role in inter-connecting the Nile Basin countries. However, the water requirements of this sector and how it impacts or will be impacted by water resources management and development in the Nile Basin needs to be examined to ensure sustainable development of river and lake navigation in the Nile Basin.
Results of the strategic water resources analysis carried out by the Nile-SEC show substantial growth in water infrastructure and consumptive water use in the coming three decades. While contributing towards water, food and energy security in the Nile Basin, these developments also have impacts on the hydrology of the Nile Basin, which will affect future use of rivers and lakes for navigation.
Therefore, integrating river/lake navigation water requirement in the analysis is expected to provide complete picture on trade-offs between key sectors of water use, including navigation.
To support the on-going strategic water resources analysis, the Nile-Sec intends to employ the services of an individual consultant (Inland water Navigation expert) to carry out River navigation and scenarios of water resources use and impacts study.
3. Objective
The overall objective of the study is to inform the dialogue on options for enhancing river navigation under scenarios of cooperative future water resources management/development in the Nile Basin
The specific objectives of the assignment are:
i) To enable water requirements of navigation to be modelled in the NB DSS in order to assess impacts of future development options on current and future navigation use of the Nile water system.
ii) To capture of NBI countries’ navigation plans in NBI strategic water resources analysis;
4. Study approach
The study comprises of collecting and analysing navigation related data and modelling the current and possible future scenarios of navigation in the Nile Basin. All modelling work shall be carried out in-house at the Nile Sec. The services of an individual consultant shall be employed for specialised inputs in collection of relevant data, generation of water requirements and scenarios; and interpretation of final results.
5. Scope of work
The scope of work shall include baseline assessment, identification of inland water navigation requirements, and assessment of national plans and development of scenarios
The tasks required to include, but not limited to, the following:
Task 1: Baseline Situation assessment
This task should be carried out to obtain the baseline condition of navigational use of the Nile water resources. The assessment should include
· Identify reaches, lakes and other water bodies that are being used for navigation in the river Nile system and list characteristics which are relevant to navigational requirement (including cross section characteristics , currents, tidal and/or river (velocity, direction, and duration); bottlenecks, etc.)
· Description of the current river/lake/wetland navigation system and classification (by river stretches; by vessel types/classes and fleet composition; volume of cargo transported over past 20 years or so;
· List of major harbors and they key characteristics
· Submit Current Situation report
Task 2: Identification of key requirements
This task should outline requirement for the various navigable inland water bodies identified in Task 1 by
· The cross-Section (water level, depth, width); currents, tidal and/or river (velocity, direction, and duration); alignment and configuration (bends, bridge, power line crossings etc..). The requirements shall be prepared for each segment (reach of a river or region of a lake) linked to cross-section of river monitoring stations.
· Prepare a table of required parameters as a function of vessel types as input for calculation indicators in the NB DSS;
· Submit interim note on key requirements tables
Task 3: Assessment of National plans
· Conduct assessment of National plans for river/lake navigation and summarize Task 4: scenario development of future navigation expansions with particular focus on navigation of transboundary river/lakes. For each scenario, detailed specifications of requirements will be provided
6. Minimum qualifications and experience
The expert should meet the following academic and expertise as a minimum:
· An MSC or equivalent degree in Transport Engineering, integrated water resources management or related fields.
· Demonstrated experience in transport assessment and transport economics on river transport particularly in developing countries
· A minimum of 10 years of work experience out of which about 7 years should be after the Masters Degree and related to the assignment
· Proven experience in technical writing.
Details of assignment can be found in the assignment ToRs which can be downloaded from http://nilebasin.org under opportunities/ consultancies section
How to apply:
Qualified candidates are requested to submit a proposal indicating both technical & financial viability to: Executive Director, Nile Basin Initiative Secretariat
Email:watervacancy@nilebasin.org: Closing date: January 14, 2020.