Oxfam Consultancy Opportunity for Water Supply Scheme Topographical Survey in Lodwar Kenya

Consultancy: Topographical Survey of Lodwar Water and Sewerage Company Water Supply Scheme Ref: INT0825

Oxfam together with other 5 partners have been contracted by DFID to fast track the attainment of MDG goal on sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation under the WASH Results Program. 

This project focuses across the three largest arid and semi arid Counties of Northern Kenya (Turkana, Marsabit and Wajir) and at least three informal settlements (slums) of Nairobi (Dandora, Kawangare and Mukuru). Under this project, Oxfam together with the SWIFT consortium partners, we intend to work closely with County Governments and also water service providers in the design and implementation of infrastructural works.
It is with these regards that Oxfam is partnering with Turkana County Government towards supporting Lodwar Water and Sewerage Company (LOWASCO) to improve access to water to the residents of Lodwar town. Our target is to contribute to improving access and reliability of water supply in Lodwar town.

In order to make informed infrastructure development/improvement decisions, water utility companies do require diverse information on an ongoing basis. A lot of this information need to be geographically referenced not only to stay up to date but also make use of modern design and management software for instance ArcGIS, AutoCAD, WaterCAD, Surfer, EPANET etc.

With geo-referenced water distribution network, the system can be simulated and analysed using these software.

In turn it can help trouble shoot areas with low or pressure problems, areas that are least covered, service levels in different supply zones, proximity to storage facilities and subsequent effect, help in informing where to place zonal meters and thus reducing the unaccounted for water etc.

This information also will help form the baseline database from which improvement decisions will be pegged upon. This will be helpful especially in phased improvement/development.

With the mapping of Individual connections (ICs) and other consumers (commercial and institutions), this can be integrated with the billing software at a later stage and hence improve the current billing system.

Overall this undertaking will enable all stakeholders better understand what infrastructure exists and its condition, demand  needs, supply constraints and opportunities for improvement.

LOWASCO Summary: Lodwar Water and Sanitation Company Ltd (LOWASCO) is a corporate entity that was established in 2007 under the Companies Act, Cap 286 Laws of Kenya. The core business of LOWASCO is the provision of efficient and affordable water and sanitation services to the residents of its area of jurisdiction as defined in the Service Provision Agreement (SPA). LOWASCO serves approximately 28,000 persons though the population within the area of supply is 116,580 persons.The Company has 8 operational boreholes that are located along River Turkwel, 7 No. Boreholes are electrically driven while 1 No. Borehole is Solar powered.Production is on average 100,000m3/month.LOWASCO has 1,600m3 of storage capacity.The reticulation system has approximately 170km of pipeline ranging from 32mm to 200mm both GI and uPVC.The reticulation system is divided into two zones and 8 sub-zones.It has 32 water kiosks and 4,700 Individual Connections (ICs). Only 28 kiosks are functioning at the moment.LOWASCO serves both the commercial customers and institutions besides the ICs.To survey and produce a topographical map of the LOWASCO water distribution network including the location of all infrastructure i.e. BH, pipeline routes (size, class and lengths, road crossings etc), storage facilities, water kiosks, air valves, gate valves, washouts, boundary of supply zones, proposed pipe extensions and any other assignment that will be agreed upon.Deliver the survey data in formats that Oxfam/LOWASCO can be able to utilise (data should be opened preferably with Microsoft office suite and other reliable open source applications).The map should be multi layered.Oxfam/LOWASCO intend to map all individual connections, this information should be also be mapped alongside the information listed in No. 1 above.Deliver all data in both hardcopy and softcopy (survey data, pipeline profiles and maps). This information has to be validated in a workshop and approved by government.Location: The project area is Lodwar town in Turkana County.
 Closing Date: 11 September 2014