Consultancy – Design of solar powered borehole in Sinjar district, Ninewa governorate, Iraq

I. Background & justification

Terre des Hommes (Tdh) is a leading Swiss child protection Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and has been present in Iraq since 2014. Throughout the last seven years, Tdh has scaled its programming to 12 districts in Anbar , Duhok , Kirkuk, Ninewa, Baghdad, and Salah al-Din governorates, providing assistance in Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM), Child Protection (CP), Juvenile Justice, Education, and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH). With the support of implementing partners, Tdh further operates in additional districts in its key governorates of intervention, as well as in two districts in Diyala Governorate. With over seven years of experience in Iraq, Tdh has set up an effective management structure headed by an international Country Representative, supported by a senior management team, stationed in Erbil, Baghdad, and each of the field offices. Tdh maintains field offices in Talafar District in Ninewa, in Anah district in western Anbar, in Shirqat district in Salah al-Din, in Kirkuk district in Kirkuk, and in Baghdad, with a full team on each base. Tdh is well known in the national humanitarian network and participates in coordination structures in all governorates of intervention. Tdh also regularly coordinates with Mukhtars, school headmasters, Directorates of Education, Water and Justice (DoE, DoW and DoJ), and other community leaders, to ensure information sharing and coordination.

Tdh WASH intervention supports the restoration of safe water supply through the rehabilitation of water supply infrastructures, including water treatment plants, water networks, and boreholes, as well as the rehabilitation of water supply facilities at schools and at healthcare facilities. In order to ensure the durability of the rehabilitation and sustained operation of the water supply infrastructure, Tdh’s WASH team also trains DoW operators in the appropriate operation of the facilities rehabilitated. All rehabilitation work aims at restoring the targeted water supply infrastructures to their planned operational capacity from prior to the conflict, so that they can easily be handed over to and sustainably maintained by local authorities, as opposed to introducing new technology and capacities. Moreover, Tdh comprehensively rehabilitated the WASH facilities at schools and at healthcare centers, including the rehabilitation of latrines and assistance for waste management activities. Furthermore, Tdh carries out school hygiene promotion sessions for children, hygiene promotion trainings for teachers and staff members to reinforce proper hygiene behavior in children, and door-to-door hygiene promotion sessions for households in the communities targeted by water supply infrastructure rehabilitation activities.

Though a 2 years funding from the Swiss agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC), Tdh has decided to focus on rural areas of Sinjar and Talafar where the overall access to safe water, sanitation, and related services is lower. In these rural areas there are depopulated villages with immediate needs for rehabilitation of local water supply infrastructure, household and institutional sanitation, and improved hygiene practices. Due to their current low population these villages are less likely to be prioritized for assistance. However, as mentioned, lack of access to basic needs and essential services, such as water, are also some of the key factors preventing returns according to several IOM-led returns assessments conducted with displaced populations. This was also clearly evidenced in the conversations that Tdh’s teams had with local stakeholders in its Needs Assessment. Tdh will collaborate with IOM to get gender disaggregated data from their continuous returnees’ assessment.

In Sinjar District and more remote rural areas of Talafar (Ninewa Governorate) the main source of water is from boreholes while the water source to the water networks system in Talafar city is the water treatment plan. Before the conflict, communal boreholes were drilled and maintained by the Directorate of Water (DoW), connected to chlorination systems and overhead water storage tanks, and then distributed by gravity through the water networks to households. However, during the conflict, many communal boreholes and water supply infrastructure were damaged by military operations. Most of the communal boreholes assessed are of low-quality construction, without slabs or sanitary seals, increasingly the vulnerability to contamination. In villages with no water network connections or functional communal boreholes, households have small boreholes within the household property. These are typically 20-25 meters deep (compared to depths of 100-200 meters for communal boreholes) and are also poorly constructed. According to the Tdh WASH team, the rock type in the area is highly permeable, further increasing the likelihood of contamination of unprotected boreholes.

Many villages in Sinjar District currently have no functional water network connecting households to boreholes or even borehole not operating / not operating well enough.

To respond to the need of having functioning borehole providing good quality and quantity of drinking water Tdh is willing to rehabilitate one borehole equipped with solar powered system in Kharab Bajar village, Sinjar district. The mentioned borehole has a depth of 200 meters and is currently providing water but depend on uncertain electricity availability (average 4 hours per day). To ensure the proper operation and sustainability of the borehole the water infrastructure will be supplied in electricity (with triple power supply option) primary by public power line as the main source of electricity, secondary a solar system, and third equipped with a generator as power supply alternative.

II. Object of the consultancy

The main objective of the current required service is to develop the design of the solar system for the borehole in Kharab Bajar village, including a technical assessment, photovoltaic panel diagram and installation diagrams as well as a listed description of all required components of the system.

III. Final deliverables

• Design report of the photovoltaic system with specification

• Photovoltaic panel diagram and installation diagrams

• List of all items and component of the solar system with supply, installation and site labor estimated cost (solar cells panels, solar pump Grundfos ,Lowara , Pentax or equivalent, solar pump inverter, combiner box, cables, wires, structure for the solar panels and concrete base and other items as applicable…)

• Proposition / suggestion of skilled companies able to implement the work site

IV. Key competencies and qualifications of the service provider

• Strong experience in solar system powered development with a focus on borehole and water supply.

• Ability to work independently and respond to feedback in a timely and professional manner.

• Priority will be given to a consultant of Iraqi nationality.

V. Contract arrangements

• The service provision timeline is estimated at a total of no more than 5 working days from the date of receiving the request for implementation from Tdh.

• The offer should include the cost of one unit.

• Payment of consultancy fees will be done as follows:

• 100 % upon completion and validation of all deliverables.