Objectives

The primary objective of this tender is to appoint a professional service provider (PSP) to develop, review, and update strategies that reconcile water availability and water requirements for all towns and settlements within WMA 5: Mzimvubu to Tsitsikamma. The study aims to systematically update water resource reconciliation strategies to ensure they remain relevant, technically sound, economically viable, socially acceptable, and capable of providing future water security over a planning horizon of at least 30 years.

Scope

The scope of work covers a 36-month period and includes:

• Comprehensive review and update of existing ATRS in the Mzimvubu Tsitsikamma WMA.
• Projection of future water requirements over at least 30 years.
• Assessment of current water situations for towns and settlements.
• Identification of interventions to address water deficits.
• Development of water resource balances for primary catchments and tertiary regions under current and future scenarios.
• Assessment of groundwater options, including availability, private use, costs, and operational rules.
• Improvement of cost estimates for interventions and determination of URVs for comparison.
• Review and update of existing WCWDM plans.
• Compilation of standalone ATRS reports for the study area.
• Support for stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and training.
• Provision of technical, scientific, and management support to the Department and Study Steering Committee.

Technical Requirements

The PSP must demonstrate:

• Proven experience in water resources planning, hydrology, and infrastructure costing.
• Expertise in developing water requirement scenarios across water sectors.
• Experience with water resource modeling tools such as WRYM and WRPM.
• Ability to conduct hydro-censuses and hydrogeological assessments.
• Knowledge of climate change impacts, water quality, and environmental considerations.
• Capacity to produce detailed reports, dashboards, and data management systems.
• Skills in stakeholder management, capacity building, and training.

Skills Requirements

The successful bidder must have:

• Experienced water resources planning specialists, hydrologists, hydrogeologists, environmentalists, and stakeholder engagement experts.
• Personnel with relevant educational qualifications and extensive experience in water resource studies in South Africa.
• Proven ability to set up and operate water resource models and decision support tools.
• Strong project management and reporting skills.
• Capacity to facilitate stakeholder engagement and capacity building activities.
• Technical support staff with expertise in GIS, data analysis, and modeling tools.