WATER QUALITY AND LABORATORY ADVISOR

About JSB-MIDA

The JSB-MIDA project is a Government of Japan -IOM joint initiative that aims to facilitate the transfer of skills, competencies and knowledge of qualified Somali expatriates to specific institutions within Somalia. Department of water, Ministry of Energy and Water Resources will host the qualified Somali expert, and will be responsible for the safety of the expert at working environment. JSB-MIDA will monitor the expatriate while on assignment.

About Somalia:

Somalia is located in the easternmost Somalia Peninsula on the African continent, bordering on the Indian Ocean in the east and the Gulf of Aden in the north with Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti at its junction. Its coastline is 3333.3 kilometers. The eastern coastal area is a plain with sand dunes along the coast; the tidewater of the Gulf of Aden is Jiban plain; the middle part is Somalia highland with its elevation declining from north to the south and southeast from 500 to 1,500 meters; the northern part is mountainous; the landform in the southwest part is prairie, semi-desert and desert. The Surad Mountain is the highest peak with an altitude of 2, 400 meters. There are two major rivers: Shabeelle River and Juba River. Most regions belong to subtropical and tropical desert climates and the southwest region belongs to tropical savanna climate with high temperature, dry and rainless weather all the year round. The annual precipitation declines gradually from 500-600mm to below 100. Deserts, semi-deserts and tropical grasslands spread out in this country.
The area of Somalia is 637, 660 square kilometers, of which the land area is 627, 340 square kilometers and the water area is 10, 320 square kilometers.

As the capital, Mogadishu is located in the south of Somalia bordering on the Indian Ocean, in northern latitude of 24 and east longitude of 4522, and it is the easternmost city in African continent. As a main river in Somalia, Shabeelle River takes a sharp turning to run in the direction parallel to the coastline when passing suburbs of Mogadishu 30 kilometers away from coastline of the Indian Ocean and then converge into the sea in the swamp area in the north of R.Juba river mouth after spreading for 320 kilometers. Every year when the country enters its dry season in February and March, Shabelle River becomes dry completely without water and Juba River becomes a tidal flat wetland.

About Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Energy and Water Resources

The department of water which is part of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources has no enough skilled professional staff. Due to lack of such staff, there is irregular and unpredictable water management. The Water Protocol is currently under Federal Government to debate and will lay down clear objectives for water management practices and will set out the responsibilities of the various institutions. This will promote the rational management of Somalias water resources, on a long term and build capacity for staff of water quality division in preparedness for the optimum development, use, conservation and protection of surface and groundwater. Further there is need to have a National and Technical Water Committee to ensure the development of the employees of water resources. Particularly staff of national laboratory to ensure that the staff can handle all about water analysis.

Based on the discussions between IOM and Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, Federal Government of Somalia has observed that Department of Water needs water quality advisor who can provide knowledge and build capacity to strengthen the water quality division. This will ensure that the section carries out water quality testing and develops the skills of the staff. In order to manage water quality and establish sustainable water quality standard, Department of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources capacity building for water quality analysis is paramount. Qualified staff will Assist and advice water quality division, specification and standardized methodologies of water quality standard and technical procedure manuals, including laboratory safety, water sampling in both ground and surface water, Data collection, data analysis and interpretation and also assist in the formulation of National Water Safety Plan of hall country and Strategy in consultation with the relevant stakeholders.

Based on this background, the Department of Water, Ministry of Energy and Water Resource is seeking a qualified candidate for the development of staff skills at the water quality division.
The expert will also provide technical support to the Department in relation to WASH programme. MIDA participant will be based in Mogadishu and will report to the Director General of Department of water.

Under the guidance of General Director, Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, the expert will be responsible for the following duties and responsibilities:

Provide management at the Department of water, strategic guidance and technical advice on water resources and quality monitoring.

Provide technical oversight on the challenges of water quality in Somalia and way forward

Assist and advice on standardized methodologies for testing water and development of training manual
Coordinate the development of strategic plan for water safety in Somalia in consultation with relevant stakeholders.
Participate in WASH and related sectorial coordination meetings on behalf of the Department of water and to advice on the implementation of WASH policies
Organize and conduct a national workshop on development of draft water quality policy and regulations and interaction between surface and ground water quality in Somalia
Coordinate and design water quality monitoring system and operational framework in collaboration with management and relevant stakeholders.
Establish and maintain strong partnership with line ministries and other water sector members; promoting dialogue, information sharing and cooperation among government and non-government actors
Develop strategy to improve water supply services in both urban and rural areas

Perform related duties as assigned

1.Develop guidelines for training on water quality testing and laboratory safety.
2.Train the staff of the Department of Water resources on waste water treatment and pollution control in urban and rural areas
3.Develop standards on water quality and testing on both ground and surface water
4.Develop strategic plan for the WASH

Besides the specific outputs mentioned in section IV, JSB-MIDA is requiring the following steps/actions to be undertaken throughout the assignment. These are standard requirements for all assignments undertaken through this project:

1.Transfer of skills: One of the main responsibilities of the qualified Somali expatriate, and one which he/she will be measured against, will be to ensure continuous and systematic transfer of knowledge and skills as related to the assignment. It will have to be agreed with the beneficiary institution which civil servants will have to benefit from this knowledge.
2.Work plan: A work plan will have to be developed with the Supervisor during the first week of assignment which will provide clear and time bound activities to successfully implement the outputs of the assignment. This work plan will be shared with the JSB-MIDA Project team. This work plan can be revised during the mid-term review to reflect new developments or changes in strategy.
3.Mid Term Review: there will be a mid-term review of the assignment between the incumbent and the beneficiary institution to discuss progress of the assignment and feedback on performance.
4.Interim and Final Reports: A progress report will be submitted by the incumbent to the Supervisor and to the JSB-MIDA Project Assistant. Thereafter a final report will be provided at the end of assignment.

Level of education: Masters degree in Analytical Chemistry

Area of study: Water quality assessment , Environmental pollution assessment, Water safety plan, Instrumentation for analysis, water chemistry

Years of work experience in that area: 4 years post graduate progressive experience including water management, water quality assessment and environmental impact assessment

Language needed: English, Arabic and Somali

General skills / other requirements: Computer skills. Strong interpersonal management, team player, dependable, stress tolerance and good planner and organizational skills.

Stipend commensurate with degree and experience

Health insurance, including evacuation due to medical emergency, will be provided by the project. However, experts will be requested to provide a recent medical certificate stating that they are physically well and apt to work in a hardship area in Africa.
Please note that IOM, according to the contract, will be not be responsible for the security of the qualified Somali expatriates. The host beneficiary institution will be responsible for the security of the individual.
Before leaving the country of residence and upon arrival in Nairobi or in Somalia, the qualified Somali expatriate will receive a pre-departure briefing including security advice and cultural background.

All applicants must apply online through the QUESTS-MIDA website. To start the application process, the applicants are required to register an account with the QUESTS-MIDA website. Go to login and register as a user, then fill the form and create a password to enter in the applications section. Fill in the 1-page online application form.
Send your Resume/CV to quests-mida@iom.int. Stating the position in the subject line of your email. Only Short-listed candidates will be informed of the status of their application.