Nepal : Prevention and Control of COVID-19 through WASH and Health initiatives in Secondary and Small Towns

Health / Disease control of communicable disease

Water and other urban infrastructure and services / Urban policy, institutional and capacity development - Urban sanitation

COVID-19 in Nepal. Cities have been experiencing unprecedented urban issues and challenges that have been further aggravated by COVID-19. This situation holds true for Nepal cites and calls for new responses from novel perspectives. Nepal had 595,364 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 8,098 deaths as of 8 June 2021. On 10 May, the Ministry of Health and Population called out to development partners for urgent support to address the rapid surge of COVID-19 cases in Nepal. Without effective containment measures and a successful vaccine rollout, the rapid spread of infection remains a high risk. The pandemic adversely affected the economy in fiscal year (FY) 2020 with tourism, wholesale and retail trade, transport, construction, and manufacturing hard hit. Gross domestic product growth was forecasted to drop from 7.0% in FY2019 to 2.3% in FY2020. Further, normal city ecosystem has been disturbed and efforts to eradicate poverty interrupted.

Nepal's response to COVID-19. In April 2020, with technical support from the World Health Organization, the government promulgated the Nepal Preparedness and Response Plan, which lays out preparedness actions and key responses to undertake in Nepal to address the COVID-19 pandemic. As in most countries, Nepal is pursuing a combination of a range of non-pharmaceutical interventions, many of which fall into categories of behavior change: (i) self-isolation for symptomatic individuals, (ii) increased hand hygiene, (iii) social distancing, (iv) working from home when possible, and (v) school closure. Nepal has launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive to stop or at least slow local transmission of COVID-19. With local governments mandated to manage health services by mobilizing their resources, their capacity to design and implement appropriate interventions in the community is key to successfully containing the COVID-19 pandemic and any future health emergencies.

Challenges to local governments. Major challenges render local governments unable to prevent community transmission in an appropriate and timely manner: (i) insufficient disinfection and medical services to block interpersonal COVID-19 transmission in public spaces; (ii) weak capacity for community engagement and risk communication to strengthen people's health literacy and good hygiene practices; and (iii) inadequate institutional capacity to design, implement, and adjust community interventions in accordance with the dynamic nature of the pandemic.

Healthy, alert, and conscious citizens oriented to happy life achieved

Local government and community capacity to mitigate and contain the COVID-19 pandemic and similar future health emergencies in 5 secondary and 10 small towns strengthened

Essential public facilities and services to block interpersonal transmission of COVID-19 provided

Behavior-centered community mitigation measures strengthened

Institutional capacity of selected local governments to contain the COVID-19 pandemic strengthened

1a. GESI-Responsive Mobile Handwashing Units: RFQ documents are prepared for GESI responsive health screening desks and handwashing stations for five municipalities at 40 locations. The RFQ for this was issued on 22 June 2022.

1b. GESI-Responsive Mobile Toilets: PMO is preparing bidding document for procurement of 30 mobile toilets. The IFB will be published by July 2022.

1c. GESI-Responsive Multipurpose Shelters: One package for construction of multipurpose community shelters in five municipalities was awarded on 31 May 2022. PMO is preparing bidding documents for the construction of additional 15 shelters in other project municipalities. IFB will be published by July 2022.

1d. Existing Public Toilets Rehabilitated or Refurbished: The public sanitation facilities to be refurbished will be finalized by July 2022, and procurement following the RFQ will be concluded by August 2022.

1e. GESI-Responsive Health Desks: RFQ for procurement of GESI responsive health screening desks and handwashing stations for five municipalities at 40 locations was issued on 22 June 2022.

2. Behavior Changes Community Mitigation Measures: A draft plan is prepared and will be implemented will start from July 2022.

3. Strengthening Institutional Capacity of Selected Local Governments to Contain the COVID-19 Pandemic: A draft plan is prepared and will be implemented will start from July 2022.

All consultants will be recruited according to ADB Procurement Policy (2017, as amended from time to time) and Procurement Regulations for ADB Borrowers (2017, as amended from time to time). The terms of reference for all consulting services are detailed in Section D.

An estimated 72 person-months of national consulting services are required to: (i) facilitate design, supervision, and management of planned civil works and oversee the procurement of goods and equipment; (ii) support project management and quality assurance; (iii) support PMO in ensuring that safeguards requirements are met; (iv) facilitate implementation of GESI initiatives of the project; (v) support PMO in undertaking capacity building and training activities envisaged under the project. Four individual consultants will be recruited following ADB's individual consultants' selection.

All procurement (including consulting services)15 of goods and works will follow ADB Procurement Policy (2017, as amended from time to time). The value for money procurement under the project will be achieved by competitive process through local market. The experienced implementing agency is expected to conduct such in a timely manner.

Open competitive bidding (OCB) (national advertisement) procedures and request for quotations will be used, depending on the size of the contract and market situation. No international advertisement is required given the size of the packages under the project. Community participation will be used for very small contracts to be carried out by the local community and contractors or WUA for works such as fencing, preparation of drying beds for sludge, etc. The Government may opt for the e-bidding system developed by the public procurement monitoring office in work and goods contracts.

The first OCB (national advertisement) contract and request for quotations for works and goods under the project will be subject to prior review by ADB. Procurement capacity assessment.