Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Technician
Position Summary Expectations - Duties, Responsibilities
Based Office: Banlung town, Borkeo District
REPORTS TO: PROVINCIAL PROGRAM MANAGER
Job Summary
As a part of the Vision of a Healthy Village (VHV) program, the WASH Technician is responsible for ensuring the highest technical standards for all WASH hardware in communities and schools – in the construction, rehabilitation of existing points, and monitoring of all hardware. They do this through assessing all community and school hardware, supporting building a hardware plan, supervising and providing oversight of construction, ensuring water quality is tested and potable, and documenting all processes through Lifewater’s AKVO system. They are responsible to follow Lifewater’s ‘software first’ approach by following planned program timelines and supporting Water Committees and community involvement before and during construction as appropriate.
- Play a key role in all hardware planning.
- Conduct feasibility assessments of existing hardware assets.
- Prepare hardware planning timelines for implementation.
- Prepare design and detail bills of quantities, procurement plan and budget estimates for the proposed community water supply systems and school latrines / demonstration latrines in all intervention sites.
- Ensure all the designs and quality of construction meets Lifewater standards as well as the government’s minimum standards.
- Support the team with contracting household latrines that are ready at the correct time in the program cycle.
- Have all designs approved by Lifewater HQ prior to construction.
- Provide technical support, supervision, and quality assurance for all hardware construction to ensure that all work is completed to the highest possible standards.
- Schedule and prepare transportation plans for field activities in consultation with the entire WASH team and Provincial Program Manager (PPM)
- In collaboration with colleagues, ensure high level of community participation in the project and regularly track community participation in terms of unskilled labor and local construction materials and by converting into monetary term according to local labour market.
- Source out and monitor labor required for gravel, sand and stone production, and digging required for specific hardware.
- Provide local training on quality construction of household latrines as needed.
- Follow Lifewater’s procurement manual for all construction bids.
- Provide on-sight oversight of all construction.
- Ensure all the construction materials procured for water supply are used efficiently.
- Compile and share the material utilization report at each water system immediately after completion of construction and installation.
- Ensure the maintenance and proper care of all the tools and equipment used in the water supply section.
- Oversee water quality sampling at all sites immediately after construction is completed, before handover to community.
- upport Lifewater’s ‘software first’ approach by:
- Coordinate with the SH promoters and volunteers to ensure that all the aspects of the safe water supply are integrated in WASH promotion and “software first” is applied before constructing water systems,
- Use participatory approaches as a far as possible throughout the program cycle, in feasibility study of proposed water source, training, and in the use of tool kits and other materials, and
- Ensure proper handover of all the constructed water systems to the concerned government bodies with full of recording data like GPS location, beneficiary, yields of the water system, history of the water system in well documented manner at the right time
- Support colleagues as needed in training Water Committees.
- Support internal and external reporting.
- Complete all AKVO reports for construction and monitoring at appropriate times.
- Support the PM in preparing necessary and regular reports to appropriate government bodies about water points and school latrines, as well as associated water quality testing or monitoring data.
- Ensure the maintenance and proper care of all the tools and equipment used in the water supply section
- QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:
- Five years of experience in delivering rural safe water solutions, including previous experience in WASH construction works, planning and budgeting.
- Previous experience in drilling and other water technology development supervision.
- Previous experience in constructing household pour-flush latrines.
- Experience with boreholes, Rainwater harvesting systems, Gravity flows, springs construction is required. Knowledge on Directorate Water Development (DWD) Sector reporting is required.
- Diploma/Degree in one of the following fields: – Water Engineering; Civil Engineering, Hydrogeology, Environmental Engineering, Sanitation Engineering, Construction Management or related Engineering field.
- Additional training in Water quality testing, drilling, supervision of contractors preferred but not required.
- A post graduate qualification in water related development field preferred but not required.
- Knowledge of the water sector policies and coordination frameworks.
- Ability in working independently and with teams to produce high quality results in a multi-cultural setting.
- Competence in writing high quality reports, exhibiting detailed and professional attributes.
- Analytical skills and decision-making abilities even in complex and sensitive situations.
- Strong ICT skills especially Microsoft Office applications and other engineering software such as AUTO CAD, GIS, etc.
- PERSONAL SKILLS AND QUALITIES:
- Committed Christian, active in a local church
- Commitment to the mission, vision, and core values of Lifewater International
- Flexible and adaptable to changing environments
- Honest and dependable in all areas, including finances
- Strong desire to work in and serve rural communities
