Association for Gender Awareness & Human Empowerment (AGAHE) is a national non-government organization (NGO) established in 2007 under the Societies Act, 1860 in Punjab with a vision to ‘create an enabling environment for vulnerable segments of society where they can utilize their full potential for improvement in their lives and have equal opportunities to safeguard their rights. Core thematic areas of AGAHE include Water, Sanitation & Hygiene, Health & Nutrition, Sustainable Livelihood, Governance, and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). AGAHE is implementing a project titled “WASH System Strengthening in fragile and developing context to achieve sustainable development goals SDG 6” with the support of Welthungerhilfe (WHH) in District Muzaffargarh.

Introduction of the Assignment:

Muzaffargarh district situated between two primary rivers, Indus and Chenab, is experiencing growing WASH challenges due to intensifying impacts of climate change. The region has witnessed erratic weather patterns including prolonged droughts in some areas of the district while recurrent and severe flooding in other leading to water scarcity, contamination of natural resources and challenges in WASH service delivery and infrastructure sustainability jeopardizing public health and access of the local population to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. Government departments including PHED and LG&CDD along with private sector partners are working tirelessly for WASH service delivery and its sustainability, yet the aspect of climate resilience in WASH planning and allocation of sufficient resources to counter the impacts of climate change is still diminished The services and infrastructure often surrender to extreme events like floods, failing to provide clean water and adequate sanitation to people in need, several cases of which have been experienced in past natural disasters. Along with this, lack of awareness and sufficient capacity among the communities hinders their ability to adapt to the climate change impacts. AGAHE and WHH in collaboration with District Administration, Public Health Engineering Department and other key WASH actors is developing a climate resilient District WASH Master Plan which will outline a longterm vision for achieving universal access to WASH and will adopt a systematic system strengthening approach to ensure long term sustainability and effectiveness of WASH services in the district. With respect to this AGAHE aims to conduct a climate risk assessment and adaptation study in district Muzaffargarh to identify context specific climate related challenges and vulnerability of the district to inform the WASH planning process. The climate risk assessment will serve as a baseline for the WASH actors in the district in identifying the priority risks and will provide guidance in the allocation of resources to inform the decision making and WASH planning process allowing the government to adopt a practical framework, for designing and implementing WASH projects that can withstand and adapt to climate related challenges.

Objectives:

The objectives of the assignment are as follows:

• Evaluate the current and future climate risks in district Muzaffargarh to identify vulnerabilities and potential impacts on WASH service and interventions.

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of the adaptive capacity of the Muzaffargarh WASH system, highlighting key strengths and weaknesses of the system, to inform targeted and effective climate resilient interventions.

• Provide actionable recommendations/guidelines for integrating climate change considerations into the WASH planning process, ensuring sustainable and resilient WASH services in the face of evolving climate challenges in Muzaffargarh.

Scope of work:

Situation Analysis: Conduct a detailed situation analysis of district Muzaffargarh for:

• Identifying and assessing the current and potential climate risks specifically focusing on WASH. This process entails identifying climate hazards, exposure, and vulnerability using a combined approach of quantitative and qualitative methods. It includes a detailed literature review, analysis of historical data on climate events, climate change projections and consultation, KIIs, FGDs with government departments and community members to identify, evaluate and prioritize the context specific climate risks.

• Impact Assessment: Evaluate the impact of climate risks on WASH services and assess secondary potential impacts on public health, environmental sustainability, and community resilience.

• Understanding the existing WASH system of Muzaffargarh to determine the extent to which the aspect of climate resilience and climate change adaptation is being currently considered in the WASH planning and budgeting process.

• Resilience Analysis: Analyze the resilience of WASH system in Muzaffargarh to climate challenges considering existing policies, government initiatives, WASH planning process, technical capacities and governance structure to identify areas of improvement. Validation Workshop: Conduct a consultation workshop with district government and non-government stakeholders for validation of situation assessment.

Recommendations: Based on the resilience analysis, work with relevant stakeholders to provide actionable recommendations for integrating climate change considerations into the WASH planning process at the district level to ensure sustainable and resilient WASH services in the face of evolving climate challenges in Muzaffargarh. This should account for the District WASH Master Plan that is being developed and should consider hard and soft elements such as:

• The flexibility of WASH services (including infrastructure, service providers and the broader WASH system), allowing them to address climate uncertainties effectively.

• The capacity of WASH services and service providers to anticipate and absorb potential disruptions.

• The ability of WASH service providers and the broader WASH system to adapt, respond, and recover swiftly from such events, returning to their original state without losing full functionality.

• The capability of WASH service providers and other relevant actors to learn from and improve after events, enhancing their preparedness for future disruptions.

• The ability of WASH service providers to consider environmental and social standards contributes to the resilience of broader systems such as ecosystem resilience.

• Different stakeholders’ role in promoting a low-carbon sector, aligning with sustainable practices and goals.