Consultants sought for US$30M sea defence project

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) is seeking consulting services to establish a shoreline change monitoring programme, and facilitate knowledge transfer for coastal zone management as it implements a US$30 million sea defence project.

In an ad in the Guyana Chronicle on March 16, the ministry said that government has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in an amount equivalent to US$25 million towards the cost of the Sea and River Defence Resilience Project (SRDRP).

The project is estimated to cost US$30.9 million which will be financed with resources from the CDB and the Government of Guyana inclusive of a loan from the CDB to the GOG of an amount not exceeding the equivalent of US$25 million representing 81% of project cost while the GOG will provide counterpart funding of US$5.9 million representing 19% of project cost.

According to project documents, the project includes several components including civil works for the reconstruction and improvement of approximately 5.4 kilometres of sea and river defences, consultancy services for selected capacity building in shoreline change monitoring and analysis, consultancy services for public awareness and education activities, consultancy services for design and supervision of the civil works, consultancy services for monitoring and evaluation activities, and project management.

The project sites are located within 20 mainly rural communities in Regions 2, 3, 4 and 6 along the coastline and at Leguan.

In the ad, the ministry said it wishes to procure consulting services to establish a shoreline change monitoring programme, and facilitate knowledge transfer in respect of coastal zone management. The objectives of the assignment are to establish a shoreline change monitoring programme assessing and identifying the most feasible cost-effective methodologies and technological information system requirements for monitoring, measuring and analyzing shoreline movement at the planning/design appropriate scales; to facilitate knowledge transfer for optimizing policy and operational level decision making in respect of coastal zone management; and to strengthening existing and planned coastal zone management processes, scale appropriately informing future policies, plans and designs.

The scope of work will include technical and financial feasibility of routine scale appropriate shoreline change monitoring; development of a shoreline change monitoring programme, enhanced capacity development of coastal GIS management and utilisation for shoreline change monitoring; selected capacity strengthening in sea and river defences administration via knowledge building, and stakeholder consultations.

The ministry invited interested eligible consulting firms to submit Expressions of Interest for the provision of these consulting services. It said that following the assessment of submissions, the most technically capable and appropriately experienced consulting firms will be issued with a Request for Proposals for these consultancy services. However, the shortlist of consulting firms shall comprise not less than three nor more than six with representation from at least two member countries and at least one firm from a developing country, it said.