Robert Crooks

ADFD/WB Project Preparation and Appraisal Workshop Abu Dhabi, April 2010

Environmental Assessment

Category A and B Projects Compared

Environmental Assessment

• Look at examples of Category A & B projects

• Compare the scope of EA and the level of effort

• Use the Category A project to illustrate how the EA process can be used to have a positive development impact

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Yemen Public Works III

Key Features from environmental point of view

• Project Cost: $52 million (relatively small to begin with) – but expanded to $405 million with co-financing

• Location: Project spread over a wide area: in all 20 Governates of the country

• Main Components: The project will invest in basic infrastructure services in sectors such as health, education, water supply, waste water, roads, water harvesting/irrigation and vocational training.

• Scale of individual investments is very small: an estimated 800 sub-projects with an average investment cost of $90,000 and a range of $20,000 to $200,000  - 3 -

Yemen Public Works III

Is this a Category A Project?

• Large scale aquaculture and mariculture (aquaculture in the sea) • Dams and reservoirs • Forestry production projects• Hazardous waste management and disposal • Industrial plants (large-scale) and industrial estates • Irrigation, drainage, and flood control (large-scale) • Land clearance and leveling • Manufacture, transportation, and use of pesticides or other hazardous and/or toxic materials • Mineral development (including oil and gas) • New construction or major upgrading of highways or rural roads• Port and harbor development • Reclamation and new land development• Resettlement • River basin development, thermal power and hydropower development or expansion • Water supply and wastewater collection, treatment and disposal projects (large-scale)

No in all cases- 4 -

Yemen Public Works III

Is this a Category B Project?: Yes but at the lower end

• Agro-industries (small-scale) • Electrical transmission• Energy efficiency and energy conservation• Irrigation and drainage (small-scale) • Protected areas and biodiversity conservation • Rehabilitation or maintenance of highways or rural roads • Rehabilitation or modification of existing industrial facilities (small-scale) • Renewable energy (other than hydroelectric dams) • Rural electrification • Rural water supply and sanitation • Tourism • Watershed projects (management or rehabilitation)

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Environmental Assessment Screening Criterion Project Characteristics

Potential impacts are less adverse than those of Category A projects

One measure of this is the monetary value of individual investments. It is hard to register significant adverse environmental impacts for $90,000!!

Impacts are site-specific

Most activities are very small scale civil works using hand labor (projects with high labor requirements favored in the selection process) and can be completed very quickly (6-12 months). Impacts will be very localized, generally due to the small scale plus the fact that most sub-projects will be in rural areas (lower population density, lower potential for adverse “amenity” impacts); impacts will be short term.

Few if any impacts are irreversible

Most impacts will be short term (construction phase only) although some sub-projects (e.g. irrigation works) may have longer lasting impacts which could be described as irreversible or at least, difficult to reverse.

Mitigatory measures can be designed more readily than for Category A projects

Lower impact potential generally means easier measures.

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Yemen Public Works III: EA Approach

• Evaluate range of projects being proposed (there was already a long list of 4,000 project proposals on the table at the time of project preparation)

• Identify range of potential environmental impacts

• Broadly classify sub-projects in terms of environmental impact potential

• Develop environmental pre-screening procedures to environmentally screen new investment proposals coming into the pipelines

• Develop environmental management procedures to be implemented on selected types of investments to mitigate adverse environmental impacts (typical mitigation measures include the provision of adequate hazardous materials disposal facilities, adequate crosswalks for children, and the early identification of any potential vector breeding sites—all very simple and of a type that could easily be incorporated into Standard Operating Procedures in standard contract documents).

• Develop environmental monitoring procedures

• Define the administrative mechanism to be followed in implementing the management scheme

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Yemen Public Works III: Key Elements of Approach

• The approach was simple and easy to implement

• The level of effort was consistent with the significance of environmental issues to be encountered (very small scale, localized and short term)

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A BIG Category A Project

China: Yangtze Basin Water Resources Development Project (1995)

China: Yangtze Basin WRDP

Key Project Features

• Project Cost: $652 million (WB loan/Credit was $174 million)• Six main sub-projects: 

Part A – HUBEI Province• rehabilitation of 270,000 ha of irrigation/drainage works in two schemes – $81.3 million; • improvement of drainage covering about 60,000 ha—$43 million; • miscellaneous aquaculture, forestry, grassland/livestock and soil improvement activities—

$50.0 million.

Part B – HUNAN Province• construction of 50,000 ha new irrigation—$80.3 million• construction of new multipurpose Dam including resettlement of 16,500 people—$385

million

Part C - Yangtze Flood Forecasting and Warning System• Flood forecasting and warning system for the Central Yangtze River region—US$12.7 million.

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Is Yangtze Basin WRDP a Category A Project?

• Large scale aquaculture • Dams and reservoirs• Forestry production projects • Hazardous waste management and disposal• Industrial plants (large-scale) and industrial estates• Irrigation, drainage, and flood control (large-scale) • Land clearance and leveling • Manufacture, transportation, and use of pesticides or other hazardous and/or toxic

materials • Mineral development (including oil and gas) • New construction or major upgrading of highways or rural roads• Port and harbor development • Reclamation and new land development• Resettlement • River basin development, thermal power and hydropower development or expansion • Water supply and wastewater collection, treatment and disposal projects (large-scale)

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ConsultantLocal consultant (Yangtze River Institute of Soils & Water Conservation) in close collaboration with WB staff

Scope of EA

Full EIA of the entire project but with special attention being paid to the new dam construction in Part B.

Public consultation was done as part of the EIA preparation (98% of respondents said they thought the project was a good idea!!).

No social assessment done (this was a 1994 project) although separate Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) covering 16,000 people was prepared.

Approach to EMMP

Separate EMMPs were prepared for each sub-project. Each sub-project also had its own project management units (PMU)

and each of these included specific staff to manage and supervise implementation of the EMMP.

For the dam project, the environmental management unit also supervised the implementation of the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) under which more than 16,000 people were resettled.

The environmental management unit for the dam employed up to a maximum of five engineers/scientists during the peak work period.

The environmental management unit was subsequently made a permanent part of the corporation established to manage both the dam and the catchment area.

Yangtze Basin WRDP: Approach To Environmental Assessment

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Description Quantity

Dam 　Type RCC Gravity Dam

Height (tallest in the world) 131 m

Crest length 370 m

Total Storage Capacity 1,855,000 m3

Hydrology

Catchment Area above Dam site 371,100 ha.

Annual Inflow 4,160,000 m3

Design Flood Discharge (P=0.02%) 15,700 m3/s

Reservoir 　Total Storage Capacity 1,855,000 m3

Length of reservoir 140 km

Underground Powerhouse 　Total Installed Capacity 3×100 MW

Design Head 80 m

Irrigation 　Irrigated Area 5,700

Drinking Water Supply Capacity 50,000 persons

Miscellaneous 　Excavation quantity 1,138,000 m3

Quantity of RCC 1,100,000 m3

Resettlement 16,159 persons

Total Costs $385 million

The Jiangya Dam Sub-Project: Key Features of the Development

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Layout of Jiangya DAM

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Dam Under Construction

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Power Station Intake Construction

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Key Features of Jiangya EMMP

• New standard of EIA for projects in China

• Project set new standards of housing for construction workers

• Exceptional measures taken to reduce impacts on nearby township (road diversion, water pollution control)

• Promotion of total catchment management approach leads to establishment of Lishui Hydropower Corporation to operate the dam and manage the catchment

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Main Determinants of Success for Jingya EMMP

• Competent, locally-based environmental consultant was credible with counterpart (Hunan Provincial Water Resources Bureau)

• Counterpart was interested in new concepts of dam design and management and was open to ideas being pushed by WB team

• Federal government (MWR) was also pushing water sector innovation which further encouraged counterpart

• Effective administrative approach to environmental management

• Adequate staffing (numbers & expertise) and budget for environmental management unit

• Exceptional efforts made to communicate with local stakeholders to minimize conflicts

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