Integrated Safeguards Data Sheet (Updated)

Transcription

1 Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized THE WORLD BANK GROUP InfoShop Date Prepared/Updated: 09/12/2002 Section I - Basic Information Integrated Safeguards Data Sheet (Updated) A. Basic Project Data Country: PAPUA NEW GUINEA Project ID: P Project: Highlands Highway Rehabilitation Project Task Team Leader: Hatim M. Hajj Authorized to Appraise Date: January 15, 2003 IBRD Amount ($m): Bank Approval: June 24, 2003 IDA Amount ($m): Managing Unit: EASTR Sector: Roads & highways (80%); Sub-national Lending Instrument: Specific Investment Loan (SIL) government administration (20%) Status: Lending Theme: Public expenditure, financial mngmt & procurement (P) I.A.2. Project Objectives: The key objectives of the project are to: (1) improve the reliability, safety and service quality and reduce total operating costs of transport on the Highlands Highway; (2) establish effective institutional arrangements for sustainability of maintenance and improvement of the highlands highway; and (3) arrest the diffusion of HIV/ AIDS in the area of influence of the Highlands Highway I.A.3. Project Description: 1. Road Construction and Maintenance. This component consists of the construction works to repair road damage (including the critical sections) and improve traffic safety and maintenance of the Highlands Highway between Lae and Mendi. 2. Bridge Construction. This covers the construction works at all bridges along the Highlands Highway, includinl those to be financed by the AusAID for the widening of about 26 one-lane bridges to two-lanes. The bridge work to be financed under the proposed World Bank loan includes the raising of the Yalu Bridge; widening to two lanes of 5 one-lane bridges in east Highlands province, the Feonuku Bridge, the Koronigl and Garniger Bridges; and construction of new bridges at the Gusap and Bora Rivers. 3. HIV/AIDS Program. The GoPNG agreed to add this component to the project in March This componen is not yet well defined and is expected to be developed during October/November It is expected to consist of requiring contractors (including their subcontractors and those making deliveries to the contractor) to be involved ir the road and bridge works under the HHRP to take effective actions to reduce the possibility of their staff and work force in contacting or spreading HIV/AIDS; a program to address the providers of transport services along the Highway (such as trucking companies); and a program directed towards the communities along the Highway to reduce the incidence of infection and strengthen the efforts for dealing with preventive measures such as education

2 2 and care of the infected people and their affected families. 4. Implementation Support. This component covers the consulting services required for the design and supervision of the civil works required for the HHRP. The terms of reference for these services are available. 5. Support of the Highlands Highway Authority or Highlands Highway Management Unit. This component consists of establishing a Highlands Highway Authority and running it for about four years as well as developing and implementing financial and project management systems; appointment of key personnel and training of staff in financial management, project management, performance-based contracting, contract administration, management and supervision; and quality assurance and control. 6. Routine and Emergency Maintenance during Construction. This applies to civil works contract sections whose implementation is delayed because of land acquisition problems to maintain a reasonable level of service to road users and communities and businesses. 7. Land Acquisition and Resettlement. This component consists of: (1) purchase of needed land not yet owned; (2) land purchase costs where the payments have not been made; (3) compensation costs; (4) land purchase of extra land for 40 meter wide corridor along the highway; (5) relocation costs for people currently settled on the road corridor; and (6) cost of crops and structures for any of the above. I.A.4. Project Location: (Geographic location, information about the key environmental and social characteristics of the area and population likely to be affected, and proximity to any protected areas, or sites or critical natural habitats, or any other culturally or socially sensitive areas.) The Highlands Highway extends approximately 600 Km from Lae in Morobe Province to Mendi in Southern Highlands Province. The Highway provides access to nearly 1800 Km of feeder roads serving an area inhabited by about one third (1.7 million) of the country's population. The area served by the Highway encompasses the five provinces of Morobe, Eastern Highlands, Simbu, Western Highlands and Southern Highlands. A section of the Ramu-Madang Highway between Watarais and Ramu Sugar is also included in the scope of the environmental work for this project. The study area covers a physically and culturally diverse environment. The settlement and population distribution in most areas along the Highway is varied with relatively dispersed to concentrated settlement patterns. The settlement structures are a mixture of modem and traditional materials, with more modem settlements found along the Highway within the Morobe area. The Highlands Highway passes through areas of intensively utilized land. There is only one area that adjoins the Highway that has conservation value, namely the Siwi-Utame Wildlife Management Area (WMA). All works along this section of the Highway will be confined to the existing road corridor and the construction Contractor will be required to comply with management rules of the WMA. If the rehabilitation works are undertaken entirely within the road corridor, there would be no direct impacts on the Wildlife Management Area. The Highway traverses fairly flat areas from Lae to Kassam Pass and hilly areas the rest of the way. The Highway is subject to earthquakes, land slides and floods. Entire bridges have on occasion been destroyed by flood waters and land slides in the upper catchment. Poor drainage and poor river bank protection has resulted in erosion, that directly affects some sections of the Highway, especially in the Markham Valley. In some cases this has caused sections of the road surface breaking away.

3 3 There is little, if any, redundancy in connectivity between the major economic centers. Since most of PNG's major exports are directly dependent on the Highlands Highway, disruptions to transport flows along the Highway affect the nation's economy. The only alternative for passengers and freight is air service, which is unaffordable for the majority of the population and uneconomic for most freight. B. Chieck Environmental Classification: B (Partial Assessment) Comments: The proposed project has small impact on the environment and requires little amounts of land acquisition and resettlement. Consequently, the project is classified as Category B for the purposes of the requirements of OP The categorization is consistent with guidance provided in GP 4.01 Annex C and is consistent with previous Bank-supported road rehabilitation projects. C. Safeguard Policies Triggered Policy Applicability Environmental Assessment (OP/BP/GP 4.01) 0 Yes 0 No 0 TBD Forestry (OP/GP 4.36) O Yes * No G TBD Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) 0 Yes * No C TBD Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) 0 Yes * No C TBD Pest Management (OP 4.09) O Yes * No O TBD Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) 0 Yes * No C' TBD Indigenous Peoples (OD 4.20) * Yes O No C TBD Cultural Property (OP 4.11) j Yes * No C TBD Projects in Disputed Territories (OP/BP/GP 7.60)* C Yes * No C TBD Projects in International Waterways (OP/BP/GP 7.50) 0 Yes * No CG TBD *By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties'claims on the disputed areas Section II - Key Safeguard Issues and Their Management D. Summary of Key Safeguard Issues. Please fill in all relevant questions. If information is not available, describe steps to be taken to obtain necessary data. II.D. I a. Describe any safeguard issues and impacts associated with the proposed project. Identify and describe any potential large scale, significant and/or irreversible impacts. The project involves rehabilitation of an existing road within the existing right-of-way. There is basically no new construction (except for few new bridges) and no significant re-routing of the road alignment. Impacts will be associated with construction works and will be manageable with good construction practices. The climate, geology and topography of the area along the Highway raise significant environmental hazards and risks in relation to the Highway.These risks result from earthquakes, volcanoes, excessive rainfalls and floods, steep slopes. Small scale involuntary resettlement and land acquisition will occur as a result of activities of the project. Approximately 400 PAPs. No large scale or irreversible social impacts. II.D. I b. Describe any potential cumulative impacts due to application of more than one safeguard policy or due to multiple project component. There are no such effects expected in this project. II.D. I c Describe any potential long term impacts due to anticipated future activities in the project area.

4 4 None. The project focuses on rehabilitation activities of the Highlands Highway. II.D.2. In light of 1, describe the proposed treatment of alternatives (if required) Three alternatives were considered in the selection of rehabilitation strategy for the Highlands Highway. Options I (development of an alternative route to the Highlands Highway via Madang) and 2 (alternative route for critical sections of the Highlands Highway, especially the 50 Km section in Simbu province) were rejected because of their high cost and expected low traffic volumes as well as the need to rehabilitate and maintain the existing Highlands Highway to provide acceptable service to neighboring communities and businesses. These options are expected to entail more environmental adverse effects and land acquisition and resettlement of people than Option 3. This option is the preferred one and consists of localized improvements to specific short length problem areas along the Highway. II.D.3. Describe arrangement for the borrower to address safeguard issues (i) OP 4.01 (Environmental Assessment). The project includes an Environmental Impact Assessment, an Environmental Management and Monitoring Plan, a Social Impact Assessment and a Social Action Plan for the HHRP. (ii) OD 4.30 (Involuntary Resettlement). The project includes a Land Mobilization Report which includes a Land Mobilization Action Plan establishing mechanisms and procedures for acquiring land and determining crop and improvement compensation requirements and a Resettlement Action Plan establishing procedures to be followed with regard to resettlement and compensation. II.D.4. Identify the key stakeholders and describe the mechanisms for consultation and disclosure on safeguard policies, with an emphasis on potentially affected people. Key stakeholders are the residents of villages along the Highlands Highway, and this also includes PAPs. A social impact assessment (SIA) was undertaken by SMEC Consultants to determine the potential impacts of the HHRP on the lives of the people living along the route alignment. The SIA included consultations and discussions with residents of 44 villages along the route of the proposed activities. The main issues to emerge from the SIA were: (a) land and vegetation compensation; (b) land and water degradation from construction work; (c) resettlement of PAPs; (d) safety and security; (e) health, in particular, the negative impact of the spread of HIV/AIDS; (e) impacts of migration from the hinterland towards the Highway; (f) impacts on traditional practices, e.g. rerouting water courses and impacts on traditional bathing community relations; and (h) training related to community relations. The SIA revealed that rehabilitation of the Highlands Highway was regarded as urgent by all stakeholders and that the demand and support for the highway rehabilitation project by local community members and government representatives of the area was high, with discussions mainly involving perceived benefits from the road. Acquisition of land, resettlement of any affected persons, and payment of appropriate compensation in accordance with the LMAP must be completed before the contract with the selected contractor can be signed for any construction package. This will: (a) minimize compensation demands by people who did not make claims at negotiations or by farmers who have encroached on the acquired land with new plantations; and (b) help reduce delays and monetary claims by contractors due to land problems.

5 5 Formal and informal interviews were also conducted with various government officers, commodity groups, police officers, members of the DoWT's Land Acquisition Unit (LAU), human relations and training sections and other infrastructure development programs and donors, in particular AusAID and ADB, both of which are very active in the transport sector in PNG and also involved with the Highlands Highway road projects. LAU has been performing a de facto community relations function over the years of its existence. These interviews showed the need to develop community relations, inclusive of socio-environmental and gender awareness as an element of project design and to support the DoWT to develop, implement and sustain a community relations unit, possibly within the LAU as it has the most reason to interact with the public on a long term basis. The capacity of LAU in community relations needs to be developed through training. As an alternative to strengthening LAU, use could be made of volunteers in community relations in a manner similar to what is being done under the Bank-financed Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Project. One of these options will be selected before project appraisal. DoWT staff, especially supervising staff and LAU staff need to be trained in community relations and general awareness regarding community consultation, socio-environmental and gender issues. The Lae Institute of Technology could be approached to set up such a training program. Further it is recommended that a focussed training workshop be held to provide training to community members, some of whom, may become community relations liaison volunteers. People to be trained include select community members, key community members working as members of construction crews, construction crews, construction supervisors, local administration staff, local DoWT technical staff and local DoWT managerial staff. E. Safeguards Classification. Category is determined by the highest impact in any policy. Or on basis of cumulative impacts from multiple safeguards. Whenever an individual safeguard policy is triggered the provisions of that policy apply. [ ] S1. - Significant, cumulative and/or irreversible impacts; or significant technical and institutional risks in management of one or more safeguard areas [X] S2. - One or more safeguard policies are triggered, but effects are limited in their impact and are technically and institutionally manageable [ ] S3. - No safeguard issues ] SF. - Financial intermediary projects, social development funds, community driven development or similar projects which require a safeguard framework or programmatic approach to address safeguard issues. F. Disclosure Requirements Environmental Assessment/Analysis/Management Plan: Expected Actual Date of receipt by the Bank 7/1/2002 Date of "in-country" disclosure 12/3/2002 Date of submission to InfoShop 1/7/2003 Date of distributing the Exec. Summary of the EA to the ED (For category A projects) Resettlement Action Plan/Framework: Expected Actual Date of receipt by the Bank 7/1/2002 Date of "in-country" disclosure 12/3/2002 Date of submission to InfoShop 1/7/2003 Indigenous Peoples Development Plan/Framework: Expected Actual

6 6 Date of receipt by the Bank Date of "in-country" disclosure Date of submission to InfoShop Pest Management Plan: Expected Actual Date of receipt by the Bank Date of "in-country" disclosure Date of submission to InfoShop Dam Safety Management Plan: Expected Actual Date of receipt by the Bank Date of "in-country" disclosure Date of submission to InfoShop If in-country disclosure of any of the above documents is not expected, please explain why. Signed and submitted by Name Date Task Team Leader: Hatim M. Hajj 08/28/2002 Project Safeguards Specialists 1: Glenn S. Morgan 08/29/2002 Project Safeguards Specialists 2: Bruce M. Harris 08/29/2002 Project Safeguards Specialists 3: Approved by: Name Date Regional Safeguards Coordinator: Glenn S. Morgan 08/30/2002 Sector Manager/Director: Jitendra N. Bajpai 08/30/2002 For a list of World Bank news releases on projects and reports, click here ;3~WcL.FEEDBACK,iiz 5HOCASE,