Albania’s Improvement of the Management and Conditions of the Secondary and Local Roads Project

Environment Safeguards Framework

March 12, 2008

Albania’s Improvement of the Management and Conditions of Secondary and Local Roads project

Environment and Social Safeguards Framework

Albania’s Improvement of the Management and Conditions of the Secondary and Local Roads Project

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 Background

1.2 Project Description

2. Approach and Methodology

2.1 Environmental Safeguards

3. Policies, regulations and guidelines

3.1 Description of the Legal, Institutional and Administrative Framework

3.1.1 Albanian Legal Provisions

3.1.2 Administrative Framework

3.1.3 Comparison with World Bank Policies

3.1.4 Guidelines and Procedures

4. Operational Procedures for Environmental Assessments

4.1 Public Consultation and Information Disclosure

5. Environmental Management Plan

5.1 Implementation and Monitoring of an EMP

5.2 Generic Potential Environmental Issues

5.2.1 Construction and general impacts

5.2.2 Alternatives to each Sub-project

5.3 Mitigation Measures

Annex 1: Types of projects relevant to AIMCSLRP that appear in the LawonEIAAppendices and other Documents

Annex2: Model Forms for an Environmental Management Plan

Annex 3: Environmental Assessments and Checklists

Annex 4: Documents required for Issuing of a Construction Permit

Annex 6: Public consultation during Environmental Impact Assessment

AIMCSLRP_ESSF110 March 2008

Albania’s Improvement of the Management and Conditions of Secondary and Local Roads project

Environment and Social Safeguards Framework

1. Introduction

This document presents the Environment Safeguards Framework (ESF) for Phase1 of the proposed Albania’s Improvement of the Management of Secondary and Local Roads Project (AIMSLRP). The main purpose of the ESF is to be a tool for ensuring that the infrastructure subprojects implemented through the AIMSLRP comply with the existing laws, regulations and practices in Albania, as well as with the Bank’s Operation Policies on Environmental Assessment, Involuntary Resettlement and Cultural Heritage, and will not have a lasting adverse impact on the country’s population, nor on the natural environment or properties of particular cultural value. A summary of the possible environmental issues and mitigation measures is presented in the chapters that follow.

1.1 Background

About 55% of the actual population of the country lives in the rural areas and around 35 % of this population lives under the level of poverty. The poverty of the rural population is remarkably accompanied with the lack of the basic public infrastructure services and conditions, further impeding the economic development potential of these rural areas. Bad or non-existent roads make the communication with the local markets for the agricultural products very difficult, create difficulties in the access to education and health services and present a serious obstacle to potential for tourism development. Rehabilitation of the rural infrastructure is thus one of the main objectives of the country’s rural development strategy.

Although a small country with only about 3 million inhabitants, Albania is formally divided into 374 Local Government Units (represented by 65 municipalities and 309 communes). Almost half of these Local Government Units (or LGUs), representing 17% of the country’s population, are made up of communities of less than 5,000 inhabitants (in the case of communes, 54% are home to 30% of population). This fragmentation at the local level has meant, on one hand, increased democratic participation given that the decision-makers are closer to the voters but, on the other hand, tends to leave the smaller communities short of own financial resources or the administrative and technical capacities necessary to effectively implement policies and operate public services in an efficient manner.

The provision of public services in Albania is in a transitional phase, from a highly centralised, hierarchically de-concentrated system inherited from the previous regime to a decentralised decision-making structure formalised by the 2000 legal reform which, inter alia, broadly assigned responsibilities to local governments. Although Albania has gradually made progress on the decentralisation agenda since the late 1990s, the delineation of mandates, assignment of revenue autonomy to LGUs, the adoption of the Law on Local Government Finance etc., are still pending.

A lot of donors including the central and local government are spending money to build or rehabilitate infrastructure not based on an efficient planning system and taking into account the local needs reflecting local priorities. Furthermore, the communes do not dispose of sufficient human and financial resources for the operation and maintenance of the infrastructure once it is improved. This is a major issue, since recently reconstructed projects need major interventions within 3-4 years’ time, mostly due to the lack or inefficiency in operation and maintenance.

The actual situation of Albanian road network is as follows:

The overall length of the road network in Albania totals about 15,000 km. The network comprises 3,412 km of national roads administered by the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Telecommunications (MPWTT) and directly managed by the General Roads Department (GRD), and about 12,000 km of local roads. The local road network consists of: (i) 4,411 km of regional roads, which provide rural links of regional importance and are administered and maintained by the regional road departments under the regional councils; (ii) 4,980 km of communal roads, including private access roads, which provide rural links of communal importance and are administered and maintained by commune road departments; and (iii) 2,500 km of urban or municipal roads, which are administered and maintained by the Municipal road departments. All these Local Governments fall under the Ministry of Interior.

The priority given to the expansion of the road network in recent years has resulted in inadequate emphasis on maintenance and the neglect of the local road network. The problems facing the local road network are significant, as little of the network is paved, and a recent survey on a sample of the network, found that about 90 per cent is in a poor or very poor condition[1]. The decentralization to local governments of the responsibility for managing regional, commune and municipal roads has compounded the problems of inadequate maintenance. Local revenue sources, such as vehicle registration charges, have proved insufficient, and managerial capacity is weak. Only about 40 percent of what is needed in maintenance expenditures is actually expended on the local road network at present, reflecting the scale of the current unfunded mandate created through decentralization. The weak management and planning, generally undertaken without any consideration of the broader regional planning dimension also undermines the efficiency of spending in other sectors[2]; improving roads potentially realizes savings in education and health budgets through facility centralization.

And yet the contribution of an efficient and effective local road network is known and the links to economic development and poverty alleviation are established. Over half (57 percent) of the Albanian population lives in rural areas, and over one-third (35 percent) of the rural population is estimated to live in poverty.[3] A qualitative survey of both poverty, and its causes, noted that, after employment and income, the majority of respondents considered infrastructure problems to be the main factors affecting their low standard of living. Rural inhabitants have also acknowledged that poor road access makes it difficult to reach markets, contributes to migration to urban areas, and inhibits the delivery of health and education services[4]. Forty-nine (49) percent of rural producers stated that a lack of adequate transportation, primarily good roads, was their biggest marketing problem[5]. More recent studies elsewhere have supported these findings and also report positive differences in school enrolment and frequency in use of health services, between areas with and without all-weather roads.[6]

The potential contribution of improved local roads in Albania is significant and has been recognized by the authorities. The Albanian authorities recognize the seriousness of these issues, and the importance of the sector to poverty alleviation and economic development. In 2006, the authorities established a task force, headed by the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Telecommunications, to act as a steering committee[7] for a program to asphalt a significant proportion of the network[8] and improve the management and financing of the network. They have requested the assistance of the World Bank, via a Project Preparation Facility, to procure a consultant to prepare a strategy for the rehabilitation of priority sections of the district and local road network and establish a stylized Road Management System in the Client’s offices (Phase 1), and prepare, together with the local community representatives and the Client, the detailed engineering design and tender documentation for the defined program (Phase 2). The program would then be implemented in the prospective Local Roads Project, to be financed by the Government the World Bank, and other interested donors.

1.2 Project Description

The main project objective is to improve access to essential services and economic opportunities for the resident population in the hinterland of the improved roads, and to contribute to the strengthening of the institutional framework for planning, financing and management of secondary and local roads in Albania. The project proposes to achieve this objective through the (i) the improvement of priority sections of the secondary and local road network across Albania; (ii) the introduction of the private sector maintenance contracts for the local road network; (iii) the strengthening of the organizations responsible for managing the local road network at Commune level; (iv) the consolidation of institutional responsibilities for management and planning in the sector for the secondary roads; and (v) recommendations and actions to improve the sustainability of financing for the sector.

Project cost and components. The total project cost is provisionally estimated at US$20-25 million, comprising US$15-20 million from the World Bank IBRD loan, and US$ 5 million in counterpart financing from the Government of Albania, although parallel and co-financing financing has been discussed with other institutions – including the European Investment Bank, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, and the Council of Europe Development Bank.

The provisional expectation is that there will be two main components:

a)The first component is the civil works associated with the improvement of priority sections of the secondary and local road network (estimated cost US$18-23 million). The provisional expectation is that the program could potentially encompass 1,000 – 1,500 km of secondary and local road, with the share within the WB project provisionally expected to amounting to 15 percent of the total. The implementation of a larger program would necessitate considerable additional support from other donors or from domestic sources, and would need to be consistent with the financing envelope available to the authorities; and

b)The second component will be essential technical assistance (estimated cost US$1.1million). Much of the capacity building in the implementing agency, the communities, the establishment of the stylized Asset Management System, the review of the functional classification, and the stylized inventory of the network, will be undertaken during the preparatory phase. Hence additional TA to be paid from project, is provisionally, expected to be limited. However, it is expected, to be confirmed with counterparts, that there will be a need to place an experienced highway engineer in the implementing agency for the duration of the project. There would also be a need to hire a firm of supervising consultants, together with ongoing support to the implementing agency, if shown necessary, to assist in the capacity development for community/ road user consultation.

The main activities of the project will be:

  • Update the list of current district and local road network in terms of a functional classification.
  • Undertake a full inventory of the active network of district and communal network of roads.
  • A review of current management capacity of the District and Commune local road networks
  • Identify priority capital investments through participatory consultation to be funded by the project
  • Preparation of detailed standard designs for the roads segments to be rehabilitated
  • The preparation of the tender and safeguard documentation for the defined program.
  • Procurement and financing of the civil works
  • Capacity development of communes to manage private sector contractors

The main expected results of the project include the generation of employment in the rural areas, develop agriculture and other rural economy through improved, faster links with markets, increased access to education for the rural population, increased access to health services for the rural population and trained regional and communal staff on identification and prioritization, management and maintenance of investments.

The proposed project will be implemented within the existing structures of the Albanian Development Fund (ADF). ADF are very experienced in implementing World Bank and other donor projects that have supported both rural and urban infrastructure.

Although the sub-projects to be funded through the AIMCSLRP entail mainly rehabilitation of the existing roads and are not expected to cause any major impacts on the environment and livelihood of the people, there may be projects that may qualify as category A projects which may also trigger policies on natural habitats and forests. For such cases, Environmental Assessments, Environmental Management Plans and Land Acquisition Plans/Resettlement Action Plans with appropriate disclosure and consultation will be prepared. Most of the other sub-projects will be classified as category B projects. These sub-projects are unlikely to cause significant impacts on the environment or their likely impacts are site specific. For these types of sub-projects an environmental assessment and environmental management plan is also necessary.

2. Approach and Methodology

The methodology used for the preparation of the ESF was based upon the: (i) Review of the existing policies, regulations, operational guidelines and institutional arrangements in Albania to address and mitigate environmental and social impacts of rural roads; (ii) Assessment of the compatibility of the core principles of Albanian regulations and World Bank policies by identifying gaps and presenting recommendations to address them; (iii) Preparation of guidelines for identifying and assessing the nature and magnitude of environmental and social impacts, including preparation of environmental and social screening criteria to select projects for implementation under AIMCSLRP and determine the level of social and environmental assessment/studies required; (iv) Suggestions on modalities for the preparation of site-specific subproject mitigation measures.

The environmental and social screening criteria to identify the likely environmental and social impacts of sub-projects will be fully integrated in the Operational Manual (Environmental Guidelines Chapter) of the Albanian Development Fund. The Operational manual will be reviewed to ensure the compliance with the Bank safeguards policies differentiated against various types of sub-projects.

ADF staff includes several social and technical inspectors both on central and regional level, as well as an environmental specialist, who will be responsible for the monitoring of the general ESF and other specific environmental assessments and will train the local government units to comply with the requirements set in the ESF.

2.1 Environmental Safeguards

Activities carried out under the AIMCSLRP will comply with the current Albanian Environmental Regulations and World Bank’s Safeguards Policies, including Environmental Assessment (EA) policy outlined in Operational Policy (OP) 4.01, and Cultural Property, Natural Habitats, and Forestry (as defined in World Bank OP/BP 4.11, OP 4.04, and OP 4.36).

The identification and selection of road segments for rehabilitation will be primarily a bottom-up process, evaluated against certain criteria used currently by the ADF.

The Albanian Law on Environmental Protection requires that any project or activity that will affect, or is likely to affect the environment, has to receive an Environmental Declaration, Environmental Permit, Authorization or Consent from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Water Administration (MOEFWA) or Regional Environmental Agency (REA) before project implementation may commence. A Decision by the Council of Ministers has defined the types of projects that should obtain any of the above mentioned permits. The law provides the following definitions which are important for the classification of projects and the respective licenses that need to be issued.

1. “Project” refers to any implementation of the construction works, installations or schemes or other interventions in the natural environment and landscape, including the exploitations of natural resources and mineral assets.

2. “Environmental impact assessment” (EIA) is the process undertaken to identify, foresee, interpret, measure, communicate and prevent the impact of a project on the environment, according to its alternatives, so that the best alternative to prevent or mitigate the adverse impacts is selected, prior to project approval and implementation.

3. “Strategic environmental assessment” is the process of assessing the possible impacts on the environment, of a policy, plan or program.

4. “Environmental declaration” is the official document issued by the Minister of Environment, after the review of the request and relevant documentation for the approval of the project, plan or program. The declaration might refuse or approve the forwarded request, accompanying it with obligatory conditions to be implemented by the proponent and competent authorities. The Environmental Declaration is issued after a Strategic Environmental Assessment is done.

5. “Environmental permit” is the official document, issued by the Ministry of Environment, after the review and consultation of the request and its relevant documentation, with all the concerned stakeholders. The permit approves the exercise of any activity having an impact on the environment, and determines the obligatory conditions and circumstances to be complied with, in order that pollution and damages on environment do not exceed the allowed norms.

6. “Environment Consent and Authorization” is issued for activities of local character having an impact on the environment, but not included in the Council of Ministers’ Decision. They are approved by the Regional Environmental Agencies in the form of consent or authorization, in cooperation with local government bodies. The Guidelines of the Minister of Environment approve the list of activities, the format of application, the rules and procedures for giving the consent or authorization from the REAs.