Second North East Irrigated Agriculture Project (NEIAP II)

Second North East Irrigated Agriculture Project (NEIAP II)

Sri Lanka E939

Second North East Irrigated Agriculture Project (NEIAP II)

Environmental Safeguards Management Framework

A.Introduction

Project Purpose

1.The primary goal of Government’s poverty reduction strategy is to achieve significant enhancement of the quality of life of rural people , through increased incomes, economic modernization and invigoration of the rural economy. “Regaining Sri Lanka”-- which is the Government’s official statement of its vision, policy and programs for poverty reduction and economic growth-- recognizes six strategic pillars that supports its poverty reduction efforts: (i) building a supportive macro-economic environment; (ii) reducing conflict-affected poverty; (iii) creating opportunities for the poor to participate in economic growth; (iv) investing in people; (v) empowering the poor and improving governance; and (vi) implementing an effective monitoring and evaluation system. The proposed Second North-East Irrigated Agriculture Project (NEIAP II), which is repeater operation to ongoing NEIAP, provides strategic and financial contribution to achieve at least four out of these six pillars. The overall purpose of this repeater operation is, therefore, to supplement and complement the Government’s poverty reduction strategy through better access of the poor to basic social and economic infrastructure services and support for production activities, adopting a community focused, community driven development approach. It also supports Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy and the government’s strategy and current program for resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the North-East.

2.The project would scale up the ongoing NEIAP by augmenting, consolidating and sustaining its outputs and impacts, extending its scope and geographical spread, and covering additional conflict-affected communities in more villages. It is expected to cover about another 600 focal villages in the NE including about 150 in Jaffna district within a period of six years. The repeater project is estimated to cost about US$ 70 million, of which the World Bank would consider financing US$ 60 m and the Government and the Local Communities are expected to finance the balance.

Project Development Objectives

3.Therefore, the Project Development Objective (PDO) of the proposed project would be “to help conflict-affected communities in the North-East Province and adjoining areas to restore livelihoods and enhance agricultural and other production and incomes, and build their capacity for sustainable social and economic reintegration”. The PDO will be achieved primarily by: (i) creating, restoring, or improving essential village level social and economic infrastructure and facilities; (ii) rebuilding, supplementing and enhancing individual household economies; (iii) building community skills and capacity and decentralizing powers for decision making, control of resources and implementation of programs at community level; and (iv) implementing targeted livelihood support programs for the most vulnerable (such as land mine victims, people with war-induced deficient abilities, widows, women headed households and ex-combatants).

Project Components

The project would comprise the following major components:

4.Component 1: Village Rehabilitation and Development for Sustainable Social and Economic Reintegration

This component would include the following sub-components:

(a) Building, strengthening and empowering community based organizations: This sub-component would include: (i) community mobilization leading to formation and/or revitalization of inclusive community based organizations and institutional arrangements at village level; and (ii) building capacity and improving technical, organizational and management skills to plan, execute and manage development activities on a demand responsive manner; and (iii) pilot initiatives to test various Community Driven Development options with a view to develop and replicate community driven development options and modalities appropriate to the project area.

(b)Creation, rehabilitation and improvements to essential village level social and economic infrastructure, services and facilities: This sub-component would include assistance for identification, planning, and execution of essential village level social and economic infrastructure facilities and services as identified and prioritized by the communities in their village rehabilitation plans (VRPs) and village agricultural development plans (VADPs). Based on the experience of the NEIAP, the main infrastructure, facilities and services that are likely to be financed are: (i) minor and medium irrigation scheme rehabilitation, improvement and augmentation; (ii) rehabilitation of ponds, dykes, salt water exclusion structures and barrages in Jaffna district; (iii) rural access roads and link roads to markets and townships; (iv) drinking water wells; (v) community centers and storage facilities for agricultural inputs and produce; and (vi) implementation of agricultural productivity enhancement activities .

(c)Livelihood assistance activities for vulnerable groups and people: This sub-component would include: (i) financial grants to village level Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and women rural development societies to provide small loans to most vulnerable people in the community using principles of micro-finance and revolving fund programs. Based on the experience of NEIAP, the main target beneficiaries are likely to be landless people, widows, women headed households, and people with deficient abilities; and (ii) other special development and assistance programs targeting women, land mine victims, and ex-combatants.

5.Component 2: Essential rehabilitation and improvements to selected major/medium irrigation schemes and creating opportunities for enhanced agricultural productivity and production

This component would include the following sub-components:

(a) Essential repairs and improvements to major irrigation structures to ensure structural stability and safety of major components including dams and embankments: Based on the experience with essential repairs to Giants tank and the findings of the productivity enhancement studies of ten major irrigation schemes in the North-East financed under NEIAP, this subcomponent would include support for: (i) technical assistance and essential civil and mechanical works to ensure structural stability and safety of embankments and major structural components of major irrigation schemes; and (ii) essential repairs and improvements to major irrigation and drainage canals of selected major irrigation/drainage schemes.

(b) Pilot initiatives to promote crop diversification and commercial production in major irrigation schemes: This sub-component would support: (i) pilot initiatives to test organizational models, commercial crops and cropping systems, new low cost irrigation and agricultural technologies, and public-private sector -community partnerships to promote potential, capacity and opportunities for enhancing production, productivity and incomes; (ii) provide essential facilities necessary for pilot initiatives; (iii) technical assistance; and (iv) capacity building of farmers organizations, CBOs, and staff of the concerned provincial and local government agencies associated in the pilot initiatives.

6.Component 3: Institutional capacity building, project implementation support and

project oversight:

This component would include the following sub-components:

(a) Capacity building of national, provincial and local government agencies:

This sub-component would support: (i) enhancement of equipment and facilities; (ii) improvement and establishment of regional laboratories for construction materials testing, civil works construction quality assurance, and agricultural soil testing; (ii) support for establishment of the ground water monitoring network in Jaffna district; (iii) short-term training and study tours to selected staff to improve implementation of the project and other long-term community based reconstruction programs; and (iv) provision of essential office equipment and facilities; and (iv) technical assistance for special studies and research.

(b) Project implementation support and oversight: This sub-component would support: (i) hiring consultants and staff for the project management unit and district project offices; and (ii) hiring Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and consultancy firms and consultants for external technical, social and financial auditing and project impact monitoring.

Purpose of the Environmental Management Framework (EMF)

7.Since the activities under the project will concentrate on rehabilitation of the existing irrigation and village road infrastructure and limited agricultural development pilot initiatives, anticipated adverse impacts will not be significant. However, there would be minor environmental impacts which need to be managed and mitigated before they occur or as and when those are encountered with. The purpose of the EMF is to outline the measures, processes, institutional arrangements, tools and instruments that need to be adopted in NEIAP II to mitigate against any adverse environmental impacts and enhance positive environmental benefits of the project interventions. The EMF will allow early identification of potential adverse impacts, and to provide broad guidelines for their effective mitigation. Consistent with the existing national legislation, the specific objective of the EMF is to provide a project specific guideline and manual to help ensure that activities under the project will:

  • Protect human health;
  • Prevent or compensate any potential damage to environment;
  • Prevent degradation to ecosystem as a result of either individual sub-projects or their cumulative effects;
  • Mitigate potential social conflicts consequent to project activities;
  • Prevent project investments being used to further intensify already existing social disputes;
  • Internalize environmental consciousness in the planning, execution and monitoring and build relevant skills and capacity of the field staff and communities;
  • Enhance positive environmental outcomes; and
  • Ensure compliance with World Bank’s Environmental Management safeguard policies.

8.A summary of the main instruments and tools of the EMF framework for NEIAP II as applied to each sub-component of the project is in Annex 1. The following sections elaborate the EMF in terms of measures, processes, institutional arrangements as well as tools and instruments that need to be adopted in NEIAP II.

B.Nature of the Project and Environmental Safeguard Relevance

9.Given that NEIAP II is a repeater operation, the nature of its activities are almost similar to that of its pioneer project - - NEIAP. The project would adopt community driven development (CDD) principles, building primarily on the CDD lessons and experiences of both NEIAP and the Village Self-help Learning Initiatives (VSHLI) pilot tailored to the specific challenges and conditions of the project area.. The project would rely primarily on decentralized community-based investments at village and household levels to achieve the PDO.

10.Based on the experience of the pioneer, a large majority of project investments will include labor intensive, small scale civil works and household level, individual, livelihood support income generating activities. Civil works are localized activities at village levels likely to be associated with rehabilitation and improvements of irrigation schemes and intra-village rural roads, and construction of drinking water facilities and buildings that mostly utilize local construction material. Individual household level income generating activities are likely to be highland and home-garden agriculture and livestock and poultry rearing etc. An additional component in the repeater project is the financing of essential and urgent rehabilitation to existing major irrigation schemes (irrigation schemes serving a command area in excess of 400ha).

11.There are salient characteristics and situations of the physical location of the project that would be relevant to safeguard analysis. Those characteristics would become safeguard relevant and social risk relevant only if project investments are made in the following circumstances::

(i) in protected areas (natural habitats, forests and wild life reserves, and national parks that are known to project stakeholders);

(ii) in land mined areas ( declared by the Government and known to project stakeholders);

(iii) to improve water storage capacity of the existing irrigation tanks in a manner that will lead to potential water shortages and water right disputes. This may happen as a result of any disturbance to existing hydrological balance of typical small tank cascades and reduction of water for existing agricultural and water use practices of the people downstream using the same water source or stream;

(iv) that will require involuntary land acquisition; and

(v) that would benefit lands of the displaced people presently encroached illegally and occupied by other people.

12.Focal village selection criteria will exclude project interventions to ensure that cases (i) and (ii) above will not arise. This requirement will be incorporated into legal documents of the project too. To address the potential issue (iii) above, the project will carry out prior hydrological analysis of tank cascades at subproject planning and design stages. Adequate design guidelines and practices are currently in force to appraise and screen the subprojects against this potential risk. Project will not require involuntary land acquisition. For example, land required for construction of wells and community buildings have been either voluntarily donated either by the community members or by the Divisional Secretaries on behalf of the State in the ongoing pioneer project. With regard to the item (v) above, the project has developed a framework to monitor encroachments by the communities and clarified the mechanism for dealing with such situations. The ongoing project has applied the framework successfully.

Envisaged Project Activities and Potential Environmental Impacts

13. The Component 1 of the project, most likely would deal with the rehabilitation of irrigation schemes and ponds will include: (i) strengthening, improving and filling breaches of earthen embankments, repairs to sluices and spill ways; and (ii) cleaning, repairing and improving the earthen irrigation canals and cement/concrete canal structures, and (iii) desilting and repairing groundwater recharge ponds and repairs to damaged salt water intrusion prevention structures in Jaffna. These are structures with embankment less than 15 m in height. Besides rehabilitation and improvements, there would be new minor construction of some key structures like falls, division boxes, regulators, measuring structures at canal off-take points for effective irrigation and water management. The rehabilitation of village roads will include filling depressions and pot holes and grading existing road platforms with borrowed earth, provision of culverts and other cross drainage structures and side drains. Construction of buildings and drinking water wells will involve earth excavations and construction of cement/concrete structures.

14.The Component 2 of the project would deal with dam safety improvements and essential rehabilitation of selected major irrigation works ( A major irrigation scheme, by the definition adopted in Sri Lanka, is an irrigation scheme that serves an irrigated command area of more than 400 ha. Most of the major irrigation tanks in Sri Lanka have dams with heights 5-20 m). The envisaged improvements and rehabilitation would include: repairs and improvements to protect downstream slopes of dam embankments (e.g. runnel filling and providing lateral drains etc. to provide safe passage of rainwater and seepage drainage), providing toe-filters and toe drains to improve downstream drainage and arresting excessive seepage flows, upstream slope protection (e.g. rearranging and/or providing rip-rap to prevent dam slope against wave action), strengthening weak sections of the dam, improvements to canals and structures, and installation of dam settlement, seepage and water level surveillance equipment. The repairs to major irrigation works will not involve raising of dam embankment, increase of water storage capacity or any new water augmentation/diversion that will upset the existing hydrological balance. The anticipated activities will result in an overall enhancement of structural safety of the small earthen embankments and dams of major irrigation works, improved drainage, reduced water logging and stagnation etc. In addition, the project will carry out pilot agricultural development interventions at those selected major schemes to search and test different profitable and productive models and establishing linkages between the farmers and markets and public/private sector service providers. Although, the project will not finance and promote the increased use of agrochemicals and pesticides, the pilot interventions are likely to increase the use of agrochemicals, pesticides and chemical fertilizers.

15.These activities can result in adverse impacts, if not managed consciously. However those will be site specific and restricted to those areas close to the existing infrastructure. There can be some minor potential off-site impacts too that will encompass planning and design, construction and operation phases:

  • Planning and design: Raising embankment height to increase existing storage capacity of small tanks arrayed in cascades may disturb existing hydrological balance and lead to reduction of water availability downstream of the cascade system. (“Tank Cascade” is an existing connected series of tanks physically and hydrologically organized in a such way that tanks capture and store rain water falling on a specific meso-watershed that drains to a common reference point of a natural stream. A typical feature is the hydrological and social interdependence of the tanks in the cascade system. For example, excess rain water spillage and drainage return flows of upstream tanks are captured by downstream tanks successively).
  • Construction phase: Accelerated soil erosion and damage to local vegetation due to earth excavation and use of construction equipment, water-logging and stagnation in borrow-pits, and disposal of construction spoils and excavated material.
  • Operation Phase: (i) Impacts due to poor operation and negligence of maintenance, that would include impact on soil (inadequate drainage and water-logging); (ii) incidence of water borne diseases (poor cleaning of canals, road side drains and maintenance of structures); (iii) damage to lands and public property (in the event an earthen tank embankment/dam fails due to inferior design, poor quality of construction, poor operation and neglected maintenance); (iv) pollution of streams and wells by agrochemicals (fertilizers and pesticides); and (v) spread of pests that affect agriculture and public health.

Potential Negative Environmental Impacts

16.As is evident from the implementation experience of the ongoing NEIAP, this repeater project is not expected to result in significant potential negative environmental impacts. If there are any potential negative impacts or risks they are mostly site specific and can be easily managed using this framework.

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