Environmental and Social Management Framework for Punjab

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL Public Disclosure Authorized MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR PUNJAB CITIES GOVERNANCE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT Public Disclosure Authorized (July 2012) Public Disclosure Authorized PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT GOVERNMENT OF THE PUNJAB Public Disclosure Authorized Environmental and Social Management Framework EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Government of the Punjab (GoPunjab) is planning to launch the Punjab Cities Governance Improvement Project (PCGIP) in five large cities of the Province, and seeking the World Bank (WB) financing for this purpose. In order to address the potentially negative environmental and social impacts associated with this Project, but more importantly to integrate environmental management aspects in the cities’ urban planning and development process, the GoPunjab has prepared the present Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF). The ESMF conforms to the national regulatory and WB safeguard policy frameworks. BACKGROUND Large cities in Punjab are facing a long-term demographic shift with an influx of the population from rural areas. The primary centers of this urbanization are the large cities, which have become the drivers of economic growth in the province. With the advantages of economic growth, large cities1 (Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Lahore, Multan, and Rawalpindi) have to contend against some distinctive challenges. First challenge is of municipal infrastructure disparity, which includes massive and growing shortfalls in investments and coverage of services. Secondly the institutional complexity in urban systems, particularly, municipal service delivery as the regulatory agencies are fragmented with overlapping responsibilities, limited accountability and few incentives for innovation. Thirdly, urban centers face the challenge of fiscal deficiency characterized by limited revenue generation with unsustainable tariff structures, non-transparent subsidies and a misalignment between expenditure responsibilities and available revenue sources. Simply put, the demand for investment far outstrips the resources that are currently available. Finally there is financial deficiency defined by obscure funding, indistinct accounting systems and limited treasury management systems. Taken together, these challenges often result in the sporadic creation of assets with poor incentive for maintenance, and little impact on the quality of the built environment as a whole. In this context, improving city productivity requires that public expenditures on the built environment are maximized and can sustain impacts on economic activity and poverty reduction. Municipal service delivery should no longer be seen as capital schemes to be funded on a piece meal and individual basis through public funds from the provincial level. Instead, municipal service delivery should be seen in the context of citywide systems. The focus of city planning, therefore, needs to shift from indiscriminate infrastructure planning to managing cities in order to make them efficient and credit worthy. 1 Here the term Large City means a city with a population of one million or more inhabitants Punjab Cities Governance Improvement Project Page ii Environmental and Social Management Framework PROJECT OVERVIEW The objective of the PCGIP is to support Punjab’s large cities in strengthening institutional frameworks and developing systems for improved urban planning, expenditure and accountability and to capacitate these cities to improve delivery of municipal services in a medium to long term on a more sustainable basis. The Project has a number of financial, social, economic and environmental benefits, including institutional development, rehabilitation and improvement of municipal services, better quality of life and employment generation. In addition a large number of secondary benefits are also likely to accrue in the medium to long term such as institutional reforms at local level. The following types of schemes are included in the Project: Water supply/drainage: operation and maintenance of existing water supply and drainage assets and operations. Any schemes related to new water supply/drainage or sewage will not be included. Roads: repair and maintenance for existing urban roads, streets, and buildings. This will not include any new road construction or road/street widening. ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL MANAGEMENT The Project is aimed at bringing sustainable development in the cities so that they can continue the process of economic growth and institutional development without compromising on quality of life and well-being of the population. To ensure this, it is necessary that the environmental and social issues are considered and addressed at every stage of Project implementation. To meet this objective, the present ESMF has been prepared, in accordance with the national environmental legislation and regulation as well as World Bank safeguards policies. Though initially the ESMF will primarily be applicable for the schemes under the Project, an incremental approach will be adopted to gradually expand its application to all service delivery functions in the large cities by the end of the Project. This will thus ensure integration of environmental management aspects in the cities’ entire urban planning and development process. The ESMF broadly identifies the typical environmental and social issues associated with various types of schemes implemented by the City District Governments (CDGs) and other city entities, and proposes generic mitigation measures to address these impacts. The ESMF also defines environmental and social assessment procedure to be followed by the CDGs and other city entities while preparing, appraising, and implementing individual schemes. This procedure includes the following sequential steps: i) environmental and social screening of every scheme to be implemented by the CDGs and other city entities; ii) conducting an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for each scheme having significantly negative environmental and or social impacts, or preparing an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) for each scheme having moderately negative environmental and or social impacts; iii) operationalizing the EIA or ESMP during scheme implementation; and iv) environmental and social monitoring to ensure implementation of EIA or ESMP. The CDG or other city entity will conduct environmental and social screening for every service delivery scheme, during the scheme identification/preparation stage, on the basis of nature and size of Punjab Cities Governance Improvement Project Page iii Environmental and Social Management Framework scheme as well as the nature and severity of associated environmental and social impacts. The ESMF includes screening checklists to facilitate the implementing agencies for this process. Based upon the outcome of the screening, the CDG or the relevant entity will prepare scheme-specific EIA for each scheme having significant environmental and/or social impacts, or scheme-specific ESMP for each scheme having moderately significant environmental and/or social impacts. The EIA/ESMP will include description of the scheme, description of the area/site where the scheme would be implemented, mitigation and monitoring measures, and cost of EIA/ESMP implementation. To operationalize the EIA/ESMP during scheme implementation, it will be included in the bidding documents/contracts and hence will be made an integral part of the scope of work. Finally, the CDG/other city entities will conduct environmental and social monitoring to ensure effective implementation of the mitigation measures included in the EIA/ESMP. This monitoring will be conducted with the help of checklists prepared on the basis of mitigation measures included in the EIA/ESMP. To ensure effective and coordinated implementation of the ESMF, an organizational structure has been proposed. Under this structure, a Safeguards Coordinator will be appointed in the Urban Unit. She/he will be responsible for overall implementation of the ESMF, and will coordinate with the implementing agencies at the CDG level and monitor their activities during the implementation phase. The Safeguard Coordinator will also ensure that the cities are properly capacity built to be able to perform the activities as per the requirements of the ESMF by designing and implementing training programs and generating discussions on various forums. At the CDG level, each large city will have a Safeguards Specialist, who will ensure effective implementation of the ESMF within the respective city. S/he will carry out the environmental and social screening of each scheme, prepare the scheme-specific ESMPs2, carryout monitoring to ensure effective implementation of the mitigation measures proposed by the EIA/ESMPs, and produce regular reports, which will document the process and outcome of the entire ESMF implementation during the reporting period. For an independent assessment of the ESMF implementation, a third party validation (TPV) will also be carried out on an annual basis. The third party validation will not be limited to the schemes implemented under the Project; rather, it will cover all the schemes undertaken by the CDG/city entities, in order to assess the level of integration of the environmental and social concerns in the cities’ entire urban planning and development process. The ESMF implementation cost has been estimated to be about PKR 52 million. This covers cost of personnel involved in environmental and social management of the Project, capacity building

Load more