PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA Public Disclosure Authorized Huai River Basin Flood Management and Drainage Improvement Project Environmental Assessment Executive Summary Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Yellow River Water Resources Protection Institute February 2009 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 CONTEXT ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 LAWS, REGULATIONS AND POLICIES ON WHICH THE PROJECT IS BASED .................................................. 2 1.3 DEVELOPMENT OF EA REPORTS .............................................................................................................. 2 2 PROJECT DESCRIPTION ........................................................................................................................ 4 2.1 PROJECT OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................................................. 4 2.2 PROJECT SCOPE ....................................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 LAND OCCUPATION AND RESETTLEMENT PLANS OF THE PROJECT ........................................................... 6 3 ENVIRONMENTAL BASELINE SITUATION ....................................................................................... 7 3.1 GENERAL SITUATION OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENT.................................................................................. 7 3.2 SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT BASELINE SITUATION ......................................................................................... 9 3.3 CURRENT SITUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY .............................................................................. 9 3.4 CURRENT SITUATION OF ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT .......................................................................... 12 4 IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND MITIGATION ....................................................................................... 14 4.1 WORLD BANK SAFEGUARD POLICIES ANALYSES .................................................................................. 14 4.2 PROJECT FEATURES AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT IDENTIFICATION ..................................................... 17 4.3 IMPACT ANALYSIS OF IMPORTANT ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND PROTECTION MEASURES ............ 18 4.4 IMPACT ANALYSIS OF GENERAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS AND PROTECTION MEASURES ............... 29 5 SOCIAL AND REGIONAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT........................................................................... 34 5.1 SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................................ 34 5.2 ANALYSIS OF IMPACTS ON REGIONAL ENVIRONMENT............................................................................ 37 6 ANALYSIS OF ALTERNATIVES ............................................................................................................ 40 6.1 WITHOUT PROJECT ALTERNATIVE ......................................................................................................... 40 6.2 COMPARATIVE SELECTION OF PROJECT LOCATIONS .............................................................................. 40 6.3 COMPARATIVE SELECTION OF TECHNICAL ALTERNATIVES .................................................................... 41 7 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN ....................................................................................... 44 7.1 ORGANIZATION ...................................................................................................................................... 44 7.2 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS MITIGATION MEASURES ............................................................................. 45 7.3 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PLAN AND REPORT .............................................................................. 45 7.4 CAPACITY BUILDING ............................................................................................................................. 46 7.5 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION INVESTMENT ........................................................................................ 47 7.6 EMP SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 47 8 PUBLIC CONSULTATION AND INFORMATION DISCLOSURE ................................................... 58 8.1 PUBLIC CONSULTATION ......................................................................................................................... 58 8.2 INFORMATION DISCLOSURE ................................................................................................................... 58 8.3 RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................. 59 9 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 61 ANNEX 1 REFERENCE ............................................................................................................................. 62 I LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1 Physical Works of the Project......................................................................................5 Table 3-1 Situations of Project Location and Distribution………………………………………8 Table 3-2 The Principle of Laying Out Monitoring Site……………………………………….10 Table 3-3 Analytic Result of Bed Mud Toxicity Leaching Experiment………………………..11 Table 4-1 List of Natural Habitats Involved in the Project…………………………………….14 Table 4-2 List of Dams Triggered by the Project………………………………………………16 Table 4-3 Classification of Natural Habitats in the project areas………………………………19 Table 4-4 Features of Natural habitats and the Details about the Projects……………………20 Table 4-5 Project Impacts Natural Habitats and Protection Measures…………………………21 Table 4-6 Summary of Environmental Impact and Protection Measurement of Soil erosion…28 Table 4-7 Surface Water Environment Impact and Protection Measures……………………...30 Table 5-1 Environmental Impact and Protection Measurement of Resettlement……………...34 Table 5-2 General objective of this project and “19+3 Project”……………………………….35 Table 6-1 Comparative Analysis of With and Without the Project…………………………….38 Table 6-2 Comparison between Two Dredging Alternatives..………………………………...40 Table 7-1 Agencies Comprising the Environmental Management System………………..43 Table 7-2 Generic Construction Related Mitigation Measures………………………………..47 Table 7-3 Project Specific Mitigation Measures…………………………………… ………..50 Table 8-1 Disclosure of Environment Safeguards Documents………………………………57 Table 8-2 Results of the Two Rounds of Public Consultation…………………..………58 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3-1 Overall Assessment Results for Water Quality of Rivers in Four Provinces.…..10 Figure 7-1 Diagram of Environmental Management System…….………………………...43 Figure 1 Geographic Position and Overall Distribution of the Project….………………….63 Figure 2 Project Distribution in Four Provinces……………………………………………64 Figure 3 Water system of Huaihe River Basin………….………………………………...…68 Figure 4 Location of Natural Habitats under the Project..………...………………….……69 II ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CEA Consolidated Environmental Assessment EA Environmental Assessment EIA Environmental Impact Assessment EMP Environmental Management Plan HFMDIP Huai River Basin Flood Management and Drainage Improvement Project HRB Huai River Basin HRBC Huai River Basin Commission HRWRPI Huai River Water Resources Protection Institute MOF Ministry of Finance MWR Ministry of Water Resources NDRC National Development and Reform Commission PMO Project Management Office RAP Resettlement Action Plan WB World Bank YRWRPI Yellow River Water Resources Protection Institute MEASURES Mu Area Unit (0.0667 ha) ha hectare km2 square kilometer m2 square meter mg/L milligram per liter CHEMICAL ABBREVIATIONS COD Chemical Oxygen Demand NH3-N Ammonia Nitrogen SS Suspended Solids III 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Context Huai River Basin (HRB) is located in the transitional climate zone between southern and northern China, and the climate conditions are complex and changeable with uneven temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall. Plains in this basin are extensive and the topography is low with many branch rivers. For a long time, it was affected by the Yellow River when it breached its dikes and switched its course into the lower reaches of the Huai River. As a result, water systems within the basin are disordered and flood disasters are serious. The topography in the project areas is low, existing drainage capacity is seriously insufficient, and flood disasters occur frequently. According to statistics, damages caused by floods were more than 2/3 of total disaster damages in 1991 and 2003. The Huai River Basin Commission (HRBC) of Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) prepared the Plan for Accelerating Construction of Huai River Basin Management Project (2003～2007)after the major flood in 2003, requiring to upgrade the management of key plains and depressions in the Huai River basin, and list this project (HFMDIP) as one of the three new projects to accelerate Huai River management. To broaden the financing channel of Huai River management projects and accelerate Huai River basin flood management