Land Acquisition / Resettlement Plan (draft) Project Number: 52111-001 Date: February 2020 Samoa: Alaoa Multi-Purpose Dam Project Prepared by the Government of Samoa and Electric Power Corporation for the Asian Development Bank. CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS (as of February 2020) Currency Units: Samoan tala (WST) and United States dollar (USD) 1 USD = 2.60 WST 1 WST = 0.38 USD NOTES This resettlement plan is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of ADB's Board of Directors, Management, or staff and may be preliminary in nature. In preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgment as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. ABBREVIATIONS ADB - Asian Development Bank AP - Affected Person CEO - Chief Executive Officer DDR - Due Diligence Report DFAT - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade EA - executing agency EIA - Environmental Impact Assessment EPC - Electric Power Corporation ESCR - Environmental and Social Complaints Register GAP - Gender Action Plan GCF - Green Climate Fund GFP - Grievance Focal Point GOS - Government of Samoa GRC - Grievance Redress Committee GRM - Grievance Redress Mechanism IA - Implementing Agency LTA - Land Transport Authority LTC - Land and Titles Court MNRE - Ministry of Natural Resources and Development MOF - Ministry of Finance NGO - nongovernment organization PMU - Project Management Unit PPTA - project preparatory technical assistance RCC - roller-compacted concrete RP - Resettlement Plan SPS - Safeguard Policy Statement SWA - Samoa Water Authority TBA - to be advised TOR - Terms of Reference WEIGHTS AND MEASURES ha - hectare km - kilometer MW - megawatt EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The proposed Alaoa Multi-Purpose Dam Project will develop a multi-purpose dam coupled with a run-of-river small hydropower plant on the east and middle-east branches of the Vaisigano River behind the capital city of Apia. The project will help Samoa (i) attenuate Vaisigano River floods, (ii) increase the resiliency of the Apia water supply, and (iii) increase capacity for renewable energy generation. The project also includes capacity building and project management support. The primary objective of the project is to attenuate flooding from the upstream areas of the east and middle-east branches of the Vaisigano River. Secondary objectives of the dam are to increase piped water supply during dry periods and to reduce turbidity of piped water during periods of heavy rain. The tertiary objective is to generate 0.4 megawatt (MW) hydropower. The project executing agency (EA) is the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The implementing agency is the Electric Power Corporation (EPC) with its Project Management Unit (PMU). The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided project preparatory technical assistance (PPTA) to the Government of Samoa (GOS) to develop the project including preparation of a feasibility study. The project consultant, Entura (Hydro Tasmania), is carrying out the feasibility study. This Resettlement Plan (RP) is based on the findings of the social impact assessment carried out under the PPTA as part of the feasibility study. No permanent land acquisition (voluntary or involuntary) is expected under the current project scope and design. Nearly all proposed project works that fall under the scope of the feasibility study are located within a single piece of government (public) land totalling 1,851 hectares that covers substantially all of the middle and upper watershed of the Vaisigano River. Alaoa Road, which will act as the access road from Cross Island Road to the construction site, is outside the scope of the present feasibility study but is addressed in the RP in a preliminary manner. ADB has designated the project Category B for involuntary land acquisition and resettlement, and Category C for Indigenous Peoples. The New Zealand colonial Administrator of the Territory of Western Samoa acquired the Vaisigano watershed land in 1921 under Ordinance No. 18 (Land for Water Supply Purposes). At ADB’s request, the government through EPC and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) have surveyed the boundaries of the 1921 Ordinance land. The survey confirms that all the project sites lie within the 1921 Ordinance land. During stakeholder consultation meetings, at least three families claimed that they own part of the project area as customary land. In each case, the government provided evidence that the land in question is public land and that the people who are living on or otherwise using the land are doing so informally. All claimants have seen the documentary evidence, and they have not provided any evidence to support their own claims. The government through EPC informed the families to take their claims to the Land & Titles Court (LTC) for resolution. The government through EPC met with one such Magiagi claimant at the LTC. Following the informal discussion meeting, the claimant has not followed up by filing any formal complaint or petition with the LTC. The LTC has presented the government with a letter certifying that there are no active claims of customary ownership over any part of the 1921 Ordinance land. Records show that the Government acquired the land underlying the entire project area in 1921 in a manner that accords with ADB Safeguards Policy Statement (SPS) and with applicable national laws. There are no records indicating that the land acquisition was forced or that there were objections at the time of acquisition or at any other time over the following century. The due i diligence confirmed that while no written records of compensation exist today, there is no reason to believe that acquisition was forced or otherwise irregular. Thus, due diligence reveals no legacy issues of improper acquisition. The government, through EPC and the Land Transport Authority (LTA), have not made a decision about plans for the access road/s. The question of the access road(s) is to be worked out by the government during the detailed engineering design stage and the construction contractor during the implementation phase of the project. Thus, any potential land acquisition and resettlement impacts related to any access road(s) cannot be determined at this time and will be the subject of further due diligence. The RP nevertheless provides available background and other preliminary information that can be used to help frame the necessary policy decisions and preliminary activities that will be required later in order to determine, assess, and potentially mitigate any involuntary land acquisition and resettlement impacts that might result from any proposed upgrading of the project access road(s). EPC determined that Alaoa Road is the only viable access road to the project site. Alaoa Road is a public secondary road that runs in a south-easterly direction from Cross Island Road to the water treatment plant on the Vaisigano River downstream of the proposed dam site. The top 950 meters of Alaoa Road (“upper Alaoa Road”) is tar sealed to a low standard with a sealed width varying from 5 to 6 meters. The remaining 400 meters of the roadway (“lower Alaoa Road”) is unpaved going down a steep hill to the flat bottomland where the water treatment plant sits. At that point, the terminus of Alaoa Road is about 1.0 (kilometre) km due north (downstream) of the proposed dam site. Preliminary due diligence concludes that the Alaoa road easement was very likely acquired in a manner that accords with ADB SPS and with applicable national laws. Note, however, that the government through EPC did not directly address any potential upgrade or redevelopment work on Alaoa Road during public consultations because the access road has not yet been addressed under the project design and because the government has not yet made a policy decision regarding potentially upgrading the road. Further investigation of any potential legacy issues will be carried out, if necessary, once those two matters have been addressed in accordance with ADB safeguards policy and government pertinent laws. The land outside the road easement is private on both sides of the road in both the upper and lower sections. Thus, widening the upper section of Alaoa Road beyond its current legal easement would require acquisition of private land from many individual parcels. Such a step does not appear necessary from a technical (but still preliminary) perspective, but GOS has not yet made a policy decision on this matter. Some damage would likely occur to non-land assets such as fences, bushes, and trees, and the contractor would be required to move, replace, or compensate landowners for those assets. Four private houses encroach on government property near the bridge and water treatment plant. The proposed dam site lies approximately 1.0 km south of these informal settler residences. All four of the houses near the bridge and water treatment plant are encroaching on public land, but due diligence shows that the four houses are well outside the project area, that the four residences will neither affect nor be affected by the project, and that attempts by MNRE to evict them began many years ago and are unrelated to the present project. Nevertheless, the government defers to ADB concerns about the matter and agrees not pursue those evictions during the course of the project. ii Seventeen members of Magiagi village have planted crops on 1921 Ordinance land in the Vaisigano watershed in areas that in future will be affected by project works either in the form of direct damage to crops from construction or in the form of permanent loss of access to land that they are currently farming informally in the project area or in the area upstream of the project area. Those 17 planters are entitled to compensatory damages under ADB SPS regarding involuntary economic displacement, and the government is committed to implementing that policy.