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RTDA/ Rwanda Feeder Roads Development Project Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for selected feeder roads in the District of Gakenke, Rwanda –Project ID: P 126498, P158092 REPUBLIC OF RWANDA Public Disclosure Authorized RWANDA TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENT AGENCY Public Disclosure Authorized FEEDER ROADS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT (FRDP) UPDATED ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT (ESIA) FOR Public Disclosure Authorized REHABILITATION, UPGRADING AND MULTI-YEAR MAINTENANCE WORKS OF INDICATIVE FEEDER ROADS GAKENKE DISTRICT, 69 KM (3 LOTS) FEEDER ROAD DEVELOMENT PROJECT (FRDP) (P126498, P158092) Public Disclosure Authorized June 2020 0 UPDATED ESIA GAKENKE DISTRICT RTDA/ Rwanda Feeder Roads Development Project Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for selected feeder roads in the District of Gakenke, Rwanda –Project ID: P 126498, P158092 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Government of Rwanda (GoR) through Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI) and different Development Partners have initiated and intensified their effort to support feeder roads infrastructure development to minimize post- harvest loss and high transport cost across the country. A significant proportion of Rwanda rural population whose livelihoods depend on agriculture lacks access to rural transport facilities, including feeder roads that strongly hampers the agricultural development and prevent them to increasing access to markets, enhancing their competitiveness and improve their incomes and livelihoods. To overcome the above and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals Specifically Goal 9 which is about “to build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”, Rwanda Vision 2020, the Government of Rwanda launched the Rwanda Feeder Roads Development Project (FRDP) to develop agricultural marketing roads and reduce transport cost in the areas. Therefore, The Government of Rwanda (GoR) in partnership with International Development Association (IDA), acting as an Administrator of the Rwanda Feeder Road Development Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) has received a grant toward development of feeder road in six districts including Gakenke. In this regards, Gakenke District has signed the contract with CHICO and with JV CS&EC and Fair Construction towards the Design, upgrading, rehabilitation and multi-year maintenance of Selected feeder roads with a total distance of 69 Km that will be rehabilitated in Gakenke District; FR1: Buranga-Kamubuga-Rutabo-Base (50 km), FR 3: Gashenyi-Karambo-Kinoni (11 km) FR10: Ruhanga- Biziba (8 km). The major activities associated with the rehabilitation/upgrading of selected feeder roads in Gakenke District include rehabilitation/upgrading of carriageway pavement with a standardized width, bridges and drainage work as well as maintenance of rehabilitated infrastructures. The existing average carriageway width of the selected feeder roads will be upgraded to 6m width in line with the road standards in Rwanda. Therefore, under this project about 69km of feeder roads of in the district will go through rehabilitation/upgrading activities in an environmentally friendly and socially acceptable manner. Given the nature and scope of the selected feeder road project and the associated activities, the FRDP has been assigned environmental assessment category of “category A” which means that the project is expected to have potential negative environmental impacts, and thus the preparation of an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment/ Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESIA/ESMP) is mandatory. In order to comply with the Organic law 04/2005 of 08/04/2005 determining the modalities of protection, conservation and promotion of environment in Rwanda and Ministerial Order N° 004/2008 of 15/08/2008 establishing the list of works, activities and projects that have to undertake an environmental studies and the Ministerial Order No 003/MINIRENA/2015 of 24/04/2015 determining modalities for application, issuance and use of mineral and quarry licenses, Environmental and Social Impact i UPDATED ESIA GAKENKE DISTRICT RTDA/ Rwanda Feeder Roads Development Project Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for selected feeder roads in the District of Gakenke, Rwanda –Project ID: P 126498, P158092 Assessment/ Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESIA/ESMP ) was prepared and publicly disclosed in 2018 for Feeder Road project in Gakenke district for fourteen (14) feeder road sections. However, to make sure sound implementation of the project, following the recent design change, which focuses on three feeder roads (FR1, FR3, and FR10), updating the updating of the 2018 ESIA/ESMP is necessitated before commencing civil works. Therefore, With the new contract approach used for Gakenke Feeder roads, updating the ESIA/ESMP is the responsibility of the contractors (CHICO and Fair Construction), and the updated ESIA should be cleared by the World Bank before any Civil works. Although most project impacts are expected to be beneficial in terms socio economic development, there is a growing concern that many development activities may lead to some adverse impacts to existing biophysical and social environment through the potential damage to natural resources upon which the economies are based. The major challenge is how to attain sustainable development. The positive impacts include employment opportunity, skill transfer, enhanced economy in rural areas, increase and improvement in social and economic conditions and improved transport system among others. Potential negative impacts likely to occur include lose and change in land use, lose and damages of biodiversity (fauna and flora), landslides, relocation of households, increase in erosion rates, soil pollution due to spill of oil, grease and other chemical/material on road, disruption of natural drainage, water pollution due to construction activities in or nearby water bodies or disposal of wastes; air pollution due to dust and gases emissions from the construction machineries, increase in water demand, risk of health and safety, risks to health due to poor wastes disposal and outside labor employment; increase in noise increased road congestion, and damage of public utilities. The current figures identified for negative impacts are of 31.05 ha of additional land to have 10.5 m right of way, loss of 16,076 trees, one (1) water taps, etc., which will be relocated and 69 HHs to be total relocated. Much can be done to avoid, mitigate, or compensate for the negative environmental and social impacts of a road project, but it is important to identify potential impacts early in the road planning process and to make provisions for avoiding or mitigating these effects wherever possible. Failure to identify potential impacts may result in delays and cost increases later on in the project’s development. Neglecting to account for impacts may also cause the road agency to adopt solutions that compromise the environment. This ESIA study has produced different mitigation measures that will be applied to cope with the identified negative environmental and social impacts. Among the mitigation measures, the compensation of the PAPs for their affected or lost properties is envisaged; and it is the responsibility of the client or the Government of Rwanda in General. However, the contractors are also responsible for compensating the affected or lost properties of the PAPs for their interest (Acquiring land for quarries, borrow pit and dumping sites) or due to their incompliance to environmental and social regulations. In this regard, the upgrading, rehabilitation and maintenance works of proposed 69 km feeder road project will require different ii UPDATED ESIA GAKENKE DISTRICT RTDA/ Rwanda Feeder Roads Development Project Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for selected feeder roads in the District of Gakenke, Rwanda –Project ID: P 126498, P158092 construction materials (hardcore, gravel, sand, and soil) which fulfill the required standards for quality assurance. These constitute the project subcomponents which are borrow pits, quarries, dumping sites and campsites. The exploitation of identified sites must be economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally sound. It is proposed that road construction materials be sourced from existing borrow pits located in the vicinity or new construction materials should be created. As mentioned previously, the utilization of the materials sources required for the project will be undertaken in accordance with environmental organic law. In terms of the exploitation of these subcomponents an ESMP for the utilization of quarries, borrow pits, dumpsite and campsite will be compiled in accordance with the mentioned laws and regulations. The monitoring plan should be set up to ensure the negative impacts are attenuated. The Contractor and Supervising firm will respectively implement management, mitigation, and monitoring measures stipulated under this report and follow up its compliance with national and world bank environmental and social safeguards policies under the direct supervision of different institutions and Gakenke District. RDB will approve the report while REMA will oversee the project implementation and conduct environmental audit during the project implementation. In addition to the mitigation measures for negative impacts summarized in ESMP, the contractors are expected to prepare a detailed Contractor Environmental and Social Management Plan (C- ESMP) and Management