ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING REPORT ______

April 2021

Annual report

Project No. 45354-002 Grant: G0352 Reporting period: 1 January 2020- 31 December 2020

TAJIKISTAN: "BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN THE PYANJ RIVER BASIN" Component 1 and 2 (irrigation and flood management) (Financing by the Asian Development Bank)

Prepared by the Agency for Land Reclamation and Irrigation under the Government of the Republic of (Project Implementation Unit) for the Asian Development Bank.

This environmental monitoring report is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of ADB's Board of Directors, its managers, or employees, and may in fact only be preliminary. When preparing any country program or strategy, financing any project, or by any indication or reference to a specific territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank does not intend to make any judgments regarding the legal or any other status of any of territories or districts

ABBREVIATIONS ADB Asian Development Bank. ALRI Agency for Land Reclamation and Irrigation. CEP Committee on Environment Protection

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Purpose of the report ...... 2 2 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING ...... 2 2.1 Soil salinization and groundwater level in the project areas, humus content in the project areas ...... 3 2.2 Population health statistics in project areas ...... 4 2.3 Grievance Redress mechanism ...... 6 3 Conclusion ...... 6 Annex 1. Information on soil salinity and groundwater level in the pilot districts of Pyanj, Vose, Kulyab, Darvoz, Vanj, Rushan, Roshtkala Ishkoshim as of December 31, 2020 ...... 7 ANNEX 2. Data of the State Institution for Land Reclamation and Irrigation of the Pyanj region...... 9 ANNEX 3. Statistics on public health in the project areas for 2020...... 10

1 INTRODUCTION 1. The objective of the Project "Building Climate Resilience in the Paynj River Basin" (Project No. 45354-002 G0352), by the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan with the support of the Asian Development Bank, is the reduction of adverse effects of climate variability and climate change in the Pyanj River Basin. 2. The Project comprises four Parts as follows: Part A - Flood Protection; Part B – Irrigation; Part C - Water Supply; and Part D – Microfinance. This monitoring report covers Part A and Part B, while another monitoring report covers Part C. There is no environmental impact anticipated from Part D. 3. Part A - Flood Protection consists of below components; (a) Rehabilitation, upgrading and construction of flood and mud-flow protection infrastructure in the Pyanj River Basin. (b) Provision of capacity building for local MLRWR officers, communities and disaster risk management committees in the areas of flood protection infrastructure maintenance, early flood warning communication, disaster risk management and adaption to the adverse impacts of climate change. 4. Part B - Irrigation consists of below components; (c) Rehabilitation, upgrading and construction of irrigation canals and network systems in the Pyanj River Basin. (d) Piloting of a drip irrigation scheme in the Pyanj River Basin. (e) Provision of capacity building for local MLRWR officers and communities in the areas of water resources management and climate resilient agricultural practices and to strengthen water user associations. 5. The irrigation component of the project includ the rehabilitation of flood protection infrastructure in 10 jamoats and protection of irrigation systems in 8 jamoats in 8 pilot districts: Pyanj, Vose, Kulyab, Darvaz, Vanj, Rushan, Roshtkala and Ishkoshim. 6. The implementation agency of Part A and Part B is the Agency for Land Reclamation and Irrigation (ALRI) under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, under which the Project Management Office (PMO) has been established. The construction supervision consultant (CSC) was CC Eptisa. 7. ALRI was supposed to prepare and submit such monitoring report semi-annually, however, a report was not prepared for January-June 2020, therefore this report covers two monitoring periods; January – June 2020 and July – December 2020. 8. For Part A and Part B, there were 7 contractors in total. The completion dates of each subproject and their warranty periods are shown in Table 1. Table 1. Data on the period of implementation of subprojects

Expiration Date of Date of date of the Description of sites Contractor contract completion warranty signing period Rehabilitation, modernization and climate resilient irrigation systems and flood LLC "Behbudi" 2016.22.02 2017.22.02 February 2018 protection infrastructure in Pyanj region Rehabilitation, modernization and climate resilient irrigation systems and flood LLC 2016.22.04 2017.15.10 October 2018 protection infrastructure / target areas of «Mostotryad" Vose Rehabilitation, modernization and climate resilient irrigation systems and flood LLC November 2016.23.05 2017.06.11 protection infrastructure / target districts of "Umed-1" 2018 Vose and Kulyab

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Rehabilitation, modernization and climate resilient irrigation flood protection LLC 2016.18.03 2017.18.08 Аugust 2018 infrastructure for Rushan, Darvaz and Vanj «Jovid" districts Rehabilitation, modernization and climate LLC resilient irrigation flood protection "Кupruksosii 2016.31.10 2018.31.03 Мarch 2018 infrastructure for Roshkala and Ishkoshim Paivand" districts Rehabilitation and modernization of LLC November pumping stations Pogranichnik 0 and 1 in 2017.27.11 2017.27.11 "Sobir SAM" 2018 the river. Pyanj "Rehabilitation and cleaning of the Roharv river bed and reconstruction of the Bovid December LLC "Jovid" 2018.09.04 2018.09.12 siphon in the Bovid village of the Vanj 2019 region" "Flood protection of Sari Angur village in A. LLC 2018.05.04 2019.05.06 June 2020 Rudaki jamoat, Vose district" "Umed-1" "Construction of a demonstration area for drip irrigation (10 hectares) in the Pyanj LLC "Rohat" 2018.08.07 2019.03.07 July 2020 region" 9. A grievance redress mechanism was established at all project sites and stakeholders were consulted to keep them informed of the progress of the project.

1.1 Purpose of the report 10. This report includes information on environmental monitoring in the project areas during the operation and maintenance phase from January to December 2020. 11. The location of the project sites in country scale is shown on the map below.

Map 1. Location of project sites in country scale

2 ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING 12. All construction works were completed in March 2019.

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13. It should be noted that all completed facilities are located at a great distance from settlements and during the operation phase, noise and vibration of pumping units do not have a negative impact on the local people, since they are located in closed areas and operate only during the irrigation season. 14. According to the Monitoring Plan developed for the operational phase, it was necessary to monitor the following parameters: 1) soil salinity and humus content in the zone of rehabilitated irrigation schemes within the project; 2) the level of groundwater in the project areas; 3) statistics on the health of the population in the project areas. 15. In addition, ALRI monitored the GRM functioning in all project districts.

2.1 Soil salinization and groundwater level in the project areas, humus content in the project areas 16. During the reporting period (January-December 2020), according to the confirmation of the environmental authorities of the project areas, operational work did not have an additional impact on the pollution of water sources. According to the State Institution "Supervision of Land Reclamation and Water Use" in the project areas, soil salinity is insignificant in the Pyanj and Vose districts, and in Kulyab, Darvaz, Vanj, Rushan, Roshtkala and Ishkoshim. Soil salinization was not observed, and the land reclamation is considered as satisfactory. Groundwater levels are mainly located at a depth of more than 2 m, which does not cause the soil salinization process. The humus content has not changed (see Annex 1). 17. Since the project facility came into operation, specialists-observers of the State Institution for Supervision of Land Reclamation and Water Use under ALRI have been measuring the groundwater level 3 (three) times a month at observation amelioration wells located in all districts of Tajikistan with irrigation agriculture and enter the data into the groundwater measurement log. This organization is authorized to observe and monitor the level of groundwater in observation wells throughout the territory of the Republic of Tajikistan and analyze the quality of groundwater in its laboratory. 18. Data on soil salinity and groundwater levels in the project areas are shown in Table 2. Table 2. Information on soil salinity and groundwater levels in the project areas (as of 31 December 2020)

№ Distribution of arable land by indicators depth of Distribution of lands with salinization (ha)

groundwater (ha)

)

ha

m

(

0м 0м 0м

5

. . .

.

2 3 5

1 salted

- - -

- -

5 0 0

land

0

. . .

.

1 2 3

1

District names

up1.0mto

Non

Lesssaline

Highlysalted

Mediumsalted

More than More 5.0m Totalofarea irrigated 1 Pyanj 15,061 251 292 1,762 4,621 4,260 3,875 14,666 93 262 40 2 Кulob 8,175 160 370 1,689 1,939 2,065 1,952 8,175 3 Vose 19,522 515 3,390 4,275 3,447 1,550 6,345 17,782 1,575 165 4 Darvoz 993 15 40 938 993 5 Vanj 2,609 50 30 45 2,484 2,609 6 2,098 245 345 212 224 1,072 2,082 10 6 7 Roshkala 2,846 8 7 220 2,611 2,846 8 Ishkoshim 4,470 240 158 165 610 3,297 4,453 8 9

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19. The environmental monitoring plan (Table 4 and Table 19) in the Project’s IEE1 requires soil sampling/analysis semi-annually during operation phase, but such analysis has never been conducted since 2019 when the project facilities came into operation. The Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) and the State Institution of Supervision of Land Reclamation and Water Use under ALRI will conduct analysis in June 2021, and report the result to ADB through the next semi-annual environmental monitoring report. 20. According to the information provided by the chief specialist of the State Institution of Melioration and Irrigation of the Pyanj region, Mr. Dusmatov R, the construction of the demonstration drip irrigation site (10 hectares) in the Pyanj region was completed in March 2019. 21. The facility was commissioned in April 2019. The area of the irrigated garden (with fruitful apricot trees) is 10 ha. From the beginning of operation, the system works satisfactorily, according to its specified parameters. The groundwater level is located at the depth of 4.6-5.2 m. The mineralization of groundwater was 1-2 g / l. The melioration condition is satisfactory. 22. The building of the drip irrigation pump station is properly functioning, complies with the national GOST parameters (standards). Currently the system is in good condition. The drip irrigation building is maintained by the State Department of Land Reclamation and Irrigation of the Pyanj region. 23. No complaints from the public and other interested parties were recorded/registered in 2020. 24. During the operation of the pump station, the environmental protection department of the Pyanj region periodically checked the state of the environment in 2020. No violations by the inspectors were defined (see Annex 2).

2.2 Population health statistics in project areas 25. During the reporting period, the following statistical data was received from the Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of the Republic of Tajikistan on the state of health of the population in the project areas in response to a request dated 10 March 2021, No. 23. The provided data are explained below in comparison with the 2019. The data presented show that in the pilot districts, after the completion of the facilities, the epidemiological situation with regard to waterborne infectious diseases has noticeably improved. 26. A study of the epidemiological situation on infectious diseases in Gorno- Autonomous Region (GBAO) in 2020 shows that typhoid fever, malaria, and other dangerous infections have not been registered. There were 6 cases of bloody diarrhea (2019-12; 2020-6), 115 cases of brucellosis (2019-207; 2020-92), 477 cases of acute intestinal diseases (2019-1911; 2020-1434), 2 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (2019-3; 2020-1), viral hepatitis A 96 cases (2019- 301; 2020-205), tuberculosis 93 cases (2019-207; 2020-114) and animal bites 56 cases (2019- 96; 2020- 40) less than in 2019. At the same time, 6939 cases of acute respiratory diseases were registered (2019 -12051; 2020-18990), 3416 cases of pneumonia (2019-304; 2020-3720) more. 27. The study of the epidemiological situation of infectious diseases in the Darvaz district in 2020 shows that typhoid fever, hemorrhagic fever, viral hepatitis I, C, measles, mumps, rubella, whooping cough and especially dangerous infections such as burns, dengue fever, cholera and the plague is not registered. Also, the incidence of acute intestinal diseases was 543 cases (2019- 560; 2020-17), tuberculosis 4 cases (2019-9; 2020-5), viral hepatitis "A" 22 cases (2019-26; 2020- 4) were registered less in relation to 2019. At the same time, 3077 cases of acute respiratory diseases (2019-2633; 2020-5710) and 207 cases of pneumonia (2019-8; 2020-215) were registered more. The incidence of animal bites (2019-3; 2020-3) and brucellosis (2019-1; 2020- 1) is at the same level.

1 ADB. Building Climate Resilience in the Pyanj River Basin: Irrigation and Flood Management (Draft) < https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/project-document/76153/45354-002-taj-iee-02.pdf>

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28. A study of the epidemiological situation on infectious diseases in in 2020 shows that typhoid fever, bloody diarrhea, viral hepatitis B, C, malaria, measles, influenza, whooping cough, acute flaccid paralysis and especially dangerous infections such as brucellosis, burns, dengue fever, cholera and plague have not been reported. There were also 20 cases of acute gastrointestinal diseases (2019-522; 2020-302), 6 cases of viral hepatitis A (2019-24; 2020- 18), 12 cases of tuberculosis (2019-25; 2020-13), bite injuries animals were registered for 4 cases (2019-8; 2020-4) less than in 2019. At the same time, 607 cases of acute respiratory diseases were registered (2019-2389; 2020-2996) and 75 cases of pneumonia (2019-77; 2020-152). 29. A study of the epidemiological situation on infectious diseases in Rushon district in 2020 shows that typhoid fever, bloody diarrhea, malaria, acute flaccid paralysis, whooping cough, measles, influenza, viral hepatitis B and C and the most dangerous infections such as cholera and plague were not registered. Also, 31 cases of acute intestinal diseases (2019-86; 2020-55), 13 cases of animal bites (2019-16; 2020-3) and 29 cases of viral hepatitis A (2019-45; 2020-16), 8 cases of tuberculosis ( 2019-28; 2020-20) registered less than in 2019. At the same time, more than 969 cases of acute respiratory diseases were registered (2019-1505; 2020-2474) and 286 cases of pneumonia (2019-75; 2020-361). Brucellosis is at the same level (2019 - 1; 2020-1). 30. A study of the epidemiological situation on infectious diseases in Roshkala district in 2020 shows that typhoid fever, hemorrhage, viral hepatitis B, C, malaria, influenza, acute flaccid paralysis, whooping cough, measles and other dangerous infections such as cholera and plague are not were registered. Also, the total number of acute intestinal diseases per 23 cases (2019- 316; 2020-293), viral hepatitis type A (2019-69; 2020-13), brucellosis 88 cases (2019-143; 2020- 55), 4 cases of animal bites (2019-9; 2020-5) and 5 cases of tuberculosis (2019-28; 2020-23) were registered less than in 2019. At the same time, 1 case of bloody diarrhea was registered (2019-1; 2020-2), 576 cases of acute respiratory diseases (2019-1550; 2020-2126), 52 cases of pneumonia (2019-19; 2020-71) more. 31. The study of the epidemiological situation on infectious diseases in Ishkashim district in 2020 shows that typhoid fever, hepatitis B, C, influenza malaria, whooping cough, cholera and plague have not been registered. In addition, 2 cases of diarrhea (2019-2; 2020-0), 15 cases of tuberculosis (2019-30; 2020-15), 26 cases of acute respiratory diseases (2019-661; 2020-635) are less than in 2019. At the same time, 373 cases of pneumonia (2019-10; 2020-383), 52 cases of acute intestinal diseases (2019-128; 2020-180), 36 cases of viral hepatitis A (2019-27; 2020- 63), injuries from animal bites were registered 1 more case (2019-0; 2020-1) registered more. Acute flaccid paralysis is at the same level (2019-1; 2020-1). 32. According to the study of the epidemiological situation in Kulyab district of the Khatlon province in 2020, typhoid fever, bloody diarrhea, burn malaria, dengue fever, cholera, plague were not registered. Also, the total number of acute intestinal diseases left 267 cases (2019-1893; 2020-1626), 13 cases of brucellosis (2019-26; 2020-13), 1 case of bloody diarrhea (2019-10; 2020-9), jaundice type A 98 cases (2019-147; 2020-49), 151 cases of animal bites (2019-1354; 2020-1203), 157 cases of uberculosis (2019-648; 020-491) were registered less than in the same period in 2019. At the same time, viral hepatitis “B” type 5 case (2019-20; 2020-25), type “C” 1 case (2019-1; 2020-2), acute respiratory diseases 2383 cases (2019-7013; 2020 -9396) registered more. 33. Data on the epidemiological situation of infectious diseases in Vose district show that typhoid fever, hepatitis B and C, malaria, acute peripheral poliomyelitis, whooping cough, influenza, especially dangerous infections such as burns, blood poisoning, cholera, plague have not been registered. There was also 1 case of bleeding (2019-5; 2020-4), 8 cases of viral jaundice of type A (2019-23; 2020-15), 66 cases of acute intestinal diseases (2019-453; 2020-387), arthritis 1 case (2019-8; 2020-7), deafness 4 cases (2019-10; 2020-6), animal bite injury 36 cases (2019- 192; 2020-156), tuberculosis 38 cases (2019-141; 2020-103 ) less than in 2019. At the same time, 2 cases of measles (2019-0; 2020-2), 1576 cases of acute respiratory infections (2019-1341; 2020-2917), 90 cases of pneumonia (2019-0; 2020-290) registered more. 34. A study of the epidemiological situation of infectious diseases in the Pyanj district in 2020 shows that typhoid fever, viral jaundice of types “B” and “C”, malaria, whooping cough, diarrhea, Crimean hemorrhagic fever, cholera and plague have not been registered. There was also 1 case

5 of acute intestinal diseases (2019-370; 2020-189), 80 cases of animal bites (2019-365; 2020- 285), 2 cases of tuberculosis (2019-54; 2020-52), acute respiratory infections 5 cases (209-446; 2020-441), viral jaundice type “A” 2 cases (2019-6; 2020-4) less than in the same period in 2019. At the same time, more than 60 cases of pneumonia were registered (2019-0; 2020-60). Diarrhea was also registered (2019-5; 2020 -4), viral jaundice of type “A” 8 cases (2019-23; 2020-15), acute intestinal diseases 66 cases (2019-453; 2020-387), arthritis 1 case (2019-8; 2020-7), deafness 4 cases (2019-10; 2020-6), animal bites 36 cases (2019-192; 2020-156), tuberculosis 38 cases (2019-141; 2020-103) less than in 2019. At the same time, measles for 2 cases (2019-0; 2020- 2), acute respiratory disease 1576 cases (2019-1341; 2020-2917), pneumonia 290 cases (2019- 0; 2020-290) more registered (Appendix 3).

2.3 Grievance Redress mechanism 35. In the period from January to December 2020, no complaints from the population and environmental authorities in 8 project areas ((Khatlon province: Pyanj, Vose, Kulyab districts; (Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO): Darvaz, Vanj, Rushan, Roshtkala, Ishkashim districts) were received and registered according to the data from the Complaints Committees at the district, regional and central levels.

3 Conclusion 36. Regardless of the requirement of environmental monitoring plan soil sampling/analysis has never been conducted since 2019 when the project facilities came into operation. The CEP and the State Institution of Supervision of Land Reclamation and Water Use under ALRI will conduct analysis in June 2021, and report the result to ADB through the next semi-annual environmental monitoring report.

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Annex 1. Information on soil salinity and groundwater level in the pilot districts of Pyanj, Vose, Kulyab, Darvoz, Vanj, Rushan, Roshtkala Ishkoshim as of December 31, 2020

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ANNEX 2. Data of the State Institution for Land Reclamation and Irrigation of the Pyanj region

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ANNEX 3. Statistics on public health in the project areas for 2020.

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