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ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (EA) AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK Public Disclosure Authorized PUNJAB EDUCATION SECTOR REFORMS PROGRAM-II (PESRP-II) Public Disclosure Authorized PROGRAM DIRECTOR PUNJAB EDUCATION SECTOR REFORMS PROGRAM (PESRP) SCHOOL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GOVERNMENT OF THE PUNJAB Tel: +92 42 923 2289~95 Fax: +92 42 923 2290 url: http://pesrp.punjab.gov.pk email: [email protected] Public Disclosure Authorized Revised and Updated for PERSP-II February 2012 Public Disclosure Authorized DISCLAIMER This environmental and social assessment report of the activities of the Punjab Education Sector Reforms Program of the Government of the Punjab, which were considered to impact the environment, has been prepared in compliance to the Environmental laws of Pakistan and in conformity to the Operational Policy Guidelines of the World Bank. The report is Program specific and of limited liability and applicability only to the extent of the physical activities under the PESRP. All rights are reserved with the study proponent (the Program Director, PMIU, PESRP) and the environmental consultant (Environs, Lahore). No part of this report can be reproduced, copied, published, transcribed in any manner, or cited in a context different from the purpose for which it has been prepared, except with prior permission of the Program Director, PESRP. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This document presents the environmental and social assessment report of the various activities under the Second Punjab Education Sector Reforms Program (PESRP-II) – an initiative of Government of the Punjab for continuing holistic reforms in the education sector aimed at improving the overall condition of education and the sector’s service delivery. The report dilates upon the potential adverse environmental and social impacts of the Program and suggests appropriate guidelines in the form of an environmental and social management framework (ESMF) for avoiding or mitigating the significant impacts. Screening and assessment of the environmental impacts of developmental, constructional, and or infrastructural activities is a legal prerequisite under environmental laws of Pakistan. Applicability of the World Bank Safeguard Policies concerning environment and social sectors also extends to the Program for its being a Bank funded initiative. Program Description The Punjab Education Sector Reform Program was launched in 2003 by Government of the Punjab (GoPb) for improving the plight of education in the province. The PESRP employs a holistic, sector-wide, and a program mode approach of developing well coordinated synergistic activities in a symbiotic environment, because the piecemeal project mode approach had not been successful in the past. Under the program mode framework, the Provincial Government enters into “Terms of Partnership” agreements with the District Governments for providing tied budgetary grants, each year. The PESRP is designed to address the issues of access, governance, and quality, primarily in the public sector education system. The progress indices show that the Program has been successful in achieving the majority of its objectives like increased enrollment rate, reduced dropouts, provision of missing facilities, gender balance, provision of free textbooks, and reduced teachers’ absenteeism. To support the PERSP, the World Bank implemented the Punjab Education Sector Project (PESP) from 2009 to 2012. Construction of missing facilities in the schools was one of the subcomponents of the Project. PESRP-II . PESRP comes to an end at the close of this fiscal year (FY2011/12). Building on the institutional, administrative, and program foundations laid by PESRP, the provincial government is presently developing its next medium-term multifaceted sectoral reform program for primary and secondary education, the Second Punjab Education Sector Reform Program (PESRP II), which aims to better orient and ratchet up efforts to address the remaining deficiencies in participation, attainment, and achievement outcomes. PESRP II will also support and enable the roadmap to yield real and sustainable gains in outcomes. To improve outcomes, the main challenge in public education is essentially to improve teacher quality and performance. The teacher is the main instrument for student learning in this context, so many of the sectoral initiatives can affect the child only through the teacher. Improved student learning, in turn, helps retain students in school and attract new children to school. Recognizing that the participation returns from learning gains may take time to materialize, PESRP II also includes initiatives that directly attempt to increase participation at different levels. Much like the earlier phase of the Program, the Bank plans to launch the Second Punjab Education Sector Project (PESP-II), to support the PERSP-II. In line with the government’s priorities, the focus of PERSP-II is not on new infrastructure development, though some small scale civil works may be carried out in the Sector at large during the Program implementation period to construct the missing facilities or to rehabilitate/improve the existing school buildings. However none of such construction activities will be included in the PESRP II, supported by PESP-II. Similarly, PESRP II and PESP-II will not involve any land acquisition or involuntary resettlement. Study Objectives The primary objective of the present study is to identify and address the significantly adverse environmental and social impacts associated with civil works, school operations, and provision of free textbooks to schoolchildren. Among these activities, civil works and provision of free text books are not currently included in the PERSP-II, though they can still be undertaken in the Sector at large. Scope of the Study The scope of the study entails assessment of the environmental and social impacts of the Sector ESMF – PERSP-II Page iii activities in the entire geographical extent of the province of Punjab. However, these impacts have been assessed in only a few districts of representative regional character chosen from different geographical regions of the province. The study also assesses impacts of the Program activities during various implementation stages, from planning and designing to construction and the post construction usage of the buildings. Examination of the adverse impacts relating to printing and distribution of free textbooks is also included in the study’s ambit. Formulation of an ESMF, which caters both environmental and social issues, also forms part of the study’s chartered scope. Study Methodology The study relies both on primary and secondary data sources. However, greater reliance has been placed on primary sources, which include site visits and soliciting information from the key persons like construction contractors, school councils, parents, teachers, and officers of the district administration. Stakeholders ‟ consultations and focused group meetings have also been used as a primary source to solicit viewpoint and to know concerns of the stakeholders. A specially developed checklist has been used for collecting first hand information and for ascertaining disturbances to environmental parameters from Program implementation. A simplified impact assessment matrix has been used for characterization of the adverse impacts on selected parameters of the physical, biological, and social environments in the study area. Photographs, taken during field visits and surveys, have been used for explaining adverse impacts and for highlighting the areas of concern. The secondary sources include office archives of the Education Department, files and papers of the PESRP, websites of the World Bank, Government of the Punjab, and the PESRP, and the various other sources of information. Significant Adverse Impacts The majority of the Program activities will be environmentally benign, though isolated small-scale constructions at the individual school sites may be carried out. These construction activities, being of small scale and of short duration, would hardly produce any impacts of notable significance. The majority of the impacts during construction would be highly localized and mostly temporary in nature. These would relate to water quality, air quality, noise, vibrations, debris / solid waste generation, wastewater production, consumption of raw materials, worksite safety, and inconvenience to public primarily from improper stockpiling of the materials in the immediate radius of influence of the individual sites. The impacts pertaining to school operation phase would relate to those emanating from educational / learning pursuits and cleanliness activities at the schools. These would include impacts from inadequate disposal and management of the toilet wastewater, and to some extent, unhygienic disposal of the solid waste. The significant impacts of the textbook printing would pertain to usage of chemicals, inks, and paper of non-farm origin during the process of printing. The impacts of the distributional activities would relate to improper storage and the road traffic hazards by the carriage vehicles. Mitigation Measures The report provides mitigation measures for each type and stage of activity. The proposed design stage measures include provision of septic tank for toilet wastewater, convenient spatial placing of various structures and facilities, and provision of facilitation gadgets for special children. These construction stage measures include pre-emptive precautions by the construction contractor