FATA - Rural Livelihood and Community Infrastructure Project (RLCIP) Public Disclosure Authorized Addendum to Environmental and Social Assessment (ESA) Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Project Management Unit (PMU) FATA-RLCIP, Government of Pakistan Peshawar Public Disclosure Authorized January 2015 Addendum to the ESA of FATA-RLCIP Executive Summary The Government of Pakistan is planning to extend the currently under implementation Rural Livelihood and Community Infrastructure Project (RLCIP) to North Waziristan Agency and a few of the Frontier Regions (FR) 1 beyond its original scope of work in the three agencies of Bajaur, Mohmand and South Waziristan of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). In compliance with the national regulatory and World Bank policy requirements, an environmental and social assessment of the additional scope of the RLCIP project has been carried out; the outcome of this assessment is being presented in the current document, as an Addendum to the existing environmental and social assessment (ESA) that was prepared for the original project. The World Bank has established a Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), on the request of the Government of Pakistan (GOP), for supporting the recovery and rehabilitation of the crisis hit areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), FATA and Balochistan. RLCIP is one of the MDTF funded projects and is currently under implementation. Environmental and Social Screening and Assessment Framework and ESA The Bank has prepared an Environmental and Social Screening and Assessment Framework (ESSAF), in line with the Operational Policy 8.0 for emergency operations– applicable to all interventions under the KP/FATA/Balochistan MDTF. It specifies the environmental and social requirements that an implementing agency will need to comply before the project is implemented. In pursuance of the ESSAF requirements, the FATA Secretariat prepared the ESA for the RLCIP project. The present document is an Addendum to and should be read in conjunction with the original ESA. Project Overview RLCIP was originally designed to improve livelihoods of the neglected low income communities in Bajaur, Mohmand, and South Waziristan agencies of FATA. Now the FATA Secretariat intends to extend the project to North Waziristan Agency and a few Frontier Regions once the internally displaced persons (IDPs) start returning o their homes, as these areas become accessible after the military operations. The components of the original as well as extended (or restructured) project include: A) Community Development and Social Capital Building; B) Community Infrastructure and Services; C) Livelihood Support; and D) Institutional Strengthening, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), and Project Management. Regulatory Framework The present study has been carried out in response to the requirements of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act of 1997 – which requires an environmental assessment to be carried out for each development project listed in scheduled I and/or II of the EIA/IEE Regulations 2000, and the World Bank’s Operational Policy 4.01, which asks for the environmental assessment to be carried out for Category A and B projects being considered through the Bank’s financing. 1The proposed Frontier Regions for Project interventions are FR Tank, FR Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan), FR Bannu, and FR Lakki Marwat. ii Addendum to the ESA of FATA-RLCIP Project Area The North Waziristan Agency (NWA) was declared as an Agency in 1910. The Agency is bounded on the North by Kurram Agency and Kohat, on the East by Kohat, Karak and Bannu, towards South by South Waziristan Agency, and on the West by Afghanistan. The agency lies from 32.35 degrees to 33.22 degrees north latitude and 69.22 degrees to 70.38 degrees east longitude. The Political Agent is the overall in-charge of administration in the Agency. The Agency has an area of 4707 square kilometers (sq km) having a population of 361,246 with a population density of 77 person per sq km. The Frontier Regions (FRs) are a set of small administrative units in FATA, lying immediately to the east of the seven main tribal agencies and to the west of the settled districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Each of the Frontier Regions is named after an adjoining settled district and is administered by the respective Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the named district. The overall administration of FRs is carried out by the FATA Secretariat in Peshawar. The total area of the four FRs of Tank, Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan), Bannu and Lakki Marwat is 4,106 sq km with population of 92,786 and population density of 30 persons per sq km , according to the census data of 1998. Amongst the above-mentioned FRs, DI Khan is the largest and Lakki Marwat is the smallest zones area-wise with 2,008 and 132 sq km, respectively. However, population density was the highest in Lakki and lowest in DI khan at 53 and 19 person per sq km, respectively. These special administrative units though small in size and population are critically important as they act as buffers between the settled districts and FATA agencies; and provide passage and at times host to FATA inhabitants, whether common peoples or IDPs. Stakeholders’ Consultations RLCIP is a Community Driven Development (CDD) project and as such consultations are its integral part. So far the project has conducted more than 1000 consultation sessions with the targeted communities for community mobilization, need determination, schemes implementation, and monitoring. Similar consultations will also be carried out in NWA and FRs during the implementation of the restructured project, once these areas become accessible. Key stakeholders of the restructured Project include low income communities of NWA and FR regions, officials and staff of line departments, FATA Secretariat, and local political administration and civil society organizations. It is anticipated that the community members will participate in project activities by joining the community organizations (COs). Impact Assessment and Mitigation The Project components B and C will include infrastructure and livelihood schemes such as water supply, sanitation, solid waste disposal, rehabilitation/construction of water courses, renewable energy systems, rural roads/street pavements, and agriculture and livestock schemes. The potentially negative environmental and social impacts of the above-described schemes are likely to include water source not being safe for drinking purposes, contamination of soil and water resulting from inappropriate waste disposal, health and safety hazards for the communities, unavailability of land on voluntary basis, inadequacy of the schemes siting, inequitable distribution of scheme benefits, blocked access routes, damage to the public infrastructure, iii Addendum to the ESA of FATA-RLCIP damage to crops and cultivation fields, tree felling, and damage to cultural heritage sites and graveyards. The impact assessment carried out during preparation of the main ESA and the present Addendum has revealed that most of these potential impacts are temporary and localized in nature with low to moderate in severity, and are mostly reversible. Furthermore, with the help of appropriate mitigation and control measures, most of these potential impacts will either be avoided altogether, or their likelihood of occurrence and severity will be further reduced, thus making these schemes environmentally responsible and socially acceptable. These mitigation measures include screening the water sources for their suitability against the drinking water standards; appropriately treating/disposing the sewage and solid waste; appropriately locating the schemes; ensuring community participation and consent in designing and locating the infrastructure/facilities; ensuring equitable distribution of scheme benefits; ensuring that the land for the schemes is voluntarily donated by the community; avoiding/minimizing damages to crops and infrastructure and repairing/rehabilitating/compensating any damages; compensatory tree plantation; and educating the community through awareness raising campaigns on aspects such as waste disposal, water conservation, modern irrigation/cultivation techniques. Environmental and Social Management Plan An environmental and social management plan (ESMP) has been included in the original ESA, to provide implementation mechanism for the mitigation measures identified during the study. The ESMP will be equally applicable to the extended project as well. The ESMP includes institutional arrangements for the environmental and social management of the project. Under these arrangements, environmental and social focal points (ESFPs) have been designated in the Project Management Unit (PMU), Agency Implementation Units, and also in the concerned line directorates/departments. These ESFPs have been ensuring implementation of the ESMP and its various requirements during various stages of the schemes. The PMU has been providing reports on ESMP implementation to the Bank on a quarterly basis. The ESMP also includes separate Mitigation Plans for each type of intervention included in the project. These Plans are made an integral part of the scheme design and its proposal-approval- implementation process. Furthermore, the ESMP identifies environmental and social monitoring, training needs, and the documentation and reporting requirements. Similar arrangements will be made for the extended project as well. The cost of the ESMP implementation and monitoring of the original project was estimated