Initial Environmental Examination October 2019 Kiribati: South Tarawa Water Supply Project Prepared by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Energy for the Asian Development Bank and World Bank. This is an updated version of the draft originally posted in August 2019 available on https://www.adb.org/projects/documents/kir-49453-002-rrp. This initial environmental examination 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. Your attention is directed to the “terms of use” section of this website. 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 judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. South Tarawa Water Supply Project (RRP KIR 49453) Environmental Assessment Document Project No.: 49453-002 Date: August 2019 Status: Draft Final Kiribati: South Tarawa Water Supply Project Environmental and Social Impact Assessment This environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) report complies with the country safeguard system requirements of Kiribati with additional elements as required to also comply with the safeguard requirements of the Asian Development Bank and World Bank. This report does not constitute an EIA for category A projects as per the ADB Safeguard Policy Statement 2009 or World Bank OP 4.01. For this project the EIA is an assessment commensurate with the risks and impacts of a category B project. This ESIA is a document of the borrower. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the Board of Directors, Management, or staff, of the Asian Development Bank 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 any particular territory or geographic area in this document, the Asian Development Bank or World Bank do not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area. Table of Contents Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................... iii Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... v Section 1 – Introduction and background to the project ......................................................................1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Location .............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.3 Background to Bonriki and Buota water reserves .............................................................................. 3 1.4 Project purpose and objectives .......................................................................................................... 5 1.5 Need for the project ........................................................................................................................... 6 1.6 Profile of the project proponent ........................................................................................................ 8 1.7 Contact details for the proponent ...................................................................................................... 8 Section 2 – Policy and legal framework ...............................................................................................9 2.1 National, regional, provincial or customary laws and regulations ..................................................... 9 2.2 Multilateral environmental agreements .......................................................................................... 10 2.3 Health, safety, hazard and risk management standards .................................................................. 11 2.4 Environmental policies of financing institutions involved in the project ......................................... 11 Section 3 – Description of the baseline environment ........................................................................ 13 3.1 Climate .............................................................................................................................................. 13 3.2 Topography, geology and soils ......................................................................................................... 14 3.3 Water ................................................................................................................................................ 15 3.4 Marine............................................................................................................................................... 15 3.5 Coastal flora and fauna ..................................................................................................................... 17 3.6 Marine flora and fauna ..................................................................................................................... 17 3.7 Terrestrial flora and fauna ................................................................................................................ 20 3.8 Land tenure, zoning and use ............................................................................................................. 21 3.9 Human communities......................................................................................................................... 21 3.10 Local and national economy ........................................................................................................... 25 Section 4– Project description and justification................................................................................. 27 4.1 Project components .......................................................................................................................... 27 4.2 Analysis of alternatives ..................................................................................................................... 44 4.3 Project benefits ................................................................................................................................. 47 i Section 5 – Risk assessment ............................................................................................................. 49 5.1 Component 1: Improvement of water supply services .................................................................... 49 5.1.1 Pre-construction and design phase............................................................................................ 49 5.1.2 Construction phase .................................................................................................................... 52 5.1.3 Operation phase......................................................................................................................... 64 5.2 Component 5.1: sanitation pilot ....................................................................................................... 74 Section 7 – Environmental and social management .......................................................................... 77 7.1 Institutional arrangements for environmental management .................................................... 78 7.2 Environmental management framework.................................................................................... 83 7.4 Grievance redress mechanism .................................................................................................. 103 Section 8 – Local community, stakeholder engagement and consultation ........................................ 106 8.1 Dates, types and methods of engagement and consultation, and outcomes to date ................... 106 8.2 Key findings from engagement and consultation ........................................................................... 107 8.3 Future engagement and consultation activities ............................................................................. 109 8.4 Negotiation and agreements with directly affected persons and land/resource owners ............. 109 8.5 Information disclosure ........................................................................................................................ 109 Section 9 – Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 110 References .................................................................................................................................... 112 Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 114 Appendix 1: MELAD response to Environmental License Application Appendix 2: Land Options for Desalination Plant Appendix 3: Water Supply Infrastructure - Summary of Proposed Upgrades Appendix 4: Minutes of Community Consultations List of Figures Figure 1.1 - Location map of Republic of Kiribati ....................................................................................... 2 Figure 1.2 - Tarawa Atoll ............................................................................................................................ 3 Figure 3.1 - Seaward