Environmental Assessment INITIAL ENVIRONMENTAL EXAMINATION Project No. 49001-002 Document Stage: Draft August 2016 FIJI: Urban Water Supply and Wastewater Management Project Rewa River Water Supply Subproject Prepared by the Water Authority of Fiji and the Ministry of Finance for the Asian Development Bank 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. 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. ii CONTENTS Page ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................................................................... i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................ ii A. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 B. POLICY, LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK .................................................. 2 1. National Level ...................................................................................................................... 2 a) Department of Environment ............................................................................................ 2 b) Environmental Management Act 2005 ............................................................................ 3 c) Environment Management (Waste Disposal and Recycling) Regulations 2007 .............. 4 d) Environmental Management (EIA Process) Regulations 2007 ........................................ 5 e) Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Guidelines 2008 ............................................. 5 f) National Liquid Waste Management Strategy 2007 ........................................................ 5 g) Endangered and Protected Species Act 2002 ................................................................ 6 2. International Level ................................................................................................................ 6 a) ADB Environmental Safeguards Policy and Procedure ................................................... 7 C. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT ..................................................................................... 8 1. Background .......................................................................................................................... 8 2. Overall Project Location ....................................................................................................... 8 3. Water Supply Subproject Components ................................................................................11 a) River Intake and Pump Station ......................................................................................11 b) Water Treatment Plant ...................................................................................................12 c) Network Power Supply Upgrade ....................................................................................13 d) Pipeline..........................................................................................................................13 e) Waitolu Reservoir ..........................................................................................................14 4. Implementation Arrangement and Schedule ........................................................................14 D. DESCRIPTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT (BASELINE DATA) ...........................................15 1. Land Resources and Biodiversity ........................................................................................15 a) Freshwater Fishes. ........................................................................................................15 b) Marine and Coastal Resources. .....................................................................................16 c) Rewa Watershed ...........................................................................................................17 d) Freshwater Clam (Kai) ...................................................................................................18 e) Terrestrial Vertebrates ...................................................................................................18 f) Coastal Environment .....................................................................................................19 g) Rewa Delta ....................................................................................................................19 2. Rewa River ..........................................................................................................................20 a) Riverbed slope...............................................................................................................20 b) Chemical Constituents ...................................................................................................20 c) Heavy Metals/Pesticides ................................................................................................20 3. Climate Change ...................................................................................................................21 a) The First Study is the one by DBR. ................................................................................21 b) The Second Study information. ......................................................................................21 c) The Third Study focused ................................................................................................22 4. Sustainability in Fiji ..............................................................................................................23 5. Social Dimensions ...............................................................................................................23 6. Human and Economic Development ...................................................................................24 a) Economy .......................................................................................................................24 7. Occupational Health and Safety ..........................................................................................25 E. ANTICIPATED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS AND MITIGATION MEASURES ..................26 1. Component 1: Water Supply Project. ...................................................................................26 i) Scour/erosion ................................................................................................................28 a) Impacts on Ecological Resources ..................................................................................28 b) Impacts on Socio-economic Resources .........................................................................29 (ii) Loss of high value land through land acquisition. ...........................................................29 1.2. Construction Impacts ....................................................................................................29 a) Impacts on Physical Resources .....................................................................................29 i) Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. ...........................................................29 ii) Water quality .................................................................................................................30 iii) Riverbed extraction. .......................................................................................................31 v) Hazardous substances. .................................................................................................32 b) Impacts on Ecosystem Resources .................................................................................33 i) Aquatic ecology. ............................................................................................................33 ii) Terrestrial ecology. ........................................................................................................33 c) Impacts on Socio-economic Resources .........................................................................34 i) Construction camp, site offices and works yards/compounds. .......................................34 ii) Worker health and safety ...............................................................................................34 iii) Community health and safety ........................................................................................35 iv) Noise .............................................................................................................................36 v) Dust ...............................................................................................................................36 vi) Disruption to existing road users ....................................................................................36 vii) Sites of significance .......................................................................................................37 1.3 Operation Impacts .........................................................................................................37 a) Impacts on Physical Resources .....................................................................................37