Mini-Case / Quiz Topic : EA Categorization and EMP Requirements

1. Mini-Case / Quiz Topic: EA Categorization and EMP Requirements Discussion Material For the Moldova Safeguards Training Workshop October 28-31, 2008 By Victor B. Loksha ECA Safeguards Team Europe and Central Asia Region The World Bank

2. Mini-Case • Please review carefully the following three slides. Make sure to assess each of the situations and statements critically. Remember that some of the characters involved in the case may be incorrect in their assumptions

3. 1 • Darko Juzhek, the PIU director of the Slovonia Coastal Environment Improvement Project, is giving the following instructions to Elvira Zagogullina who has just joined the PIU as the environmental specialist: “Our project has several investment components, including the construction of new public sewerage systems, wastewater treatment plants, and submarine outfalls in seven locations. An environmental specialist from the World Bank has told us that the project will likely fall into the environmental Category “B” according to the Bank’s classification. However, our project is beneficial for the environment as its very name indicates. Therefore, we would like to request the Bank’s TTL to give our project the category “FI” (Financial Intermediary) instead of Category B”.

4. 2 • Juzhek goes on, “We have discussed the applicability of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) requirement with the Ministry of Environment. The Ministry requires the EIA only for one location – the town of Zador – where the treatment plant capacity exceeds 50,000 PE (population equivalent). We have a preliminary (feasibility phase) EIA report for Zador, which should get you started on the EMP. The rest of the project sites will be exempt from EIA. Since EIA for them is not required, we don’t need to prepare EMPs for them.”

5. 3 • Next week, a World Bank mission visits Slovonia and Ms. Zagogullina discusses the scope of the EMP with the Bank’s environmental specialist Steve Cohen. Mr. Cohen mentions that the only certain way to secure compliance of the project with the Bank’s EA requirements under OP 4.01 is to implement site-specific EMPs for all seven locations. The TTL is present in the meeting but leaves the issue for Cohen and Zagogullina to sort out.

6. Quiz Question 1: Which one of the statements below is correct? a) Category “FI” is not an available choice under OP 4.01 on Environmental Assessment. b) Environmental assessment does not need to reflect beneficial impacts of the project on the environment, focusing only on its possible adverse impacts and their mitigation. c) The choice between environmental categories “B” and “FI” depends on the extent and nature of the project’s environmental impacts. d) EA for Category “FI” projects requires a detailed description of the process followed by the borrower in implementing environmental assessments.

7. Quiz Question 2: Which one of the statements below is correct? a) Since the project is World Bank financed, the requirements of the Slovonian Ministry of Environment are irrelevant and OP 4.01 requirements must be applied instead. b) Juzhek is correct that EMPs are not required for the subprojects for which the Slovonian legislation does not require an EIA. c) Juzhek would be correct to say that it is not necessary to prepare EMPs for the subprojects for which national legislation does not require an EMP. d) An EMP may be prepared by the borrower and accepted by the World Bank even if the EIA report is not considered final in Slovonia.

8. Quiz Question 3: Which one of the statements below is most accurate? a) If the project is assigned category “FI”, site-specific EMPs for all seven subproject locations need to be implemented to meet the World Bank’s EA requirements. b) If the project is assigned category “FI”, one comprehensive EMP for the project as a whole is sufficient to meet the World Bank’s EA requirements. c) Site-specific EMPs need to be implemented for all seven locations if project activities with potential adverse environmental impacts are expected in all seven locations. d) One site-specific EMP for the town of Zador is sufficient to meet the World Bank’s EA requirements because it is the only site for which the Bank’s environmental category “B” is appropriate based on the size of the treatment plant.

9. Thank You!