Potential Environmental and Social Impacts of the OBA Project
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 567.
The OBA project is aimed at improving the overall SWM in participating municipalities and will contribute positively to each town's cleanliness and sanitation and will as such have positive environmental and social impacts.
Service improvements envisaged will typically include increased frequency of waste collection, expanding the service area to cover yet un-served areas, introduction of waste segregation and waste reduction initiatives including composting, provision of transport vehicles and other equipment, and improving landfill site management as well as improvement in collection and transportation practices.
Implementation of these service improvements is not expected to lead to adverse environmental impacts and social concerns; these, if any, are expected to be minor, and readily managed. The following potential environmental and social risks related to the OBA intervention in the pipeline municipalities and potential standard mitigation measures have been identified:
| OBA intervention | Potential risks | Potential mitigation measures |
| Increase of the collection service area | Pest problems, bad odor and waste littering from storage of waste prior to collection. Spillage from collection trucks during collection and transportation causing littering of waste in the streets and in the nature. | Provide sufficient number of proper bins/containers for storage of waste prior to collection and establish frequently and timely collection of the waste according to planned schedule. Inform households and other users about the waste collection system and the collection scheme. Encourage households and other users to put waste out at designated times and locations Avoid overfilling of open waste trucks during collection and cover the waste during transportation to the disposal facility to avoid windblown litter. |
| Health impacts on workers | Provide workers with and require use of appropriate protective clothing, gloves and slip-resistant shoes. Train the workers in correct lifting technique for loading of the collection truck with waste Provide prompt medical attention for cuts and bruises | |
| Increased waste amounts to the landfill with risk of increased adverse environmental and social impacts from landfill operation | Introduce source separation, material recycling and composting of the organic fraction. This will reduce the waste amounts to the landfill and will furthermore reduce the generation of landfill gas and highly contaminated leachate at the landfill site. | |
| Introduce home composting | Vermin problems and bad odor during the composting process due to incorrect operation Spreading of plastic, glass and other unwanted materials in gardens etc. by use of compost (caused by incorrect sorting of waste prior to composting) | Information and training of households in correct separation, operation and use of compost before startup of the home composting and monitoring and support during the operation. Monitoring of the system |
| Three bin household separation in organic, inorganic and hazardous waste | Incorrect handling, separation and storing of the waste in the households resulting in incorrect treatment/disposal of the separated waste fractions | Provide proper bins for storage of the separated fractions and information and training of households in correct waste separation. Monitoring of and follow-up on correct use of the system |
| Higher level of door to door collection by private operators combined with waste minimization (waste segregation, composting and recycling) | Loose of jobs for existing municipal waste collectors by introduction of private operators in an area | Request the private operators contractually to employ the municipal staff when private operation is introduced in an area previously serviced by the municipality |
| Loose of livelihood for waste pickers when waste segregation at source is gradually increased | Request the private operators to employ waste pickers[1] as part of the collection system; or Establish separate collection of the recyclable fraction by use of waste pickers. This might be combined with the establishment of a buy-back centre[2] in the area. The buy-back centre may provide the waste pickers with proper collection equipment, personal protection clothing, gloves and shoes as well as cleaning and washing facilities, health and safety training and frequently health checks. | |
| Gradual shift in municipal focus to ensuring efficient and environmentally acceptable transfer and disposal and monitoring of collection service providers (new improved transfer station(s) and bulk transport to landfill).[3] | Existing environmental and social unacceptable operation of the transfer stations (or rather informal sorting stations) continues in several years (littering, odor, sorting by waste pickers without any protective measures, unknown disposal of waste residuals, run-off of leachate to surface water) | Request the municipality to prepare a plan including a time schedule for improvement and establishment of the sorting/transfer facilities. Immediate improvement of existing sorting and transfer stations › Provide workers with and require use of appropriate protective clothing, gloves, dust masks/respirators and slip-resistant shoes › Provide prompt medical attention for cuts and bruise › Improve the markets and health conditions for the waste pickers by e.g. establishment of a buy-back centre with known and agreed prices at /close to the transfer stations. Provide the waste pickers with proper collection equipment, personal protection clothing, gloves and shoes as well as a rest room and cleaning and washing facilities, health and safety training and frequently health checks. › Establish daily collection of residuals and ensure that the residuals are transported to disposal at the landfill Close down of existing not properly located sorting / transfer stations and establish proper location, design and operation of new transfer stations meeting national environmental guidelines[4]. |
| Establish composting and separate collection for 12 MT/day vegetable market waste as PSP on public land[5] | Vermin problems and bad odor during storage of organic materials and during the composting process due to incorrect operation Spreading of plastic, glass and other unwanted materials in the environment by use of compost (caused by incorrect sorting of waste prior to composting) | Include proper environmental and social including health and safety requirements in contracts with private operators and monitor the compliance during the operation Frequently collection and information and training of market stand holders in correct separation and storage of the organic waste. Training of staff at the composting facility in correct operation. Possible sieving of the compost at the composting facility to remove plastics and glass from the compost. |
| Pollution of groundwater by leachate from the composting facility | Cover the composting facility to protect against rain or establish a lined bottom, drain layer and leachate collection system at the composting facility and use the collected leachate in the composting process | |
| Health impacts on workers at the composting facility | Provide workers with and require use of appropriate protective clothing, gloves, dust masks/respirators and slip-resistant shoes Guidelines for Waste Management Facilities Provide prompt medical attention for cuts and bruises | |
| Segregation and sale of recyclables prior to landfilling of residuals | Dumping of residuals as the municipality currently does not have a landfill | Identification of an environmentally acceptable short term solution to disposal of residual waste until the sanitary landfill is established Negotiate access to Pokhara landfill and pay a tipping fee |
The above environmental and social concerns are related to the interventions that may be implemented by each municipality. Participating municipalities will make choices regarding what combination of interventions (‘inputs') are required to achieving the minimum performance requirements agreed in the technical scorecard. As such the exact nature and scope of interventions is unknown at this stage.
Consequently, GoN (through the implementing partners – TDF and SWMTSC) and World Bank have agreed to an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF) to be applied during project implementation to mitigate negative environmental and social impacts, and to enhance positive impacts in line with GoN and World Bank requirements. The ESMF builds on the frameworks prepared under the UGPD/ETP, and will be treated as an Addendum to the existing frameworks for those municipalities that are also participants in the UGDP/ETP project. Given that participation in the OBA project is also open to non-UGDP/ETP municipalities, the ESMF has been prepared in such a way that it is a standalone document that can be applied by non-UGDP/ETP municipalities. The ESMF defines the approach for identifying the environmental and social issues associated with the activities, identifies the requirements of conducting environmental and social screening and environment and social assessment studies, and provides guidance to integrate environment and social safeguard measures during the preparation and implementation of SWM-SIPs. The ESMF proposes robust environmental supervision and monitoring; including trimester monitoring by TDF (supported by SWMTSC) and annual external monitoring.
Overall, the assessment made during preparation of the ESMF indicates that most of the anticipated interventions have limited negative environmental impacts. In fact, all the interventions are expected to contribute to an improved urban environment in each municipality. The social and environmental benefits of the project outweigh any potential adverse environmental or social concerns and, further, that any potential adverse concerns can be prevented or minimized by preventive actions and mitigation measures. The next section outlines the main elements of the agreed framework for managing environmental and social risks under the OBA project.
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