1.1Project Background -
Bangladesh is a hydraulic civilization situated at the confluence of three great trans-Himalayan rivers—the Ganges, the Brahmaputra (or Jamuna), and the Meghna (GBM). The GBM river system marks both the physiography of the nation, as well as the culture and livelihood of the people. While over 90 percent of the GBM catchment lies outside of Bangladesh, approximately 200 rivers and tributaries of the GBM drains through the country via a constantly changing network of estuaries, tidal inlets, and tidal creeks, before emptying out into the Bay of Bengal3. Thus, the coastal zone of Bangladesh, the lowest landmass of the country, is continually influenced by these Himalayan drainage ecosystems.
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The coastal zone4 spans over 580 km of coastline and is prone to multiple threats. Sixty-two percent of the coastal land has an elevation of up to three meters and eighty-three percent up to five meters above mean sea level5. The zone constitutes 32 percent of the land area and hosts nearly 28 percent of the population6 (i.e., nearly 42 million7).
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Primarily, the coastal embankment system brought immense benefits to the people living along low lying areas. The construction of polders along the entire coastal belt provided protection to the people and their agricultural land. Today thanks to the polder system over 1.2 million hectares of land is under agriculture within the embankment system. However most of the system, constructed back in the 60’s was designed originally to protect against the highest tides, without much attention to storm surges. Recent cyclones brought substantial damage to the embankments and further threatened the integrity of the coastal polders. In addition to breaching of the embankment due to cyclones, siltation of peripheral rivers surrounding the embankment caused the coastal polders to suffer from water logging, which lead to large scale environmental, social and economical degradation. Poor maintenance and inadequate management of the polders have also contributed to internal drainage congestion and heavy external siltation. As a result, in some areas soil fertility and good agriculture production are declining because of water logging and salinity increase inside polders.
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All the above reasons have led the Government to re-focus its strategy on the coastal area from one that only protects against high tides to one that provide protection against frequent storm surges. The Government has recognized the need for a systematic approach to upgrade the coastal embankment system to protect against an appropriate return period and be based on sound local risk and vulnerability assessment. Moreover, the embankment program needs to be accompanied with afforestation program particularly on the sea side, as forestation has been shown to significantly reduce storm surge damages.
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The rehabilitation and upgrading of coastal embankment is a prime objective of the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) strategy. Bangladesh is one of 9 countries selected to participate in the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) established under the multi donor Climate Investment Fund (CIF). As part its Strategy Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) Bangladesh submitted a request for a $25 million grant to increase the resilience of coastal infrastructure through the proposed CEIP project. This request was approved by the PPCR steering committee in November 2010. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is the focal ministry for all work on climate change, including international negotiations.
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The project will be implemented by BWDB which is the principal water institution in Bangladesh. BWDB is an autonomous agency under Ministry of Water Resources (MWR). BWDB has the sole mandate for the construction, rehabilitation, and operation and maintenance of embankments in Bangladesh.
1.2Rationale of the Environmental Management Framework (EMF) -
The proposed interventions of CEIP project will have significant impacts on the natural environment and the people living in that area. Proper environmental assessment and environmental management plan is essential to address the impacts of the project. This EMF has been developed to ensure that neither the project activities (both in terms of needs and quality) nor the environment is compromised through the program intervention.
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The EMF presents possible impacts of the CEIP-1, mitigation, enhancement, contingency and compensation measures, environmental management and monitoring plan, and institutional framework including inter-agency cooperation for implementing EMP. The EMF will facilitate compliance with the World Bank’s environmental safeguard policies and with the Government of Bangladesh’s policies, acts and rules . The EMF will contribute to ensure environmental sustainability by:
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preventing and/or mitigating any negative environmental impact that may emerge from the rehabilitation and improvement of polders;
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enhancing environmental outcomes of the activities by proper implementation of the Environmental Management Plan;
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ensuring the long-term sustainability of benefits from afforestation, and community environment management plan by securing the natural resource base on which they are dependent; and
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facilitating support in establishing an environmental management system (EMS) in BWDB)to enable it to target, achieve and demonstrate continuous improvement in environmental performance of the polder system from preconstruction to operation and maintenance stage.
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