News Release No: 2002/300/SAR
WASHINGTON, May 2, 2002 - The
World Bank today approved a US$442.8 million credit for the second phase
of the ongoing Gujarat Emergency Earthquake Reconstruction Program. The
credit is a planned follow-up to the emergency assistance of US$261.6 million
provided immediately after the earthquake, and is aimed at completing ongoing
reconstruction and enhancing future disaster preparedness. It will finance
the continuation of much-needed assistance to hundreds of thousands of
people, in both large towns and small villages, whose lives were devastated
by the 2001 earthquake.
At the core of the Bank-supported program is a participatory approach, with communities and NGOs playing a leading role in planning and implementation. The Bank's assistance has focused from the beginning on ensuring that all support reaches the affected communities in an equitable way, with particular emphasis on reaching socially vulnerable groups. It includes an owner-driven housing reconstruction program with mechanisms to monitor transparency and benefits.
The program is designed to ensure that recovery will be sustainable, and that vulnerability to future disasters will be reduced. The second phase of support will help reconstruct houses in rural and urban areas; repair and strengthen damaged public buildings, roads, bridges, dams and irrigation infrastructure; and reinforce undamaged government buildings and critically-important public buildings such as schools, hospitals, and fire stations in earthquake zones. It will also help establish an emergency management program.
Soon after the 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit on 26 January 2001, the World Bank immediately made funds available to help with both immediate relief and longer-term rehabilitation. The first phase has had highly satisfactory results, completing, within the expected timeframe, such work as: constructing temporary shelters; repairing houses, schools and public buildings; training masons, artisans and communities; building rehabilitation and counseling centers; upgrading central medical stores; improving dam safety and irrigation systems; and introducing plans for future disaster management. The assistance for the reconstruction program is being provided through the World Bank's soft-loan window, the International Development Association, and carries no interest.
Contact Person:
In Delhi: Geetanjali Chopra 91 11 461-7241
E-mail: gchopra@worldbank.org
In Washington: Ricardo Castro (202) 458-5157
E-mail: rcastro3@worldbank.org
* * *
Report No. PID10993
Project Name: India-Gujarat Emergency Earthquake Reconstruction Project
Region: South Asia Regional Office
Sector: Irrigation & Drainage; Highways; Urban Housing; Other Environment;
Unidentified
Project ID: INPE74018
Borrower(s): GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Implementing Agency
Address: GUJARAT STATE DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Address: Block No. 11, 5th Floor, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar 382 011,Gujarat,
India
Contact Person: Dr. P.K. Mishra,
Chief Executive Officer
Tel: 91-79-3259292
Fax: 91-79-3259248
Email: pkmgsdma@yahoo.com
Environment Category: B
Date PID Prepared: April 15, 2002
Auth Appr/Negs Date: February 22, 2002
Bank Approval Date: May 2, 2002
1. Country and Sector Background
Gujarat is one of the most developed states of India. Among the major states, it ranks third in per capita income after Maharashtra and Punjab. The State is highly exposed to natural hazards and still suffers from the effects of a cyclone in 1998 and drought, which started in 1999 (although the monsoon in 2001 was normal).
On January 26, 2001, an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter Scale occurred in western India. The epicenter was in Kutch district of Gujarat state. While the earthquake was felt as far as Nepal and in neighboring Pakistan, its most severe destruction was unleashed in the state of Gujarat. The earthquake caused substantial loss of life, injury and damage to property and infrastructure. The official death toll stands at 13,805 and about 167,000 people were injured. About 1.2 million homes were damaged or destroyed. Social services were also severely impacted, with destruction or damage to over 2,000 health facilities/buildings and about 12,000 schools. Other infrastructure, including small and medium earthen dams providing drinking water and irrigation to local communities, urban and rural water supply systems, public buildings, municipal infrastructure, roads, power and telecommunications, was also damaged. Thousands of small and cottage based industries and agricultural assets were also destroyed or damaged. The district of Kutch was by far the most severely damaged, with an average of 70 W of buildings destroyed.
Other seriously affected districts include Ahmedabad, Patan, Jamnagar, Rajkot and Surendranagar.
2. Objectives
The proposed project represents the second of the two planned phases for assisting Gujarat in dealing with the destruction caused by the earthquake. The proposed Project's objectives are:
(a) promoting sustainable recovery in the disaster-affected areas, and
(b) laying the foundations for sustainable disaster management capacity in Gujarat. The following development outcomes are anticipated to be achieved through the proposed assistance: first, reduced vulnerability and subsequent saving of lives and property in future disasters through building houses and infrastructure to disaster-resistant standards; second, increased community risk awareness of and preparedness for natural hazards through access to enhanced knowledge of hazards and disaster reduction techniques; and third, enhanced emergency preparedness and response capacity of responsible units (such as fire and rescue brigades) leading to saving of lives and property.
3. Rationale for Bank's Involvement
Considering the Bank's major involvement in financing post-disaster activities worldwide (recovery and reconstruction), there is a broad consensus that the focus should shift to the long-term vulnerability and risk reduction. The proposed Phase II is the medium-term link in Gujarat's overall disaster management program. The Bank's broad international experience and large India emergency recovery portfolio places it in a unique position to assist GOI and GOG with the proposed medium-term phase of the hazard reduction program.
4. Description
Project Components and Estimated Costs. The proposed Project's total cost is currently estimated to be about US$503.7 million including contingencies, of which Bank financing would be about US$442.8 million. A detailed description of the project components is provided in the Technical Annex of this document. The Project includes the following components:
A. Permanent Housing Reconstruction (US$197.2 million). This will finance the implementation of owner-driven housing recovery plan initiated under the ongoing immediate phase (Phase I) for the partially damaged and fully collapsed houses in the affected rural and urban areas. Assistance will be provided to repair about 75,000 partially damaged houses and reconstruct about 135,000 fully collapsed houses.
B. Public Infrastructure Reconstruction (US$236.9 million). This component will provide funding for (i) repairing, strengthening, rehabilitating, reconstructing and upgrading damaged public buildings, roads and bridges, dams and irrigation infrastructure in the earthquake affected areas (US$201.3 million), (ii) retrofitting undamaged government administration buildings and critically important public buildings such as schools, hospitals, fire stations, and preparing detailed engineering documentation for retrofitting key bridges in seismic zones IV and V (US$25.7 million), and (iii) constructing buildings and control rooms necessary to foster State emergency management as well as set up the Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management (GIDM) under Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA), and the Institute for Seismic Research (ISR) (US$9.9 million). This component will also finance consulting services for planning and designing vital institutional complexes, and assuring construction quality for reconstruction activities and for the inventory of hazardous facilities, determining the types of retrofitting measures for individual structural systems, arranging third party expert supervision and related environmental management activities.
C. Community Participation (US$12.5 million). This component aims to ensure the participation of earthquake affected communities, especially the most vulnerable groups, in planning, deciding on and implementing the reconstruction program so that they can obtain their due share of benefits, including information, housing assistance, and access to public infrastructure and services. This would be achieved through (i) information, communication and education activities; (ii) establishment of village-level sub-centers to build capacity for earthquake-resistant construction and to form self-help groups that would monitor the program and be responsible for disaster preparedness in the future; (iii) strengthening local government mechanisms to undertake social audit and ensure transparency; (iv) gender sensitization workshops for all functionaries involved in the communities; (v) community-based disaster preparedness program charged with identifying risks, vulnerable areas and people; formulating plans; training in search and rescue, relief, warning, evacuation, medical assistance teams; establishing local warning systems and emergency response equipment; village drills, and so on. Large volumes of print and audio-visual materials would be produced, training courses, workshops, meetings and demonstrations held, consultants and travel entailed, and community organizations supported financially (US$6.1 million). Purchase of emergency kits for 2,000 villages, containing essential warning devices for timely notification and evacuation of people at risk, and provision of major emergency kits for one hundred clusters of villages would be supported (US$6.4 million).
D. Disaster Management (US$51.1 million). Given the three-phased program of disaster management capacity building in the state, this component will build on the foundations of awareness raising, education and massive training provided in Phase I and will establish the necessary building blocks for Phase III, the projected free-standing disaster management operation. Targeting cyclone, flood, earthquake and drought as the main hazards, this component will finance the establishing a professional emergency management program and preparing Phase III. Key components include:
(i) Emergency management (US$41.3 million) which will address both pre-disaster emergency preparedness and post-disaster emergency response and training;
(ii) Hazard mitigation and risk transfer activities (US$4.4 million) which will support the essential studies necessary for designing and readily implementing hazard reduction activities foreseen for Phase III of the program, and
(iii) Development of Disaster Management Institutions (US$5.4 million) which will facilitate the participation of all critical stakeholders in the disaster management process, by establishing GIDM under GSDMA and ISR. E. Project Management (US$6 million). This component will finance GSDMA's incremental operating costs associated with the implementation of housing, community participation and disaster management. In addition, it would finance equipment, vehicles and consulting services for training, quality assurance, monitoring and evaluation, environmental and social assessments, and audits, among others.
5. Financing
Total ( US$m)
BORROWER $60.90
IBRD $0.00
IDA $442.80
Total Project Cost $503.70
6. Implementation
The GOG established the GSDMA on February 8, 2001 to coordinate and manage the earthquake recovery program. GSDMA is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act. The Chief Minister is the Chairman of GSDMA. It has responsibility for implementation of the Project. A four-tier institutional framework at the village, taluka, district and state level has been constituted to effectively implement the Project. The Central Implementation Review Group at state level which is chaired by the Chief Secretary facilitates the inter departmental coordination and monitoring. A three-tier grievance redressal mechanism has been evolved by GOG to look into any complaints. The district judge has been appointed as the ombudsman to receive complaints directly from the aggrieved and decide on the merit of the case and direct the district authorities for compliance.Building on GSDMA's impressive track record under Phase I, the implementation arrangements for the proposed Project will substantially remain similar to those currently in place. For execution of reconstruction works, GSDMA would coordinate with state-level line departments, other state agencies, local governments, and other bodies. In addition, two dam safety panels have been created for design and construction of irrigation components. The execution of works and procurement of goods and services for specific components will primarily be the responsibility of the line departments, with overall coordination and monitoring by GSDMA. The staff in a number of line departments, including roads and buildings, education, and urban development, have experience in implementing Bank-financed projects and are generally conversant with the systems and procedures to be followed for procurement in Bank projects.
7. Sustainability
Sustainability depends on the long-term disaster reduction as part of the reconstruction process as well as institutional capacity strengthening for disaster prevention and preparedness. Therefore, the project objectives are not simply to replace what was lost, but to improve, redesign, and relocate economic activity, infrastructure and services as needed, to ensure long-term sustainability.
8. Lessons learned from past operations in the country/sector
One of the major lessons learned from the recent disaster management operations supported by the Bank worldwide, is the fact that developing countries are becoming increasingly aware that hazard reduction pays off and that measures should be put in place to prevent disasters to happen. To reduce hazard and mitigate the impact of disaster more and more developing countries are willing to borrow for prevention in general. More specifically, the experiences of the previous disaster management operations in India, particularly from the Andhra Pradesh Hazard Mitigation and Emergency Cyclone Recovery Project and the Maharashtra Emergency Earthquake Rehabilitation Project, teach several valuable lessons, such as the need to separate emergency reconstruction activities and long term disaster management capacity building. Both priorities do not fit in the same time frame and building capacity to better mitigate natural hazards and prepare for future disasters justifies a longer implementation schedule. This was the main reason for opting for a phased program with carefully balanced components, whose implementation optimally matches the time frame of proposed Phases. The need to maintain flexibility, client ownership and high political commitment have also been found to be essential.
Lessons from on-going Gujarat Emergency Earthquake Reconstruction Program (Phase I).
Project design, implementation arrangements and other operational procedures are also based on the rich experience gained during the implementation of the ongoing Phase I:
a. The establishment of the high powered coordinating and management authority with committed political support has enabled the Government to undertake reconstruction in a concerted and determined manner. Its strong presence and continuous support are important both for the physical reconstruction activities, and disaster management components.
b. The detailed Operational Manual introduced by the coordinating and management authority was extremely useful to quickly bring uniform standards for efficient monitoring of the use of funds as the agencies have been using various standards evolved over their past experience.
c. Formulation and adoption of a coherent, proactive and well targeted communication and information dissemination strategies at the beginning of implementation of emergency operations is critical for the speedy and effective project implementation.
d. The introduction of interim audits of expenditures at the end of six months of project implementation and its availability within two months of the end of the period audited was helpful to identify control weaknesses and initiate appropriate improvement measures, at an early stage of project implementation.
9. Program of Targeted Intervention (PTI) N
10. Environment Aspects (including any public consultation) Issues
A management framework has been developed to address the reconstruction work's environmental aspects. The framework attempts to maximize the opportunities for enhancing project components and mitigation of potential impacts upstream, while recognizing the constraints imposed by an emergency reconstruction effort. Within the context of the agreed environmental management framework, an Environmental and Social Analysis (ESA) examined more closely the environmental and social issues most relevant to the proposed Project. The ESA findings and the proposed nature of Bank support were the basis for the preparation of a comprehensive Environmental Management Plan, which will provide the framework for environmental and social impact mitigation and monitoring measures throughout project implementation. The main environmental issues facing the project and requiring management are linked to the management of debris, rubble and reconstruction waste materials and to minimizing and managing the impacts of the reconstruction work itself.The Social Needs and Impact Assessment process that was initiated in Phase I would continue to identify the affected peoples' needs (especially of vulnerable groups such as women, children, lower castes, tribes, minorities, the physically-challenged and elderly), and the program's positive and negative social impacts on all stakeholders. Its findings would be used by project management to ensure that these groups are participating in the program, their needs being met, benefits equitably distributed, and impact achieved in terms of information and technology transfer, housing restoration, access to public facilities and services, and social capital development for future disaster preparedness and management. The community participation component of the Project consists of several activities to ensure inclusion, equity and social capital development among the earthquake-affected. In addition, a Social Management Plan has been prepared as part of the ESA, covering these aspects as well as issues related to displacement (primary and secondary) and the special needs of tribal (indigenous) people.
11. Contact Point:
Task Manager
Shyamal Sarkar
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington D.C. 20433
Telephone: 91-11-461 7241 ext. 217
Fax: 91-11-461 9393;
Email: ssarkar@worldbank.org
12. For information on other project related documents contact:
The InfoShop
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20433
Telephone: (202) 458-5454
Fax: (202) 522-1500
Web: http:// www.worldbank.org/infoshop
Note: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not be necessarily included in the final project. This PID was processed by the InfoShop during the week ending April 19, 2002.