The Solomon Islands Government takes responsibility to maintain, improve, rehabilitate, reconstruct and/or construct new infrastructure. This document is the Public Environment Report (PER) of a project funded under the Sustainable Transport Infrastructure Improvement Program (STIIP) whereby the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) is the executing agency and the Central Project Implementation Unit (CPIU) is the implementing agency. The CPIU includes safeguards officers who, along with the environment specialist in the supervision consultant, is required to implement the safeguards requirements of SIG and ADB are implemented during project delivery & operation. The proposed development involves the replacement of the crossing at Mongga River with a new high-level Bridge at Mongga River in East Guadalcanal, and is located approximately 70 km east of Central Honiara. The new bridge will be constructed at the same location and within same right of way where a log bridge used to exist until 1980. It is located within the declared or gazetted road corridor and therefore does not require any land acquisition and resettlement. When the proposal was first screened by ECD in 2017 for implementation, the Development Consent (DC) granted in 2013 as a part of Mbokokimbo- Aola Road & Bridge Project had not expired. Due to delays in the subsequent detailed design phase the consent expired in 2018 and a separate PER and DC for the bridge project was considered necessary by the Director of ECD. The main objective of this project is to reconstruct the bridge to improve reliability of the crossing so that the people can enjoy better accessibility to key social services such as markets, health and education and a sound movement of goods between Honiara and East Guadalcanal. Under the country safeguards system (CSS) the project is identified as a Prescribed Development as defined in the Environment Act 1998 and Environment Regulation 2008 Second Schedule (Section 16) including infrastructure development and extraction of aggregate stones and shingles and Regulation 21 of the Environment Regulation which states the developer is required to produce the PER in support of the application for development consent for the project. In addition, the MID has issued the Safeguards Procedures Manual (SPM) which sets out the requirements for ensuring MID complies with the CSS for infrastructure development projects. 9 The PER has identified and predicted the potential negative environmental and social impacts of the proposed project. It concluded that the negative impacts of the project will be minor and temporary with the main environmental impact being high siltation and sedimentation of the river and removal of adjacent vegetation during the construction phase. It is envisaged that the completion of the bridge will have significant socio-economic benefits and improve the livelihood of people in East Guadalcanal. People will enjoy better mobility and improved accessibility with the operation of the bridge. The positive impacts of having the new bridge constructed were found to outweigh the negative impacts. The negative impacts and risks will be carefully managed with the implementation of the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) included in this PER. The ESMP, while generic in nature, will be developed further as a construction ESMP (CESMP) by the contractor based on their approach to and programme for, the construction. The contractor will submit the CESMP and its sub-plans and site-specific plans to the Resident Engineer and CPIU for approval prior to construction. The contractor will appoint an Environmental and Safety Officer (ESO) whose role is to ensure the works are constructed in accordance with the approved CESMP and will monitor and report on that complianceCESMP to the CPIU on behalf of ECD. A Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) is required as part of the EMP and is set out in the document. The GRM is designed to address stakeholder concerns with the project’s environmental performance including the implementation of the EMP. During construction, all grievances are entered in a Register that is kept at the site by: date, name, contact address and reason for the grievance. The PER will be reviewed by the Environment Conservation Division (ECD) and once approved, the Director of ECD will issue the Development Consent (DC), the DC and the PER will form part of the bid documents and contract.
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