Preliminary Assessment Study of the East Georgia Irrigation Reservoirs Rehabilitation and Construction Program
The Irrigation and Land Market Development Project is an ongoing project in Georgia with the financial support from the World Bank. “Irrigation and Drainage Improvement“ phase of this project, which is implemented by Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture aims to help Georgia increase water security in Eastern Georgia. The purpose of this project is the preliminary assessment and screening covering the technical, economic, and financial aspects of the proposed East Georgia Irrigation Reservoirs Rehabilitation and Construction Program, including environmental and social screening.
Within the scope of the environmental and social screening of project, the potential environmental and social impacts of the proposed 24 sub-projects in East Georgia were reviewed based on the current biophysical and social parameters of the project area and whether the proposed sub-projects will trigger relevant safeguard policies of World Bank or not were determined.
The study covers the description of the existing environmental setting of the study area. Review of general project information and environmentally and socially related data and documents was conducted. Specific checklists were developed and used to identify the likely significant environmental and social impacts of the potential interventions. Checklists were used to cover 24 sub-projects as a tool to screen, classify and evaluate the project activities for the issues covering water balance, the natural flow of the rivers, aquatic life in the impacted water bodies, terrestrial flora and fauna, and the habitats, protected areas, soil quality, application of agrochemicals, any impacts on the international waterways, involuntary resettlement, land acquisition, cultural/historical sites, disposal of excess excavated earth, water use, freshwater fisheries, etc. If an impact was determined, the magnitude of the impact was also defined qualitatively as low, moderate, or high. All the collected information were gathered and evaluated for each sub-project and reported.
