USING CUMULATIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY TOOLS FOR RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT Peter John Meynell Chiang Mai, 11 March 2011

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1 USING CUMULATIVE IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY TOOLS FOR RIVER BASIN MANAGEMENT Peter John Meynell Chiang Mai, 11 March 2011

2 Water Governance in a River Basin Establishing water governance in the river basins of the Mekong is: New Complex Multi sectoral Needs to be evidence based Requires transparency Requires dialogue between stakeholders Requires capacity and understanding It requires a new set of tools To provide bridge between scientific evidence and good governance To provide a forum for dialogue about this evidence

3 2 Tools Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA) Rapid Sustainability Assessment Tool (RSAT) 3 Tributaries 3S Rivers Basin Developing transboundary IWRM Nam Ou river basin Designing watershed management strategy for hydropower development Nam Ngum river basin Dialogue for the River Basin Committee

4 Cumulative Impact Assessment Part of a family of impact assessment tools EIA, SIA, CIA, SEA Considers a group of development projects Compare different scenarios of developments Analysis of total effects on specific resource, ecosystem and human communities Impacts on other developments Assessment of combined and synergistic effects Focused on wider area e.g. River basin

5 Rapid Sustainability Assessment Tool Derived from IHA Sustainability Assessment Protocol Developed by collaboration between MRC, ADB and WWF and latterly EcoAsia/USAID Designed to allow a dialogue on sustainability issues for hydropower development in a river basin not on a single dam 11 Topics and 53 Criteria Uses several dialogue/assessment techniques SWOT analysis, Scoring assessments, Identification of priority actions to move towards greater sustainability

6 3S Rivers Basin Project Developing participatory planning Transboundary river basin 3 pillars for IWRM Information collection and sharing Dialogue between stakeholders and sectors Tools for decision making Hydrological modelling, Cumulative Impact Assessment, Sustainability assessment

7 3S Rivers Basin CIA aimed at considering different policy objectives Maximising water use for hydropower Optimising multiple uses of water Ensuring adequate water for environment Ensuring equitable sharing of benefits of hydropower Scenarios of hydropower development Baseline (2000), Definite future, Probable future, Potential future IHA SAP and RSAT trials Strong demand for RBOs in 3S rivers Transboundary RBO Potential future Country Sekong Sesan Srepok Total Probable future Laos Vietnam Cambodia MoU and Master plan Laos Vietnam Cambodia Total Installed capacity (MW) 3,307 2,622 1,165 7,094

8 Nam Ou River Basin Complex EIA for cascade of 7 dams (1,160 MW) for single developer Prepare a CIA & Participatory Watershed Management Strategy Used RSAT as a tool for scoping the key issues in the CIA Internal dialogue tool in ESIA team i.e. informed interviews for each topic Identified priority actions in each of the 11 topic areas

9 Nam Ou River Basin Priority measures in strategy emerged from application of RSAT and described in CIA Key component establishing Nam Ou River Basin Committee Multi sectoral membership Responsibilities defined for sustainable management of the basin Linked with land user groups in sub catchments Funding for NO RBC should come from hydropower developer BUT RBC takes time to set up Recommended establishing RBC as a pre requisite before construction of hydropower plants starts

10 Nam Ngum River Basin CIA of Nam Ngum 3 carried out in 2008 Assessed impacts of one dam within the basin context Key issues identified Water quality Aquatic ecology fisheries Monitoring Raised governance issues of environmental responsibilities between different dam and mining developers Need for common grievance and conflict resolution procedures between developers

11 Nam Ngum River Basin Used RSAT to identify priority actions for the RBC Panel of members different provincial agencies multi sectoral with good knowledge of basin 3 out of 5 hydropower developers Panel met for 5 days using SWOT analysis of each of the topics, Scoring less effective (needs to be improved) Identification of key priority actions Results: Helped to develop understanding of sustainability issues for hydropower development in NN Build relationships between sectors involved in NN RBC Priority actions identified for NN RBC

12 Conclusions: CIA allows the collection and analysis of objective evidence of impacts at river basin level with multiple developments RSAT facilitates a dialogue Allows stakeholders from different sectors to discuss sustainability issues in a structured process. Allows airing of different viewpoints. Builds understanding and relationships Identifies gaps and courses of action Proposal to pilot RSAT in other river basins in all LMB countries, leading to further improvement in its design