PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB3455 Project Name. Mauritania Port of Nouakchott Development Project Region

Size: px
Start display at page:

Download "PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB3455 Project Name. Mauritania Port of Nouakchott Development Project Region"

Transcription

1 PROJECT INFORMATION DOCUMENT (PID) CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AB3455 Project Name Mauritania Port of Nouakchott Development Project Region AFRICA Sector Ports, waterways and shipping (100%) Project ID P Borrower(s) ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF MAURITANIA Implementing Agency MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT/NOUAKCHOTT PORT AUTHORITY Environment Category [X] A [ ] B [ ] C [ ] FI [ ] TBD (to be determined) Date PID Prepared December 20, 2007 Estimated Date of May 30, 2008 Appraisal Authorization Estimated Date of Board December 1, 2008 Approval I. Key development issues and rationale for Bank involvement General background: Two major events occurred in Mauritania over the past few years. Since 2005, a transition government has led to free elections in March 2007 and a new government team was put in place in June Besides, following the discovery of oil fields, Mauritania has become an oilproducing country in early Although it was realized that oil reserves would not be as large as expected and would not lead to a windfall as substantial as that of other recent oil-producing countries, the combination of these two factors implies that Mauritania s growth perspectives (even without considering oil revenues) are reasonably high. However, Mauritania is still hampered by a lack of basic infrastructure. This lack is especially strong when it comes to maritime transport, as there are only two ports, one in the capital Nouakchott mainly aimed at commercial traffic, and the other in the northern city of Nouadhibou, more specialized in fishing and mining exports. The port of Nouakchott, also known as Port Autonome de Nouakchott dit Port de l Amitié (PANPA), was built in the 1980s with Chinese funding, and the current autonomous operational structure was set up by a governmental decree in The following project concept is being prepared in response to the government s request and expansion needs for port infrastructure (which, at its current capacity, inhibits taking full advantage of the given growth perspectives). Bank projects in the sector Two Bank financed programs in Mauritania are closely linked with this project: (i) the Urban Development Project (PDU), which performed a multi-modal study of the sector in 2006 and a Nouakchott flooding risks analysis in 2004, and (ii) the Transport Sector Institutional Development and Technical Assistance Project under preparation 1, more specifically aimed to strengthen 1 See report AB1322.

2 institutional reforms and reinforce sector capacity. These two projects paved the way for the definition of a project concept for the port of Nouakchott, based on the issues discussed below. Sector issues: (i) Traffic growth In 1983, traffic in Nouakchott was equal to 304,000 tons, and the design was supposed to accommodate up to 900,000 tons. However, this capacity was largely underestimated, since PANPA reached traffic of 1.82 million tons in 2005 (including traffic linked to oil, which was not taken into account before). Over the last years, traffic at PANPA followed an average growth of 8% a year. A recent study concluded that, under strong development expectations, PANPA may have to handle 4 million tons in 2015 and 8 million tons in As a result of the initial Port design (three berths on a single pier), ships usually already have to wait for a long time before discharge. This waiting time has been estimated to more than half of time spent on operations, which is extremely high compared with other ports in the area and leads to demurrage fees imposed by shipping lines. The extension of the Port capacity is therefore already overdue. (ii) Container traffic and design issues linked to the port infrastructure Traffic growth over the last years is particularly impressive when it comes to containers. The share of traffic went from 21% in 1995 to 28% in PANPA s infrastructure was not designed to handle large container quantities. Its two quays are located on a pier, over 1.5 km from the container parking area, leading to inefficient manipulations. Modern container terminal design imposes an integrated concept where storage areas are located just behind discharge areas. Likewise, this arrangement does not allow segregated management of the various kinds of traffic handled by the Port (bulk including cereals for example) and there is no oil terminal, which leads to Nouakchott being supplied by cabotage from Nouhadibou. Since the opening of the port, no development plan was designed nor implemented. Finally, the current port depth is not consistent with modern traffic, be it container, oil or bulk, with only 9 m guaranteed. (iii) High costs Port charges are higher than anywhere else in the area (more than twice as Dakar both in terms of cost per ship as well as cost per container delivered in Nouakchott). This highly contributes to PANPA s lack of competitiveness and thus reduces its traffic (it has been estimated that Dakar caught around 25% of the traffic that should have been handled by Nouakchott, due to congestion and high costs). Part of this high cost is directly linked to PANPA s inadequacy to deal with large numbers of containers, as it has been estimated that manual handling from ships to the container parking area was responsible for 42% to 49% of total cost. (iv) Environmental issues A study of flooding risks around Nouakchott was undertaken by the government of Mauritania in February 2004, and is currently being updated. It revealed that the building of the Port of Nouakchott led to serious environmental trouble due to perturbation of sediment dynamics. This perturbation led to two important points: (i) the silting of the North side of the port over one kilometer wide at its peak, and (ii) the destruction of the coastline up to 500 meters over 8 kilometers South of the port, which goes together with the destruction of the dunes row protecting the Nouakchott plain. This could be very harmful as it leaves Nouakchott without any protection: in

3 case of important storms and tides, the city could be massively flooded as most of its area is located under sea-level. Moreover, if nothing is done, the phenomenon will go on and will move more and more to the south, until it reaches sensitive environmental areas near the Mauritanian-Senegalese border. To fight against this phenomenon, the initial design of the port included a groyne and a series of dikes at the south of the Port had been contemplated to limit the progressive coastal erosion[0]. However, this would only lead to delay the problem without facing the real causes. Chinese cooperation China has always been the main partner of Mauritania for the development of the Port of Nouakchott. When it became obvious that the capacities of PANPA were not sufficient, the Mauritanian authorities and China studied the possible options of port development as part of their bilateral cooperation, which also confirmed the needs of PANPA in terms of capacity extension, as well as the need of a container terminal. From this study finalized in 2007, two scenarios were preferred: Scenario 1 (mixed container - general cargo terminal on new quays along the shore) and Scenario 4 (mixed container - general cargo terminal on new quays perpendicular to the south shore of the current pier). Mauritania has embarked on negotiations with its development partners, and is coordinating an overall approach in order to: (i) better realize all the development prospects of the Nouakchott area, in particular with the involvement of the private sector, and (ii) better address and mitigate the adverse impacts of the PANPA on the environment, and as the case may be on the population, so that the development of the Port be implemented in a more sustainable manner. Rationale for Bank involvement PANPA immediately needs additional capacity (additional needs are both for container and other traffic) and would not realize all the development prospects of the Nouakchott area, nor the other private sector funding potential which can exist for this project, if it cannot provide modern solutions both for general cargo, bulk, and container traffic, which imposes a level of traffic segregation. The World Bank Group could, through its various resources, support a more global development of PANPA. It could be a catalyst for a more comprehensive development of the port allowing to complement other donors intervention, by building on its worldwide knowledge of ports and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and maximizing private funding. The Bank could also facilitate the implementation of a sustainable solution for the development of the container terminal side of the port, using other more concessional funding for the development of traditionally less revenue generating bulk and general cargo facilities. The Bank has a good track record in designing projects helping governments to successfully plan/manage and implement large sector investment activities. Moreover, this project will involve very sensitive environmental issues. The Bank has a thorough knowledge in dealing with this kind of situations and providing expertise and advice for the sustainable handling of the environmental challenge of the existing port, while securing sustainability of the extension. II. Proposed objective(s) The primary project objective is to secure the extension the port of Nouakchott in order to face its growth perspectives, while improving the environmental impact of the initial port construction and development.

4 III. Preliminary Description In order to address the issues mentioned above, the Port of Nouakchott Development Project would be based on the following strategy: (i) (ii) (iii) build a container terminal parallel to the shore, build new quays perpendicular to the shore, more specifically aimed at oil, bulk and general cargo traffic. design and implement environmental and social measures aiming at mitigating the adverse impact of both the initial port concept and the extensions. The project may benefit from several financial instruments available from the WBG, which will be reviewed during preparation. As noted above, Bank support would mostly target: (i) Component 1: Optimize the investment program for the development of PANPA, given its growth perspectives Most of the studies are already carried out using the Technical Assistance and the Urban Development Project. World Bank Group could fund (i) part of the container terminal infrastructure if viability of a full private sector option is not secured, (ii) support to government of Mauritania and PANPA to supervise investment implementation and coordinate the Public Private Partnership Selection and contractualization process and (iii) secure that investments are complemented by appropriate facilitation measures to ensure efficiency. (ii) Component 2: Ensure a satisfactory protection of Nouakchott s environment and limit the impact of PANPA on costal erosion The project would support the implementation of the safeguards measures as determined by the current study on Nouakchott flooding prevention and by the Environmental Assessment, including restoration of coastal transit, through (i) investment in environmental protection and possibly sediment transit restoration, (ii) capacity building of all stakeholders to efficiently monitor environmental impacts. These could be funded by the World Bank Group, but the team will look for alternate and cheaper resources to try to provide the government of Mauritania with the best funding options possible. IV. Safeguard Policies that might apply Safeguard Policies Triggered by the Project Yes No TBD Environmental Assessment (OP/BP 4.01) [X] [ ] Natural Habitats (OP/BP 4.04) [ ] [X] Pest Management (OP 4.09) [ ] [X] Physical Cultural Resources (OP/BP 4.11) [ ] [X] Involuntary Resettlement (OP/BP 4.12) [ ] [] [X] Indigenous Peoples ( OP/BP 4.10) [ ] [X] Forests (OP/BP 4.36) [ ] [X]

5 Safety of Dams (OP/BP 4.37) [ ] [X] Projects in Disputed Areas (OP/BP 7.60) * [ ] [X] Projects on International Waterways (OP/BP 7.50) [ ] [X] The main impact identified relate to the initial construction of the Port, with the proposed extension not adding significant impact. However, the team considered the extension project taking into account the current challenges of the Port and aiming at solving or limiting the initial and significant construction impact. In addition to the continued threats posed by the interruption of the coastal transport of sediments, the proposed expansion to the port raises the possibility of a range of environmental impact, both new and continued. Under national legislation, and as a requirement of World Bank financing, this impact will be subject to an Environmental Assessment (EA), both to inform the design of the proposed structures and to guide the conduct of construction activities and future port operations. The proposed Safeguards category is therefore A. 1. Tentative financing Source: ($m.) Borrower 5 Private Sector (Port Container Terminal) World Bank Group (Nouakchott Environmental protection, Container 50 Terminal) Total Contact point Public Information Center The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C Telephone: (202) Fax: (202) NOTE: This is information on an evolving project. Certain components may not necessarily be included in the final project. * By supporting the proposed project, the Bank does not intend to prejudice the final determination of the parties claims on the disputed areas

6