Project Details

Detailed Narrative Description of Project:

The project is about 27km length involving the rehabilitation of the already existing road and part of the national Roads Project (NRP). 
The road runs in the Beqaa valley at the foot of Mount Lebanon chain. It crosses the Aamiq Wetland area, a sensitive ecological system of particular significance to bird seasonal migration. 

Detailed Description of actual services provided By Our company:

The objectives of the EA include providing a sound basis for decision-making about the design of the project components that takes environmental consideration into account, ensuring that the project is implemented with awareness of environmental factors, and that potential environmental impacts are recognized and addressed.

The scope of work of the EA included the definition of current policies, legal and administrative framework related to transport and road rehabilitation in Lebanon; the definition of existing environmental conditions; the identification and analysis of potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures, and the development of an environmental management plan (i.e. monitoring) during the construction phase.

The EA was conducted in accordance to the provisions of World Bank Operational Directive 4.01, “Environmental Assessment” which classifies the present project under Category “B” mandating the preparation of a limited EA or Environmental Management Plan (EMP) since “anticipated negative impacts are mainly short term and can be aptly mitigated”. The main objective of the EA is to ensure that potential environmental impacts are recognized and addressed.

The EA focuses on the impacts associated with the design and construction phases while outlining long term impacts. The impacts of the proposed project are related to traffic, air quality, noise level, landslides and soil erosion, visual landscape, socio-economics, construction waste management, water supply, runoff water and drainage, fauna and flora, and safety. The potential impacts of the proposed project on the ecosystem in the Aammiq wetland is of special interest due to the unique value of this wetland on the biodiversity. Mitigation measures for the impacted parameters were defined to minimize potentially negative impacts, and monitoring activities were developed to evaluate the impact analysis, check on the implementation and the effectiveness of mitigation measures, respond to unanticipated impacts, and improve environmental controls.