Republic of Tajikistan Power Utility Financial Recovery Program-for-Results (P168211) Environmental and Social System Assessment Final Report November 1, 2019 Contents Abbreviations and Acronyms ...................................................................................................... 4 1. Executive Summary .............................................................................................................. 6 2. Sector Context and Program Description ......................................................................... 12 2.1 Sector Context ................................................................................................................. 12 2.2 Program Description ...................................................................................................... 13 3. Environmental and Social Systems Assessment ............................................................... 15 3.1 ESSA Objective ............................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Consultations and Disclosure of ESSA ......................................................................... 16 4. Legal and Regulatory Framework Applicable to Environmental Aspects of the Program................................................................................................................................ 17 4.1 Environmental Policies, Laws and Regulations ........................................................... 17 4.2 Adequacy of the Legislative Framework on Environmental Aspects ........................ 18 5. Legal and Regulatory Framework Applicable to Social Aspects of the Program ........ 19 5.1 Social Policies, Laws, and Regulations ......................................................................... 19 5.2 Adequacy of the Legislative Framework on Social Aspects ....................................... 21 6. Assessment of Environmental Systems ............................................................................. 22 6.1 General Assessment of Environmental Benefits and Risks ........................................ 22 6.2 Environmental Management Systems in the Program ............................................... 22 6.2.1 Stakeholders .......................................................................................................................23 6.2.2 Institutional Capacity to Manage Environmental Aspects of the Program ........................24 6.2.2.1 Barqi Tojik ...........................................................................................................................24 6.2.2.2 State Energy Sector Project Management Unit (ESPMU)...................................................27 6.2.2.3 Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government ....................................27 6.2.2.4 Civil Society Organizations ..................................................................................................28 6.2.3 Coordination Mechanisms within the Government and at Subnational Level ..................28 6.2.4 National Environmental Categorization of Activities .........................................................28 6.2.5 Overall Conclusion on Environmental Impacts and Risks ...................................................30 6.2.6 Improvement of Environmental Systems ...........................................................................30 7. Assessment of Social Systems ............................................................................................. 32 7.1 Social System: Salient Features and Key Issues .......................................................... 33 7.1.1 Current Energy Consumption Patterns ...............................................................................34 7.1.2 Customer Orientation and Responsiveness of BT ..............................................................37 7.2 Social Impacts .........................................................................................................................37 2 7.2.1 Impacts of Electricity Tariff Increases .................................................................................38 7.4 Improvement of Social Systems .............................................................................................41 9. Inputs into the Program Action Plan ................................................................................ 45 Annex 1. Public Consultations during ESSA Preparation ...................................................... 48 Annex 2. Public Consultations during ESSA Finalization ...................................................... 55 Annex 3. National Legislation and International Treaties ...................................................... 63 Annex 4. Potential Adverse Environmental Impacts .............................................................. 69 Annex 5. Key Elements of the PCB-containing Materials Management ............................... 70 Annex 6. Projects Funded by International Donors during Last Five Years and Relevant National Implementing Agencies............................................................................................... 71 Annex 7. Stakeholder Analysis .................................................................................................. 72 Annex 8. Consumers’ Complaint Handling at BT ................................................................... 87 Annex 9. Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure Flow Chart ................................... 89 Annex 10. References .................................................................................................................. 90 3 Abbreviations and Acronyms ACM Asbestos-containing materials ADB Asian Development Bank AES Renewable Energy Association AET Association of Energy Workers of Tajikistan AIIB Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank AMI Advanced Metering Infrastructure BT Barqi Tojik CALISS Central Asia Longitudinal Inclusive Society Survey CASA-1000 Central Asia South Asia - 1000 Project CEP Committee on Environmental Protection CHP Combined heat and power plant DCC Development Coordination Council DH District Heating DLI Disbursement Linked Indicator DRS or RRS Districts/Regions of Republic Subordination EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development EE energy efficiency EGI Electricity Governance Initiative EIA Environmental Impact Assessment ESMP Environmental and Social Management Plan ESSA Environmental and Social Systems Assessment ESSG Environmental and Social Safeguards Group FHH Female Headed Household GBAO Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast GHG Greenhouse Gases GoT Government of the Republic of Tajikistan GWh Gigawatt-hours HFO Heavy Fuel Oil HPP Hydropower Plant INDC Intended Nationally Determined Contribution ILO International Labour Organization IPPs Independent power producers IRMS Incidence Recording and Management System kWh Kilowatt-hour MEWR Ministry of Energy and Water Resources MOF Ministry of Finance MW Megawatt NGO Non-governmental organization OJSC Open Joint Stock Company PforR Program-for-Results PAP Program Action Plan PCB Polychlorinated biphenyl PDO Program Development Objectives PEC Pamir Energy Company PIG Project Implementation Unit PMT Proxy Means Testing PMU Project Management Unit ESPMU Energy Sector Project Management Unit POPs Persistent Organic Pollutants PPAs Power Purchase Agreements PPP Purchasing Power Parity PSFCP Tajikistan Power Sector Financial Recovery Project 4 PSIA poverty and social impact assessment RSS Reliability and Safety Service SEE State Ecological Expertise SSEMP Site-specific Environmental Management Plan TALCO Tajikistan Aluminum Company T&D Transmission and Distribution TSA Targeted Social Assistance Program USAID United States Agency for International Development VAT Value Added Tax WB World Bank 5 1. Executive Summary 1. Sector Background. Barqi Tojik (BT) is fully owned by the Government. It owns and operates most of the electricity generating plants and is also responsible for electricity transmission, dispatch, and distribution services to around 8 million people in all regions of the country except for Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) region of Tajikistan. 2. BT has been in financial distress since 2009 due to var(a) below cost-recovery tariffs; (b) unsustainable and increasing debt levels; (c) low collection rates for billed electricity; (d) operational inefficiencies; (e) limited opportunities for electricity exports; (f) non-competitive procurement of portion of heavy fuel oil (HFO) required for Combined and Heat and Power Plants (CHPs); and (h) depreciation of TJS vs US$. This has led to significant deterioration of financial standing of BT with severe cash flow shortages. In its turn, the financial distress of BT started negatively impacting the reliability of electricity supply because the company has been underspending on the purchase of electricity from the independent power producers and upgrade/rehabilitation of key electricity transmission and distribution assets. 3. Objectives of the Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA). The specific objectives of the ESSA include: • Identification of potential environmental and social benefits, risks and impacts applicable to the Program interventions; • Review of the policy and legal framework related to management of environmental and social impacts of the Program interventions; • Assessment of the institutional capacity for environmental and social management system within the Program system; • Assessment of the Program system performance with respect to the core principles of the Program-for-Results (PforR) instrument and identification of gaps, if any, and • Description of actions to be taken to fill the gaps, i.e. mitigation measures that will be used as input/s to the Program Action Plan (PAP). 4. The ESSA was prepared through review of existing Program documents and available related technical literature, and consultations with all key stakeholders, including BT, representatives of different consumer groups, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), bilateral and multi-lateral development agencies, government officials and other experts 5. The Program supported by the PforR. In order to rectify this situation, the Government has adopted a program for financial recovery BT for 2019-2025. A part of the Government program is supported by the PfoR and includes key financial, operational, and governance measures required to bring BT to adequate financial footing and improve the reliability of electricity supply in the country. Results Area 1: Achievement of Financial Viability of BT • Achievement of cost-recovery end-user tariffs; • Revision of subsidiary agreements between MOF and BT; • Installation of AMI in Istaravshan, Isfara, and Konibodom. Results Area 2: Ensuring Electricity Supply Reliability • Adequate electricity supply from Sangtuda-1 IPP; • Timely rehabilitation and upgrade of key electricity transmission and distribution (T&D) assets. Result Area 3: Strengthening of BT’ Governance • Implementation of good-practice corporate governance at BT; • Use of technically, economically, and financially sound principles for investment decision-making in generation, transmission and distribution; • Improvement of BT’s operational and financial transparency. 6 6. The program development objectives are to improve the financial viability of BT, increase the reliability of electricity supply by BT, and strengthen the governance of BT. The total cost of the Program is US$479 million and it is financed with combination of BT’s own resources, the Bank, and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). 7. Adequacy of the Legislative Framework on Environmental Aspects. Developed and comprehensive system of environmental legislation and regulations provides an adequate enabling framework for implementing the key activities to be supported under the PforR. This system governs the procedure for conducting Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and state environmental expertise (SEE) of Program activities as well as current environmental monitoring of activities, including rehabilitation and upgrade of power T&D assets. Developed network of environmental monitoring by the Committee on Environmental Protection (CEP) and municipalities based on existing environmental norms, technical guidelines and standards, with the right approach at the district and local level can successfully monitor environmental requirements during implementation of rehabilitation and upgrade of T&D assets under the Program. The country has made progress in recent years, including update of guidelines for EIA and SEE, and classification and ranking of potentially hazardous activities. 8. Adequacy of the Legislative Framework on Social Aspects. The legal and regulatory framework at the national and regional levels provides an adequate and appropriate enabling framework for implementing the key activities to be supported under the Program. Social protection, responsiveness to consumer inquiries/questions, and public accountability are adequately covered by the legal framework at different levels. The legislation highlights the importance of state’s commitment to serving and ensuring protection of the public, in general, and the poor and vulnerable in particular. The laws on consumer rights; targeted social assistance; grievance redress; and energy stipulate rules governing setting of tariffs; and adjustments to public salaries, pensions, and other benefits due to growth of price for consumer goods and services. 9. Assessment of Environmental Benefits and Risks. The results of the environmental screening suggest that majority of activities, which will be supported under the PforR, will have limited environmental impacts. Some rehabilitation/construction works to be supported under the Result Area 2 could generate adverse environmental impacts, which will be low to moderate in intensity, reversible in nature, and mainly construction related. However, disposal of used oil from old transformers and circuit breakers could pollute soil and water with hazardous waste and harm human health, if implemented inadequately. Further, construction of new power distributions lines or possible reconstruction of different facilities at substations (e.g. control equipment buildings) could potentially create noise pollution. There is probability of encountering materials and equipment, which contain asbestos, when implementing the construction works. The environmental risks1 are therefore reviewed with the framework of adequacy of country systems for assessment and mitigation of such type of environmental effects. 10. Overall Conclusion on Environmental Impacts and Risks. The Program environmental systems analysis led to the following conclusions: Strengths The strengths of the environmental management system for the proposed PforR activities are: • Adequate environmental legislation and regulations at the national level for conducting environmental impact assessments relevant to the Program. • Adequate network for environmental protection offices at district level. There is adequate interaction between CEP district representatives and municipalities, which can provide necessary environmental due diligence required for the Program. 1 See details in Annex 3. 7 • Experience of the Energy Sector Project Management Unit (ESPMU) in implementation of international projects in the energy sector. This has contributed to creation of some capacity for project level environmental management for energy sector projects even at BT. Gaps 11. Key gaps in the environmental management system relevant to the Program are: • Weak environmental management capacity at BT. • Absence of necessary guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for hazardous waste management including Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) at BT. 12. Improvement of Environmental Systems. BT will remain the state-owned company responsible for heat and electricity generation in the country. It will own and operate all state-owned HPPs (except Rogun HPP) and thermal power plant. The electricity T&D would also remain as state-owned, but electricity distribution will be managed by a private management contractor. Therefore, the addressing environmental impacts of the Program and recommended capacity building activities are structured considering those expected sectoral restructuring. 13. BT’s current low capacity in environmental management increases the environmental risks to substantial unless some corrective measures are taken up. To mitigate environmental risks associated with the implementation of Program, the following key actions will be implemented: • Strengthen environmental and social (E&S) capacity at BT generation, transmission, and distribution companies to provide necessary guidance and compliance with environmental management under the national laws. • Provision of environmental management services under the Program by ESPMU until ESSG is created at BT generation and transmission companies and management contractor for power distribution establishes relevant E&S units. Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MEWR) should formally assign ESPMU to be responsible for E&S aspects of the Program until ESSG is created in BT generation and transmission companies. The ESPMU should also be responsible for capacity development program for BT generation and transmission companies in managing E&S aspects of the Program. MEWR should also ensure that the management contractor for electricity distribution company has the in-house capacity to comply with the requirements of local legislation related to key aspects of their operations (e.g. including relevant provisions in the draft management contract). • Adoption of environmental policies and corporate level guidelines and SOPs for hazardous waste management. BT will hire a consultant (preferably international) to prepare Environmental Policy and corporate-level guidelines and standard operating procedures (including emergency plans for oil spills) for the hazardous waste management, including PCBs, at the level of BT generation and transmission companies. This is required given the current deficiencies observed in the corporate policies related to hazardous waste management, including PCBs. The management contractor for electricity distribution will also be required to develop environmental policies and corporate guidelines. 14. Assessment of Social Benefits and Risks. The Program is expected to have overall positive social impacts as the interventions will improve the reliability of electricity supply. Specifically, rehabilitation and upgrade of T&D assets and scale up of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) to cover the city of Dushanbe is expected to lead to increased reliability of supply. These improvements are also expected to be pro-poor as those facing unreliable electricity supply are overwhelmingly the poor and vulnerable households in the country’s rural areas. Access to modern energy in general and, electricity in particular, contributes to improved health, livelihood, and creates gender benefits. Women and girls are often primarily responsible for household activities that become substantially easier and less time-consuming when reliable electricity is available. Moreover, reliable electricity supply creates increased economic opportunities for all residential consumers, including Female-headed Households (FHHs). The Program would also contribute to the effectiveness of Incidence Recording and Management Systems (IRMS) to 8 be introduced together with AMI. This would include effective processing of customer claims and complaints related to reliability of electricity supply. 15. The Program would also contribute to adequacy of electricity supply through improvement of financial viability of BT. The energy company would not be financially viable in the long-term without electricity tariff increases to cover the economically justified costs and implementation of other measures in the Program. However, tariff increases would impact the poor households as they will have to devote an increasingly larger share of their household budget to electricity. Electricity poverty – defined as households that spend 10 percent of their total budget or more on electricity – is expected to increase. Other adverse impacts related to construction activities are likely to be negligible given that the Program primarily includes rehabilitation and upgrade of existing power T&D assets, which mainly include existing substations. 16. Overall Assessment on Social Impacts and Risks. The Program social systems analysis led to the following conclusions: Strengths 17. The strengths of the social management system for the proposed PforR activities are: • Adequate legislation at national level for mitigating the impacts of tariff increases on the poor through indexation of compensation and benefits to be paid to eligible vulnerable consumers. • Availability of solid foundation to expand the Targeted Social Assistance (TSA) program, which currently covers 40 districts and 100,000 households. A rigorous impact evaluation documented the success of the pilot TSA program in Yevon and Istaravshan districts. The evaluation report shows that the pilot project improved targeting (a greater share of benefits accrues to the poor), generated positive satisfaction about the program by the population in pilot districts, increased the perceived financial situation, improved food security perception and raised actual food consumption by 16-25 percent. • The average benefit under TSA has been increased in 2019 by 10 percent, which is the first benefit increase since the program launch in 2011. • Adequate legislation at national level to protect the rights of consumers. • Successful experience in Sughd region with improvement of consumer responsiveness and accountability of BT’s regional power distribution network. Gaps 18. Key gaps in the social management system relevant to the Program are: • The existing TSA program does not cover all vulnerable households in order to allow for mitigation of the impact from increasing electricity tariffs. The increases may have larger impact on FHHs given lack of income sources and limited copying mechanisms. Additionally, the there is no energy-linked line of benefits/program to compensate for energy price changes. • The TSA program requires further improvement of targeting and differentiation of the benefits based on family size and composition. • Implementation of the requirements of the legislation for protection of the rights of electricity consumers is substandard. The existing system at BT for recording, processing, and resolving the customer complaints is inefficient. • Access to data and information can be expensive for socially vulnerable consumers given high fees stipulated in the legislation requiring sharing of information and data by relevant government bodies and agencies, including BT. 19. Improvement of the Social Systems. The following key actions will be implemented to mitigate social risks associated with the implementation of Program and which are included in the PAP. 9 • Expansion of the TSA program coverage and further improvements in TSA structure. As a matter of priority, the Government will expand the coverage of TSA program to include the remaining 28 districts of the country and increase the coverage to 200,000 households or 15 percent of the total. The fiscal costs can be covered from: i. Savings in debt service costs under sovereign-guaranteed loans and credits. Currently, BT pays small amount of debt service to Ministry of Finance (MOF) under subsidiary agreements, which were used to on-lend the international financiers’ resources to BT. With improvement in financial standing of BT, it will be able to make timely payments, which will free up some resources at the state budget. ii. Increased tax revenues from BT given larger revenues due to tariff increases. • The Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MOHSP) or the designated government agency should estimate the poverty impacts of tariff increases by July of each year of the Program implementation. This will allow MHSP to provide timely inputs to MOF during preparation of the annual state budget in order to program for TSA allocation. The Program would provide the required support to MHSP and other relevant entities in carrying out poverty impact assessment of tariff increases and estimation of the cost of mitigation. Given the importance, this step is included in the PAP. • Introduction of lifeline tariff mechanism alongside expanded TSA program benefits. Introduction of a lifeline tariff would ensure that a larger number of vulnerable consumers are protected from impacts of tariff increases given that TSA benefits are relatively small, and coverage is limited as of now. The recommendations of the Bank on a lifeline tariff structure would be finalized in discussions with key stakeholders under the ongoing ESMAP financed activity on Improvement of Electricity Tariff Setting and Mitigation of Impacts on the Poor by April 2020. The preliminary results of the analysis suggest that introducing a lifeline tariff at 250 kWh/month would cover the entire electricity consumption of 60 percent of poor households, but only 43 percent of non-poor households, and 33 percent of households in the top quintile. • Strengthening of BT’s outreach. BT has used a variety of methods to reach out to the consumers. Most of these are merely ‘sharing of the information’ and require focus on better and effective consumer engagement. Towards this, BT, with support from ongoing ESMAP financed activity on Improvement of Electricity Tariff Setting and Mitigation of Impacts on the Poor, needs to complete the assessment of existing situation and the issues thereof and draw a strategy and implementation action plan. This may have an exclusive section on complaints handling. ESSA’s reference to recent pilot on Electricity Governance Initiative’s (EGI)2 to assess Consumers’ Satisfaction of electricity delivery could be a starting point. • Strengthening of the system for responsiveness and client orientation of BT. It is recommended to include into the AMI, to be supported under the Program, a new IRMS. It will support better network operations and would allow to better respond to client claims and complaints related to outages and other issues with electricity supply. • Increased disclosure of operational and financial data related to BT. As part of the broader agenda for improvement of corporate governance of BT and improving the access to information by consumers, the Program should promote increased disclosure of data related to power sector balance (from generation all the way down to consumption), outages, as well as tariffs and other financial information. • Strengthening of the evidence base on particular vulnerabilities of FHHs towards increasing electricity prices in Tajikistan. The Program will complement the existing quantitative data with qualitative data to understand whether the rising electricity prices will negatively impact FHHs’ 2 The Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) is a unique network of civil society organizations dedicated to promoting transparent, inclusive and accountable decision making in the electricity sector. Partners for Tajikistan include: World Resources Institute (WRI), Prayas Energy Group (PEG) and Consumers Union (CU) of Tajikistan. Details follow in pp 38. 10 ability to continue meeting their energy needs and to afford basic household expenses on food, health, education, etc. Based on the results of this assessment, the Program will contribute to the dialogue on designing of social assistance mechanisms to mitigate negative impacts of electricity subsidy and tariff reforms by ensuring that such mechanisms address particular vulnerabilities of FHHs and support them in affording electricity costs. 20. Overall environmental and social risk is rated as Substantial given: (a) gaps in environmental management capacity of BT; (b) shortcomings in the system for handling of PCB-containing oils; and (c) insufficient mitigation of the impacts of electricity price increase on the poor. The ESSA proposed dated actions to be included into the Program Action Plan considering the identified gaps and the risks. 11 2. Sector Context and Program Description 2.1 Sector Context 21. The power sector is comprised of the vertically integrated energy company (BT), three independent power producers (IPPs), and a concession in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) combining power generation and distribution. BT is fully owned by the Government. It owns and operates most of the electricity generating plants and is also responsible for electricity transmission, dispatch, and distribution services to around 8 million people in all regions of the country except for GBAO. Two of the IPPs – Sangtuda-1 and Sangtuda-2 hydropower plants (HPPs) – were constructed with investments from Russia and Iran, and supply electricity to BT under 20-year power purchase agreements (PPAs). Pamir Energy Company (PEC) generates and supplies electricity to around 200,000 people in GBAO under 25- year concession agreement. 22. The total annual gross electricity demand in BT service area was 17,114 GWh in 2017. The demand is highly seasonal, with a winter peak driven by reliance on electricity-based heating. On the contrary, there has been significant electricity surplus in the summer given the abundant hydropower resource. The winter peaks have reduced since resumption of district heating (DH) supply to some parts of the capital city of Dushanbe after commissioning of Dushanbe-2 CHP and gradual rehabilitation of DH network. The single largest industrial energy consumer is Tajikistan Aluminum Company (TALCO). Its demand has reduced from about 40-45 percent of total domestic consumption in 2009-2013 to 20-25 percent in 2014-2017 due to reduction in output from the plant as a result of depressed global prices of the final product; and due to implementation of energy efficiency measures at the plant. 23. In GBAO Pamir Energy Company (PEC) generates and supplies electricity to around 200,000 people under 25-year concession agreement (expires in 2026). The company constructed and currently operates ten medium and small HPPs, which account for 90 percent of the supply to consumers. Some electricity is also supplied to the GBAO grid from BT network. The total electricity demand in GBAO is estimated at 220 GWh per year. The supply reliability has significantly improved since the construction and rehabilitation of new HPPs in recent time, but additional investments would be required to connect 11,600 residential consumers and to meet the projected increase in electricity demand. 24. The power system is currently facing the key challenges below, which need to be addressed to ensure adequate and reliable electricity supply, and financially sustainable power sector. 25. Challenge #1: Financial distress of BT. BT has been in financial distress due to: (a) below cost- recovery tariffs; (b) unsustainable and increasing debt levels; (c) low collection rates for billed electricity; (d) operational inefficiencies; (e) limited opportunities for electricity exports; (f) non-competitive procurement of portion of heavy fuel oil (HFO) required for CHPs; and (h) depreciation of TJS vs US$. This has led to significant deterioration of financial standing of BT with severe cash flow shortages. 26. Challenge #2: Reduction of electricity supply reliability. The financial distress of BT impacted the reliability of electricity supply, which deteriorated due to: (a) dilapidation of the largest generation plants in the country; and (b) obsolescence and under-maintenance of power T&D networks. 27. Challenge #3: Weak governance of BT. The financial distress of BT is also caused by lack of planning of investments and expenditures and gaps in accounting and financial reporting. BT also needs to introduce proper planning of investments and expenditure into generation, transmission, and distribution. Currently, there is no generation expansion plan, which is prepared consistent with the principles of least economic cost planning. BT does not have a T&D investment program, which draws upon the planned generation investments, and takes into account the need for replacement of ageing and unreliable assets. 28. In order to improve the financial standing of the power sector, the Government has prepared BT Financial Recovery Program, which aims to improve its operational efficiency and improve its financial standing. The Government requested the World Bank and other development partners to finance the program. The lending instrument planned for the Program, to be supported by the World Bank, is Program-for-Results (PforR). As a part of PforR preparation, the Bank needs to complete an assessment 12 of environmental and social systems of the Program. This report details the results of the Environmental and Social Systems Assessment (ESSA). 2.2 Program Description 29. The program development objectives are to improve the financial viability, increase the reliability of electricity supply, and strengthen the governance of BT. 30. The Program will be supporting the following key measures from the broader government program on financial recovery of BT. Results Area 1: Achievement of Financial Viability of BT • Achievement of cost-recovery end-user tariffs; • Revision of subsidiary agreements between MOF and BT; • Installation of AMI in Istaravshan, Isfara, and Konibodom. Results Area 2: Ensuring Electricity Supply Reliability • Adequate electricity supply from Sangtuda-1 IPP; • Timely rehabilitation and upgrade of key electricity T&D assets. Result Area 3: Strengthening of BT’ Governance • Implementation of good-practice corporate governance at BT; • Use of technically, economically, and financially sound principles for investment decision-making in generation, transmission and distribution; • Improvement of BT’s operational and financial transparency. 31. PDO Level Results Indicators. The PforR supports results in three areas: (i) achievement of financial viability of BT, transmission, and distribution companies; (ii) ensuring electricity supply reliability; and (c) strengthening of BT governance and transparency. The following outcome indicators will be used to measure achievement of the PDO: • PDO Level Outcome Indicator 1 (Custom): Reduction of the cash deficit of BT (% reduction of cash deficit). • PDO Level Outcome Indicator 2 (Custom): Annual electricity supply by Sangtuda-1 HPP for domestic consumption (GWh). • PDO Level Outcome Indicator 3 (Custom): Reduction of equipment failures in electricity transmission and distribution networks of BT (Number of equipment failures). • PDO Level Outcome Indicator 4 (Custom): New generation and T&D capital investment decisions are made by the Recipient considering sound economic, technical, and financial principals (Yes/No). 32. The Program has a total estimated cost of US$479 million. The Program would be financed with combination of own resources of BT, IDA, and AIIB. The Program would have a financing gap, which would be filled in by 2021 with additional resources attracted from development partners, including potential additional financing from IDA. The AIIB would co-finance the Program with the World Bank and will focus its financing on Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) related to improvements in metering and billing infrastructure in the cities of Istaravshan, Isfara, and Konibodom (DLI 4) as well as rehabilitation and upgrade program in T&D (DLI 6). 33. The DLIs under the Program are presented below: Disbursement Linked Indicators Amount Allocated (US$ Financing of DLIs million) DLI 1: Achievement of cost-recovery end-user tariffs 19,000,000 World Bank DLI 2: Revision of subsidiary agreements between the MOF 33,000,000 World Bank and BT DLI 3: Reduction of the cash deficit of BT 28,000,000 World Bank 13 Disbursement Linked Indicators Amount Allocated (US$ Financing of DLIs million) DLI 4: Improvement of BT’s collection rate for billed 23,394,000 World Bank electricity in the cities of Istaravshan, Isfara, and Konibodom DLI 5: Adequate electricity supply is received by BT from 17,000,000 AIIB Sangtuda-1 DLI 6: Reduction of equipment failures in electricity 16,506,000 AIIB transmission and distribution networks of BT DLI 7: Use of technically, economically, and financially 14,900,000 World Bank sound principles for the Recipient’s investment decision - making in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution DLI 8: Implementation of good-practice corporate 17,000,000 World Bank governance at BT DLI 9: Improvement of BT’s operational and financial 5,100,000 World Bank transparency Total 173,900,0003 3 US$134 million IDA grant and US$40 million AIIB loan (net of 0.25 percent front-end fee). 14 3. Environmental and Social Systems Assessment 34. The environmental and social (E&S) review of the Program requires assessment of existing environmental and social systems applicable to the Program, identification of gaps (if any), and recommendations to fill in those gaps to ensure sustainable environmental and social benefits. ESSA was prepared by the Bank’s task team and the results will be discussed and agreed with BT, MEWR and other key government stakeholders. 35. ESSA derives its scope from the intended objectives of the Program, which relate to: policies including regulatory environment; rehabilitation and upgrade of key T&D assets; financial measures; and improvements in operational efficiencies. The above measures are unlikely to have any adverse impacts that cannot be mitigated if sound policies are in place. However, planned efforts are essential to ensure that project interventions do result in sustainable social and environmental benefits. Accordingly, a comprehensive assessment of environmental and social systems (ESSA) has been undertaken to gauge the adequacy of environmental and social systems, especially with focus of attention on BT. 3.1 ESSA Objective 36. The objective of ESSA is to ensure consistency with the core principles outlined in the World Bank’s Policy on Program-for-Results Financing (Nov. 10, 2017) in order to effectively manage program risks and promote sustainable development.4 These principles are: a. Promote environmental and social sustainability in the PforR Program design; avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts, and promote informed decision-making relating to the PforR Program’s environmental and social impacts; b. Avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts on natural habitats and physical cultural resources resulting from the PforR Program; c. Protect public and worker safety against the potential risks associated with: (i) construction and/or operations of facilities or other operational practices under the PforR Program; (ii) exposure to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and other dangerous materials under the PforR Program; and (iii) reconstruction or rehabilitation of infrastructure located in areas prone to natural hazards; d. Manage land acquisition and loss of access to natural resources in a way that avoids or minimizes displacement, and assist the affected people in improving, or at the minimum restoring, their livelihoods and living standards; e. Give due consideration to the cultural appropriateness of, and equitable access to, PforR Program benefits, giving special attention to the rights and interests of the Indigenous Peoples and to the needs or concerns of vulnerable groups; and f. Avoid exacerbating social conflict, especially in fragile states, post-conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. 37. The specific objectives of ESSA include: • Identification of potential environmental and social benefits, risks and impacts applicable to the Program interventions; • Review of the policy and legal framework related to management of environmental and social impacts of the Program interventions; • Assessment of the institutional capacity for environmental and social management system within the Program system; • Assessment of the Program system performance with respect to the core principles of the PforR instrument and identification of gaps, if any, and 4 World Bank’s Policy, Program-for-Results Financing, Nov. 10, 2017. 15 • Description of actions to be taken to fill the gaps, i.e. mitigation measures that will be used as input/s to the Program Action Plan (PAP). 38. The ESSA is prepared through review of existing Program documents and available related technical literature, and consultations with all key stakeholders, including BT, representatives of different consumer groups, NGOs, bilateral and multi-lateral development agencies, government officials and other experts. Field visits were made to Kulob, Panj, Hamadoni, Farkhor and Dushanbe regions that will include Program activities on regional power T&D network levels. The approach to preparation of the ESSA was participatory involving intensive consultations with various stakeholders. The assessment has also drawn upon the results of the poverty and social impact assessment (PSIA) carried out to estimate the distribution and poverty impacts of planned electricity tariff increases on vulnerable consumers. These activities helped to identify the critical issues and/ or gaps and provide inputs to PAP. 3.2 Consultations and Disclosure of ESSA 39. The extensive engagements with key stakeholders enabled managing expectations and the related issues/ concerns emanating from various stakeholders. List of field visits and people / agencies met is provided in Annex 1. The draft final ESSA and its findings were consulted with key stakeholders at a workshop in Dushanbe on April 22, 2019. For this purpose, the hard copy of the ESSA in Tajik and English language were disseminated among key stakeholders in advance of the meeting. The electronic copy of the document was published at the World Bank’s5 and BT’s websites. The Government representatives, civil society, private sector, international donor agencies, energy facilities and representatives of nongovernment organizations participated in the workshop. The feedback received from the public consultation was incorporated into the final ESSA. Key messages received from the workshop were: (i) building BT’s capacity (adding human and technical resources) for Program related environmental protection as well as overall environmental and social management, and (ii) inventory of PCB-based oils and other hazardous waste at BT, and benefiting from experiences of the neighboring counties and elsewhere in storage, handling, and disposal of hazardous material. The final ESSA report was disclosed on BT’s and Bank’s websites. 5 https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/tajikistan/brief/consultation-environmental-and-social-system-assessment- tajikistans-power-sector 16 4. Legal and Regulatory Framework Applicable to Environmental Aspects of the Program 40. This chapter provides details on the environmental policies, laws, regulations as well as guidelines that are relevant to the activities proposed under the Program. It also provides an assessment of the adequacy of the coverage of environmental aspects in the legislative and regulatory framework. 4.1 Environmental Policies, Laws and Regulations 41. The environmental legislation is complex. It includes the Constitution, several strategic documents covering specific direct and cross-cutting environmental issues, such as state programs, international agreements to which Tajikistan is party and relevant National Plans (including National Implementation Plan of the Republic of Tajikistan on Realization of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants), basic (constitutional) codes and laws (like Water Code, Land Code, Forest Code), other laws, resolutions of the two chambers of the Parliament, Majlisi milli (National Assembly) and Majlisi Namoyandagon (Assembly of Representatives); decrees of the President; resolutions of the Government; resolutions of ministries, state committees and other state bodies; and acts of the local representative and executive authorities6. 42. Basic environmental law is the "Framework Environment Law on Environment Protection,â€? which stipulates that Tajikistan's environmental policy should give priority to environmental actions based on scientifically proven principles to combine economic and other activities that have an impact on the environment with nature preservation and the sustainable use of resources. The Law establishes several types of controls over compliance with environmental legislation: State control, ministerial control, enterprise control, and public control. State control is affected by the CEP, the Sanitary Inspectorate of the Ministry of Health, the Inspectorate for Industrial Safety and the Mining Inspectorate. Public control is carried out by public organizations or trade unions and can be exercised with respect to any governmental body, enterprise, entity or individual. 43. The Law on Ecological Expertise streamlines the procedures of environmental assessment of projects. It brought several procedural adjustments, such as introducing more flexibility into the duration of the State Ecological Expertise (SEE), which is now linked to the complexity of projects. The Law introduced the right for the public to participate in preparation (and not only the discussion) of EIA. It increased the rights in relation to the public ecological expertise, such as the obligation of the project developer to provide to the public project documentation of the same completeness and complexity as to the SEE. 44. These two laws stipulate all aspects of the EIA. The Law on Environmental Protection introduces the concept of state ecological review (literally, state ecological "expertise" - SEE), which seeks to examine the compliance of proposed activities and projects with the requirements of environmental legislation and standards and ecological security of the society. The mentioned laws stipulate the mandatory cross- sectoral nature of SEE, which shall be scientifically justified, comprehensive, and objective and which shall lead to conclusions in accordance with the law. SEE precedes decision-making about activities that may have a negative impact on the environment. Financing of programs and projects is allowed only after a positive SEE and conclusion has been issued. A SEE should be conducted by the CEP, which has a comprehensive mandate that includes policy formulation and inspection duties. The CEP has divisions at each city or district. A special unit in the CEP is entrusted with guiding and managing both EIA and SEE. EIA is a component of the SEE and preparation of EIA is the responsibility of the proponents of the projects, 45. The State Ecological Expertise for all investment projects is the responsibility of the CEP and its regional offices. All civil works, including rehabilitation, should be assessed for their environmental impacts and the proposed mitigation measures reviewed and monitored by the CEP. A detailed project 6 The full list of environmental laws and regulations are enclosed in Annex 2. 17 description and the EIA study are the basis to go for the environmental permit and have to be submitted to the CEP. 46. The Law on Environmental Monitoring describes the organization of the Consolidated State System of Environmental Monitoring and establishes the state register of environmental monitoring objects. 47. Environmental regulations and standards are also set for air and water pollution, noise, vibration, magnetic fields and other physical factors. Several ministries determine environmental quality standards, each in its field of responsibility. Standards are divided into national, territorial, sectoral and standards into account the requirements to means of production, transport, processes, raw and other materials, the working environment as well group protection of workers. 4.2 Adequacy of the Legislative Framework on Environmental Aspects 48. Developed and comprehensive system of environmental legislation and regulations provides an adequate enabling framework for implementing the key activities to be supported under the PforR. This system governs the procedure for conducting EIAs and SEE of the Program activities as well as current environmental monitoring of activities, including rehabilitation and upgrade of power T&D assets. Developed network of environmental monitoring by the CEP and municipalities based on existing environmental norms, technical guidelines and standards, with the right approach at the district and local level can successfully monitor environmental requirements during implementation of rehabilitation and upgrade of T&D assets under the Program. The country has made progress in recent years, including update of guidelines for EIA and SEE, and classification and ranking of potentially hazardous activities. 18 5. Legal and Regulatory Framework Applicable to Social Aspects of the Program 49. This chapter provides details on the social policies, laws, regulations as well as guidelines that are relevant to the activities proposed under the Program. It also provides an assessment of the adequacy of the coverage on social aspects in the legislative and regulatory framework. 5.1 Social Policies, Laws, and Regulations 50. Social policies, laws and regulation in the context of the Program primarily relate to: social/consumer protection and public accountability. Some key laws and regulations that have relevance for social aspects of the Program are presented below.7 51. Law on Consumer Rights, among other things, regulates legal relations between the producers of goods and services, provides for the state and public protection of consumer rights, and describes the consumer right implementation mechanisms. The legal provisions of this Law also apply to energy users in cases when their consumer rights are violated. According to this Law, the energy users have right to be informed on the tariffs to be increased and associated investments to be made to justify the increases. 52. Chapter 5 of the Law on Energy Savings and Energy Efficiency underlines the necessity to implement information campaign on energy savings and efficiency among wide range of energy consumers. Based on this Law, BT is required to carry out information campaign on energy savings techniques among diverse range of users. The Program activities will be supported by the public communication strategy, which is being developed under the ongoing ESMAP-financed activity on Improvement of Power Tariff Setting and Mitigation of Social Impacts on the Poor (P167384) and which will be implemented by BT/power distribution company, to educate the key stakeholders about the ongoing power sector reforms, the necessity for the annual tariff increases, the necessity for such tariff increases, and the mechanisms to protect the poor. 53. Law on Energy (last amended in 2013) describes the specifics of the energy sector functioning in Tajikistan. In particular, Article 15 of Chapter 3 of the Law states about energy tariff setting in energy sector. The BT will follow the prescribed by the law procedures during the tariff setting and approval with the respective regulatory government structures. 54. Law on Indexation of Population’s Income due to the Price Growth on Consumer Goods and Services (1997, never amended). The law guarantees the right of citizens receiving state pensions, social allowances, state salaries, stipends, work-related injury allowances to indexation. Due to inflation increases in 2017-2018, the recent increase in public sector salaries, state and social pensions was implemented in September 2018. This Law will serve as the legal framework for adoption and implementation of social mitigation measures to accompany the new electricity tariff methodology to be developed and implemented by the BT during the project implementation. 55. Law on Natural Monopolies describes the legal provisions on the state control over the goods, services and works provided by natural monopoly. It provides legal background for the GoT regulating and approving tariff-setting, updating and price ceilings for the goods, services and works provided by the natural monopolies, including BT. 56. Law on TSA is a new law, which was adopted in 2017 and became effective starting from January 1, 2018. It provides the legal basis for the TSA Program piloted from 2011 in Tajikistan, which was introduced with the support by the Bank, and is currently in the process of being rolled out in the country. The TSA consolidates two largest social assistance programs (cash compensation for energy and gas services payments for poor households and reimbursement of school costs for poor households with school-age children) into a single benefit and uses a special formula to identify and target the poorest 15 percent of the population in Tajikistan. 57. As part of implementation of the TSA program, the National Registry of Social Protection has been established at the Agency for Social Protection of the Population under the MOHSP. The system allows 7 The full list of legislation and international treaties for which Tajikistan is a signatory is presented in Annex 2. 19 entering applications in the database at the district level, further verification of the data at the central level in Dushanbe, approval of new benefits based on the results of the specialized Proxy-Means Testing (PMT) formula, administration of all payments through the network of the Amonatbank, and reconciliation of all payments, to ensure that assistance reaches the eligible recipients (tranches of TJS100 paid on quarterly basis or TJS400 (US$42) a year per household, to be increased in 2019). 58. The new electricity tariff policy, which was approved by the Government of Tajikistan, stipulates establishing a compensation mechanism to protect poor families from negative impact of possible rising electricity costs. The TSA program approach could serve as an initial base of compensation mechanism to be considered within the new tariff methodology to be adopted and implemented under the Program. The TSA program will be used to identify the poor households, which may not afford to pay their electricity bills, and those will be registered as eligible beneficiaries for the social assistance to partly cover their energy costs. However, to make it an efficient compensation mechanism, the TSA program funding needs to be increased, which could be achieved through allocation of additional revenues that the state budget may receive given: a. Expected timely debt service payments by BT given gradual increase of electricity tariffs. Currently, the state budget receives very small amount of debt service payments from BT and services the debts to international financiers using its other tax revenue sources; and b. Increased taxes that would be paid by BT given expected increase in revenues driven by gradual tariff increases during the implementation of the Program. 59. Law on Freedom of Information is underpinned by Article 25 of the Constitution, which states that governmental agencies, social associations and officials are required to provide each person with the possibility of receiving and becoming acquainted with documents that affect her or his rights and interests, except in cases provided by the legislation. Based on this Law, the Project Affected People (PAP) have the right to access the Program related information. 60. According to the Decree ‘Approval of the Order of Costs Reimbursement Related to Provision of Information’ (adopted on January 1, 2010), all state institutions are allowed to charge fees for providing any kind of information to journalists and public officials. The decree states that one page of information provided should cost up to 35 Somoni (US$8). The decree enables state officials to charge for photocopying official documents or extracts of official documents and for obtaining information from government officials in writing. Payment can be collected not only for the supply of printed information, but also for verbal information and clarification of legislative acts, decrees and regulations8. This decree has adverse impact on the low-income people, including PAP, who cannot afford to cover the costs associated with photocopying of documents from government agencies. 61. The 2014 Law on Public Meetings, Demonstrations and Rallies (Article 10) bans persons with a record of administrative offenses (i.e. non-criminal infractions) under Articles 106, 460, 479 and 480 of the Code for Administrative Offences from organizing gatherings9. Article 12 of the Law establishes that the gathering organizers must obtain permission from local administration fifteen days prior to organizing a mass gathering. These legal provisions will require advance planning and notification of respective government bodies about any public meetings to be held within the Program. 62. Law of Republic of Tajikistan on Appeals of Individuals and Legal Entities (from July 23, 2016, â„– 1339), contains legal provisions on established information channels for citizens to file their complaints, requests and grievances. Article 14 of the Law sets the timeframes for handling grievances, which is 15 days from the date of receipt that do not require additional study and research, and 30 days for the appeals that need additional study. These legal provisions will be taken into account by the Program- based Grievance Redress Mechanism. 63. It should be noted that the legislation related to land use and acquisition is not applicable to the activities to be supported under the Program. Within Results Area 2, the Program will support: 8 ‘Commercial Laws of Tajikistan: An Assessment by the EBRD’. Office of the General Counsel. April 2012. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 9 These provisions concern the hampering of gatherings (Article 106); disorderly conduct (Article 460); disobedience to police (Article 479); and violation of rules of conducting gatherings (Article 480). 20 a. Rehabilitation and upgrade of electricity T&D assets. These activities are not expected to require land acquisition or impact any other land users because they will be implemented in fully fenced (by concrete walls) areas of substations fully-owned by BT and which are not utilized for other purposes by anyone. The access to substation sites is possible by gravel or asphalted roads broad enough to take in heavy equipment and without causing any disruption to other land owners. b. Construction of low-voltage power distribution lines in settlements may require installation of narrow pylons (which requires a 1 square meter of land), on publicly-owned side-walks, which are not used for any other purposes. Thus, no land acquisition will be required. 5.2 Adequacy of the Legislative Framework on Social Aspects 64. The legal and regulatory framework at the national and regional levels provides an adequate and appropriate enabling framework for implementing the key activities to be supported under the Program. Social protection, responsiveness to consumer inquiries/questions, and public accountability are adequately covered by the legal framework at different levels. The legislation highlights the importance of state’s commitment to serving and ensuring protection of the public, in general, and the poor and vulnerable in particular. The laws on consumer rights; targeted social assistance; grievance redress; and energy stipulate rules governing setting of tariffs; and adjustments to public salaries, pensions, and other benefits due to growth of price for consumer goods and services. 21 6. Assessment of Environmental Systems 6.1 General Assessment of Environmental Benefits and Risks 65. The Program supports key priorities of Tajikistan’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by addressing adequacy and reliability of electricity supply. In particular, the INDC for Tajikistan specifies a flexible target, not exceeding 80-90 percent of the 1990 level by 2030, which amounts to 1.7-2.2 tons of CO2 equivalent per capita, as the country contribution to anthropogenic GHG emission reductions. The Program will help to avoid increased reliance on alternative energy consumption, which includes back-up diesel generators, candles for lighting, firewood and coal for cooking in low-income households, in case financial condition of BT deteriorates to an extent when reliable operation and supply of hydropower, which currently accounts for 94 percent of totally supply, becomes unfeasible. Therefore, the Program would help to avoid increase in GHG emissions over the life of the Program (2019-2025). 66. The proposed Program also plans to improve the technical condition of the existing power network, which is dilapidated in all of the regions, including rural areas, thus creating social benefits. The reliability of electricity supply is an essential prerequisite for enhanced educational, social and health services. 67. The Government program would be financing expenditures for rehabilitation, replacement, and upgrade of key electricity distribution assets in 17 regional distribution networks of BT, which cover the entire service territory of BT. The upgrade and rehabilitation would include: (a) replacement of old oil circuit breakers with vacuum circuit breakers at substations; (b) replacement of disconnectors at substations; (c) repair and replacement of power and voltage transformers at substations; (d) installation of new relay protection and automation cubicles at substations; (e) construction of new 0.4 kV and 10 kV power distribution lines; and (f) rehabilitation of existing power distribution lines. These activities will include replacement, repair, and upgrade of equipment, include some pieces that contain environmentally hazardous components, such as transformers with oils containing PCB.10 68. The results of the environmental screening suggest that majority of activities, which will be supported under the PforR, will have limited environmental impacts. Some rehabilitation/construction works to be supported under the Result Area 2 could generate adverse environmental impacts, which will be low to moderate in intensity, reversible in nature, and mainly construction related. However, disposal of used oil from old transformers and circuit breakers could pollute soil and water with hazardous waste and harm human health, if implemented inadequately. Further, construction of new power distributions lines or possible reconstruction of different facilities at substations (e.g. control equipment buildings) could potentially create noise pollution. There is probability of encountering materials and equipment, which contain asbestos, when implementing the construction works. The environmental risks11 are therefore reviewed with the framework of adequacy of country systems for assessment and mitigation of such type of environmental effects. 6.2 Environmental Management Systems in the Program 69. Environment Management System in the Program includes: (i) various stakeholders and institutions involved in the environmental assessment, monitoring and control, (ii) laws, rules, regulations and special procedures for assessment of potential environmental risks and impacts of the proposed Program activities, (iii) institutional capacity to identify and manage environmental issues. 10 See details in Annex 4. 11 See details in Annex 3. 22 6.2.1 Stakeholders 70. In terms of environmental safety, the main stakeholders, with some further strengthening, have the required capacity to fulfill the environmental requirements of the PforR using national instruments. Among them the most important are the following: 71. The Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MEWR) is responsible for policy, regulation and water sector coordination. The Government established the ESPMU, which is functioning since 2006, is responsible for implementation of most of the projects in the energy sector financed by the Government and IFIs. The ESPMU has a Social and Environmental Monitoring Department, which presently consists of six staff who are trained in environmental and social safeguards skills. The department is fully operational and responsible for conducting and/or supervising all necessary works in the field of implementation of the safeguards mitigation measures and monitoring actions. The ESPMU has experience on environmental and social monitoring of different projects implemented in energy sector, particularly those financed by IFIs. The ESPMU has been instrumental in ensuring safeguards compliance for projects like CASA 1000 Project funded by the World Bank and other donors, and Rehabilitation of Sarband Hydropower Project funded by the Asian Development Bank. 72. The specialists at ESPMU safeguards unit each have Master’s degree in biology/ecology and/or Sociology/Psychology and possess working experience in international projects of over 5 years. The ESPMU environmental team during last 5 years have passed professional trainings at international and national level organized by international donors: for example, Good Practice of Environmental Safeguard Management in infrastructure projects (June 2015 in Kyrgyzstan), Implementation of Social and environmental safeguards (2016 in Georgia), Monitoring of Environmental Safeguards Implementation (2018 in Georgia) and on-the-job trainings at construction sites provided by international safeguards consultants during the implementation of the projects in energy sector. 73. BT is the vertically integrated energy company responsible for implementation of projects in the energy sector financed from its own resources and by international financial institutions. BT is responsible for generation, transmission, distribution of electricity as well as thermal energy for heating purposes. BT is being unbundled into legally separate power generation, transmission, and distribution entities. BT generation company will own and operate all state-owned power generation plants. The power transmission company will own and operate all electricity transmission assets, and the electricity distribution company will own and operate all distribution networks. All companies will remain state- owned, but a private management contractor will be hired to operate the power distribution company. 74. CEP is the national environmental authority in charge of development and implementation of governmental policy on environmental protection, biological diversity, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), climate change, control over the rational use of natural resources, hydrometeorology and prevention of the causes of emergencies with negative environmental impacts. The CEP has its representatives in each region and district of Tajikistan. 75. Among other things, the CEP is in charge of: state control (inspections) of the use of natural resources and environmental protection; development and approval of rules and standards on environmental protection and use of natural resources; organization and implementation of SEE; organization and implementation of environmental monitoring; and creation of the register of polluters. 76. MOHSP is the central executive authority in charge of the governmental policy on public health and social protection. Among other issues, the Ministry approves sanitary standards, rules and hygiene standards. The Service of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance (Sanepidemnadzor) subordinated to the Ministry, oversees compliance with sanitary regulations. 77. The Ministry of Labor, Migration and Employment of the Population is responsible for occupational health and safety. An integrated Service of State Control on Labor, Employment and Social Protection is the state executive agency responsible for control and enforcement of the labor-related legislation among all physical and legal entities, public or private. There is a list of workplace factors, such as indoor air 23 quality and microclimate, noise, vibrations, radiation, toxic substances, etc., to be controlled by the Service. 78. Local authorities at regional and district level. Tajikistan is divided into the following administrative territories: the capital Dushanbe, Gorno-Badakhshan Automous Oblast, Sughd, and Khatlon oblasts; towns and districts under republican subordination, and lower level territorial units. The local executive authorities have the authority to implement state control of environmental protection, develop and implement programs and action plans on environmental protection and use of natural resources, make proposals to the national environmental authority on environmental issues, raise environmental awareness, and review the reports of territorial bodies of central executive authorities and enterprises on environmental protection and use of natural resources, etc. 79. As far as the local executive authorities are concerned, the Law on Environmental Protection gives them right to "state control on environment", along with the CEP. They also have control powers on waste handling and water protection. 80. International Development Partners, their environmental policies and key projects in Energy Sector. International partners play an important role in the development of the energy sector in Tajikistan. With an overall objective to strengthen the effectiveness of development assistance provided to Tajikistan, the Development Coordination Council (DCC) was established to facilitate information exchange and collaboration within the development community, as well as foster dialogue on shared priorities with the Government of Tajikistan. The representatives of 29 bilateral, multilateral and UN agencies comprise the Council. DCC Secretariat is hosted by the World Bank office. The secretariat is generously supported on rotational basis by different partners. The Energy thematic area of the DCC is chaired by ADB and WB as a deputy. Key international players in the Energy sector include ADB, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Bank and others. All these donors have comprehensive E&S policies, which are used by the national implementing agencies (like PMUs) and responsible governmental bodies (ministries and committees). 81. Civil society. The participation of civil society in the management of the energy sector is expanding. The Association of Energy Workers of Tajikistan (AET), established in 2005, initiated the development and adoption of number of laws of the Republic of Tajikistan, including the Laws of the Republic of Tajikistan “On Energy Efficiencyâ€?, new edition of the Laws “On Energyâ€?, “On oil and gasâ€?. AET members are experts in water and energy issues, renewable energy, and other issues of the fuel and energy complex. The Renewable Energy Association (AES), established in 2015, makes contribution to the implementation of specific projects on renewable energy sources, promoting their use. 6.2.2 Institutional Capacity to Manage Environmental Aspects of the Program 6.2.2.1 Barqi Tojik 82. The current Charter of BT (2008) defines Company’s ability to make proposals to the appropriate state bodies for the development and improvement of rules and standards for ensuring safe generation, transmission, distribution, and sale of heat and electricity. 83. BT has a corporate environmental policy (2009). It also has an independent subdivision of Reliability and Safety Services (RSS). The purpose of the RSS is to ensure the safe operation of generation facilities and electric networks, safe working conditions for workers, and prevention of injuries and occupational injuries at BT. The RSS is responsible for organization and control over the rules and norms of labor protection, OHS aspects. RSS is also responsible for review and revision of laws on occupational health and safety, developing special operating procedures on OHS and prevention of work-related accidents. 84. BT, as the main Program implementing agency, has limited in-house capacity for environmental due diligence, and has a few regulations on environmental mitigation when implementing physical works. The 24 results of the Bank review suggest that BT has general and regional plans for planting trees, recycling fluorescent lamps, etc, but there are no plans or guidelines for handling of PCB-containing oils. 85. Two years ago, an environmental specialist position was created at the Energy Generation Department of BT. Even though the job description for this position includes a wide range of duties, the specialist mainly deals with issues of permits for land use, collecting statistical information on environmental violations in the divisions of BT and compiles annual environmental reports. Because of very broad job description, the specialist is unable to support preparation and monitoring of EIAs for the projects. 86. Each of BT’s regional subdivisions has a specially appointed staff responsible for fulfillment of environmental requirements. Preparation of EIA and obtaining permits from CEP is the responsibility of BT’ Capital Construction Department. This department monitors the need for compliance with environmental regulations (preparation of EIAs) and is responsible for obtaining permits from CEP. According to the information received, in the past 5 years, design and contractor companies under the state budget financed operations have completed about 35 projects. For each project, a permit was issued by the regional CEP as issuance of such permits has been delegated to regions by the CEP. This procedure does not contradict the national legislation since the works performed mainly included reconstruction of power distribution lines up to 10 kV, and such works, according to the current regulations, do not require EIA. 87. In case of larger projects, all of which were funded by international development partners (the list is given in Annex 2), a full-fledged EIA was carried out with the involvement of international and local consultants, and the activities were coordinated with CEP. As a rule, ESPMU engaged such specialists/consultants, which prepared relevant EIAs. 88. One shortcoming revealed in the implementation of EIA procedures is that SEE reports/approvals, under some operations, were issued for projects, which were later subdivided into small sub-projects and implemented without updated EIAs. In other words, detailed site-specific EMPs prepared by the environmental department of ESPMU or contractors were not presented for approval by CEP and did not pass the SEE procedures. Only in the recently launched World Bank financed CASA-1000 project, which is also carried out by ESPMU, site-specific EMPs obtained approval from CEP. In addition, the CASA project hired independent consultants for environmental safeguards management during preparation and implementation, which is a good practice for high risk operations. 89. Established procedures for EIAs under substantial or high-risk projects, such as preparation by independent consultants, is ensured for donor funded projects. For public sector projects, cases have been witnessed where umbrella EIA/SEE were prepared and later project was divided into subprojects without further environmental assessments despite the fact that these were required under the national procedures. In terms of institutional capacity, BT has limited capacity (one environmental expert) at central level to help prepare and implement the environmental safeguards instruments. Under the projects implemented by ESPMU, technical supervision consultants are typically responsible for the preparation and implementation of environmental instruments. In the absence of adequate in-house capacity, BT is unable to prepare Terms of Reference (ToR) for the EIAs, and to review EIAs prepared by the consultants, and oversee their implementation. In summary, BT generally complies with the national laws and procedures required for project-level environmental management. However, practices to comply with the national laws vary between self-financed projects and projects funded by donors. Therefore, the PAP will require annual evaluation, monitoring and reporting of progress on environmental and social issues, especially regarding the compliance of the Program activities with the environmental legislation and regulations. This will be carried out by existing and additional E&S staff to be hired for the needs of the Program at ESPMU. Hazardous Waste Management in BT 90. The country or BT-level regulations and practices for PCB management are not adequate. Specifically, BT does not have any standard procedures to manage hazardous waste, including used transformer oils, 25 in an environment friendly manner. Thus, BT stores the used oil from transformers at specially-equipped warehouses at various locations within the substations. 91. BT has many oil storage facilities at existing substations, where both new and used oil is stored. These oil storage facilities, mostly built during the Soviet time are still fairly reliable with proper management and provide protection against the infiltration of oil into the soil and water. Specifically, those warehouses are equipped with special above-ground storage spaces with concrete ground and a ditch to allow for leaked oil to accumulate at a safe area in case a leak occurs. In warehouses without concrete ground, in case of accidental oil spill, BT staff ensures that contaminated soil is removed to a safe place. 92. BT has not developed guidelines for the management of hazardous waste including contaminated oil. There are no guidelines for testing of oil for PCB content, oil replacement and handling, and packing for its transportation and storage. It should be noted that there is adequate storage space available to store the used oil at substations throughout the country for very extended period of time, i.e. more than 10 years. There were no records documenting the accidents with oil spillage and the actions by the staff, therefore, we could verify what actions were implemented in case of such accidents. 93. BT staff is currently following the requirements of outdated technical manuals of Soviet origin that were developed before Tajikistan ratified the Stockholm Convention. These manuals are at regional subdivisions of BT or at hydropower plants. BT does not have any data or records on the quantities of transformer oils which contain PCB. It is assumed that the transformer oils used in the country do not contain dangerous concentrations of PCBs and can be reused for various purposes after filtration. Additionally, there is no regular laboratory testing of transformer oils for PCB content. BT therefore has no records on the concentrations and quantities of toxic substances. 94. The only facility in the country with capability of carrying out PCB content tests, CEP laboratory, has never been approached by BT to carry out hazardous waste analysis in the samples of transformer oils. Oils have been tested for PCB content only under projects financed by development partners. For example, within the Nurek HPP Substation Rehabilitation project funded by ADB, the samples of transformers oil were sent to laboratories in Germany to check for PCB. The analysis of oil samples did not reveal the presence of toxic concentration of PCBs in transformers of Nurek HPP, however, these statistics is not representative enough to draw general conclusion. There is little data available in the country on the soil and water contamination resulting from the PCB-containing oil and its harmful impact on human health. Ministry of Health also has no monitoring capacity and guidelines on PCB control. 95. The performance of BT in management of asbestos-containing materials (ACM) is overall satisfactory. BT’s contractors know the basic techniques for handling ACM, including handling, transportation and disposal although there are no specific rules and regulations. The country has two landfills for hazardous waste (in Kanibadam and Vakhsh), where ACM is transported and buried, and the procedure is officially registered by protocols of transfer. 96. Therefore, there is a need to develop special corporate guidelines and regulations for handling hazardous materials, including oil with PCB content, decontamination requirements, temporary storage, transportation and disposal, and cleanup in case of spillage requirements. Therefore, development of such corporate guidelines and regulations is included as a measure in the PAP. 97. Going forward, the issue will need to be addressed by each of the unbundled companies – power generation, transmission, and distribution. BT generation company will retain the existing team of one environmentalist and a few environmental positions in the territorial divisions. To increase their potential in this situation, it may be sufficient only to conduct the necessary number of professional trainings and develop appropriate technical guidelines on environmental procedures and management. Both the power transmission and distribution companies will remain as state-owned, but power generation company will be operated by a private management contractor. 98. The new power transmission company, to be formed, will also need to have adequate in-house environmental capacity because it will be responsible for rehabilitation and upgrade of transmission substations under the Program. The draft of the management contract for power distribution indicates 26 that the company will ensure the environmental safety of industrial facilities, the organization of work to ensure labor protection, the effective implementation of practical measures, related to environmental protection; effective activity in the collection, use, disposal, storage, disposal, movement, transportation and disposal of industrial waste; effective use of water bodies and other natural resources; hazardous waste management activities. In draft management contract for power distribution company it is also stated that the Employer may require the Contractor to remove from the Facilities or the performance of the Services, any Contractor’s Personnel, who … persists in any conduct which is prejudicial to safety, health, or the protection of the environment. Therefore, the PAP includes a requirement to: (a) ensure that BT generation, the transmission, and the distribution companies have adequately qualified environmental staff to oversee implementation of the relevant Program activities; and (b) ESPMU and BT in cooperation with CEP develop relevant education materials and carry out regular trainings for BT generation, transmission, and distribution companies and their contractors. 6.2.2.2 State Energy Sector Project Management Unit (ESPMU) 99. ESPMU under MEWR is responsible for implementation of multiple projects in the energy sector, which are financed by development partners. ESPMU has extensive experience in working with CEP and in preparation of EIAs and obtaining environmental permits. ESPMU has adequate in-house capacity for managing project-level environmental issues and collaborating with national and international experts to ensure compliance with environmental and social requirements under projects. 100. The extensive experience of ESPMU makes it possible to effectively carry out environmental due diligence including OHS aspects for projects. ESPMU has developed project-level procedures for environmental management, with systems to adequately document environmental monitoring results from the projects. 101. It is also noteworthy that the specialists of the E&S department are not directly reporting to the project manager, although they are financed from the project budget. Instead, they directly report to ESPMU Director or responsible Deputy Director. The ESPMU also has experience in conducting training on project level environmental management for contractors and other project staff. The ESPMU has developed adequate training material (modules and cases), which, if needed, can be used to improve the skills and capacities of BT specialists, contractors as well as district level CEP inspectors. 102. The ESSA recommends that before development of the system of environmental management in newly established companies is finalized, BT will delegate the responsibilities for preparing environmental impact assessment and receiving CEP approval on SEE to ESPMU. The ESPMU will also provide functions on environmental monitoring of physical activities in the framework of PforR. The PforR will provide the capacity building support to BT to speed up the process of reforming through establishing the effective environmental service in each of the newly formed joint-stock companies, which will include further strengthen of environmental capacity of BT and ensuring that newly established transmission and distribution companies also have adequate environmental management capacity. The ESPMU will also help BT in developing necessary environmental manuals and technical guidelines for further application in the PforR framework. ESPMU will report on this activity to BT and MEWR. 6.2.2.3 Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government 103. The functionality of the Committee for Environmental Protection is adjusted to the administrative two-layer territorial structure. The first layer is made up of the Dushanbe City and 4 Oblast Divisions. The second layer is made up of 67 units and offices on environmental protection at district or town level. All territorial bodies of the CEP are formally subordinated to the CEP only. However, in fact, they work very closely with the local executive authorities - both at oblast level and at district and town levels. Most of the staff at the subnational level are dedicated to inspection activities. 104. The vertical remapping of permit issuance responsibility in 2015 resulted in a system that puts considerable administrative burden on the central level where experienced staff is scarce. Four units of the CEP dealing with state control of environmental legislation (air, water, flora and fauna, and soil and waste) have 17 full-time staff plus a few persons employed based on short-term contracts. The State 27 Ecological Expertise Body employs 20 staff who deal with environmental assessments, audits and authorization of project and facility- level activities (except for the low risk projects, which are addressed at the oblast level). 105. At subnational level, skills of the CEP personnel are generally weak and many of inspectors do not have relevant education or experience, especially in assessing environmental risks in the energy sector. The staff turnover is also very high. 106. The institutional capacity assessment relevant to the Program shows that national institutions and implementing entities have basic capacities to perform their duties regarding environmental management there is therefore a need for additional capacities and strengthening of existing resources. 6.2.2.4 Civil Society Organizations 107. Mandatory public participation in the current EIA/SEE system is envisaged only at the EIA stage under the national law. At the SEE stage, the possibility of public participation is provided through the so-called public ecological expertise, which is rarely conducted in practice. In practice, public participation in EIA continues to be limited and is mainly organized as part of the projects funded by international financial institutions. Public environmental control through citizens’ appeals and complaints is limited to their administrative review by the CEP and is not a regular practice by CEP. 6.2.3 Coordination Mechanisms within the Government and at Subnational Level 108. The Government hierarchy is comprised of ministries and state committees. The CEP is a body subordinated to the Government. The weak integration of environmental aspects into sectoral legislation and strategic documents shows that, despite formal procedures for review of draft legislation and strategic documents by all interested public authorities, the CEP's influence on such documents is limited. As such, there is a weak involvement of regional bodies of CEP in projects implemented by BT for environmental protection. 109. Local executive authorities play an important role in coordinating activities at the regional and district levels. One of the deputy heads of a local executive authority is usually responsible for overseeing environmental issues, i.e. acts as a curator for such issues. While the competence of local executive authorities to implement state control of environmental protection formally overlaps with the same competence of territorial bodies of the CEP, this does not seem to be a problem, as territorial bodies of the CEP work hand in hand with the local executive authorities and regularly inform and consult them on their work. Joint actions of sanitary, environmental and other enforcement agencies are often undertaken under the aegis of the local administration. Since the local executive authorities lack resources for their day-to-day activity, there is a tendency to use the CEP's district and town offices/units for local environmental issues. 110. Joint actions of different state bodies mandated to oversee regulatory compliance and carry out monitoring functions (e.g. environmental and sanitary authorities) are a routine practice, especially at the local level. This is mainly done on an ad hoc basis and under the guidance of local executive authorities. A particular issue making coordination difficult is the lack of connection between information systems of various agencies, and insufficient capacity for data processing, data storage and exchange. On the other hand, local authorities have no structural units dedicated to environmental protection. In practice, their main function is delivery of environment-related services, such as municipal solid waste management and natural assets management. Local executive authorities have a central role in land-use and urban planning. The energy sector is not under attentive control of CEP authorities and municipalities, because of the strong need for energy supply everywhere over the country. 6.2.4 National Environmental Categorization of Activities 111. The Program proposed rehabilitation, replacement, and upgrade of key electricity distribution assets in 17 regional distribution networks of BT, which cover the entire service territory of BT. The proposed 28 activities classified per categories of environmental risk in accordance with the national environmental legislation are presented below in the Table below. Table 1. Categorization of Proposed Activities under the Program N Proposed Relevant “typeâ€? National Category Type of the SG Incompliance with activities of activity from (by Cyrillic letters: tool required by the WB the national A- high risk, Б – the national environmental categorization medium risk, B – legislation policy and system* low risk, Г – recommendations minimal or no risk)** 1 Replacement of Assembly and Category B (low Development of Needs clear old oil circuit repair of electric risk) OVOS (EIA) operations (site- breakers with equipment specific EMP) for vacuum circuit Toxic waste detecting PCB in breakers at storage or Category A (high oils and site- substations disposal sites (in risk) specific EMPs for case of PCB- the oil storage and containing oil) disposal sites. 2 Replacement of Assembly and Category B (low Ð?pplication disconnectors at repair of electric risk) (Statement) for substations equipment EIA assessment 3 Repair and Assembly and Category B (low Development of Needs clear replacement of repair of electric risk) OVOS (EIA) operations (site- power and voltage equipment specific EMP) for transformers at detecting PCB in substations Toxic waste Category A (high oils and site- storage or risk) specific EMPs for disposal sites (in the oil storage and case of PCD- disposal sites. containing transformer oil) 4 Installation of new Assembly and Category B (low Ð?pplication relay protection repair of electric risk) (Statement) for and automation equipment EIA assessment cubicles at substations 5 Construction of High-voltage Category A (high Development of Need site-specific new 0.4 kV and 10 power lines of risk) OVOS (EIA) EMPs kV power republican and distribution lines interstate importance 6 Rehabilitation of Regional power Category Б Development of Need site-specific existing power lines (medium risk) OVOS (EIA) EMP check-lists, distribution lines and full EMPs if rehabilitation is implemented in settlements (considering OHS and pedestrian safety) * Annex 1 to the Resolution No. 532of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, November 1, 2018 **Note: For the types of activities that are not related to categories "A" and "Б", it is obligatory to submit an Ð?pplication (Statement) for EIA assessment and declaration of obligations to implement the established and proposed environmental protection measures from the customer of this activity. An environmental impact assessment statement is also submitted when the proposed activity does not have a negative environmental impact or has a positive impact. 29 112. As it is clear from the table, some of the proposed Program activities can be considered as having high or medium environmental risk in accordance with national legislation. These activities should be of particular attention during Program implementation. BT, in addition to using the services of ESPMU, will also hire consultancy services to help it in preparing and supervising the implementation of ESMPs (and EIAs to fulfill the national regulatory requirements). The World Bank task team will ensure that these consultancy services include hiring of adequate human resource to support BT and ESPMU on environmental and social safeguards. Some of them, such as activities relevant to the PCB-containing waste management and construction/rehabilitation of high-voltage power lines, especially within settlements, need the development of site-specific EMP with obligatory public consultations. In the following sections, ESSA recommends hiring an international consultant to develop procedures and guidelines for BT on the adequate disposal of hazardous waste management including disposal of PCB- containing oils. 6.2.5 Overall Conclusion on Environmental Impacts and Risks 113. The environmental management system analysis presented in the sections above leads to the following conclusions: Strengths The strengths of the environmental management system for the proposed PforR activities are: • Adequate environmental legislation and regulations at the national level for conducting environmental impact assessments relevant to the Program. • Adequate network for environmental protection offices at district level. There is adequate interaction between CEP district representatives and municipalities, which can provide necessary environmental due diligence required for the Program. • Experience of ESPMU of MEWR from the implementation of international projects in the energy sector. This has contributed to creation of some capacity for project level environmental management for energy sector projects even at BT. Gaps 114. Key gaps in the environmental management system relevant to the Program are: • Weak environmental management capacity at BT. • Absence of necessary guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOPs) for hazardous waste management including PCBs at BT. 6.2.6 Improvement of Environmental Systems 115. BT will remain the state-owned company responsible for heat and electricity generation in the country. It will own and operate all state-owned HPPs (except Rogun HPP) and thermal power plant. The electricity transmission and distribution would also remain as state-owned, but electricity distribution will be managed by a private management contractor. Therefore, the recommendations related to addressing environmental impacts of the Program and recommended capacity building activities are structured considering those expected sectoral restructuring. 116. BT’s current low capacity in environmental management increases the environmental risks to substantial unless some corrective measures are taken up. To mitigate environmental risks associated with the implementation of Program, the following key actions will be implemented: • Strengthen E&S capacity at BT generation, transmission, and distribution companies to provide necessary guidance and compliance with environmental management under the national laws. • Provision of environmental management services under the Program by ESPMU until ESSG is created at BT generation and transmission companies and management contractor for power distribution establishes relevant E&S units. MEWR should formally assign ESPMU to be responsible 30 for E&S aspects of the Program until ESSG is created in BT generation and transmission companies. The ESPMU should also be responsible for capacity development program for BT generation and transmission companies in managing E&S aspects of the Program. MEWR should also ensure that the management contractor for electricity distribution company has the in-house capacity to comply with the requirements of local legislation related to key aspects of their operations (e.g. including relevant provisions in the draft management contract). • Adoption of environmental policies and corporate level guidelines and SOPs for hazardous waste management. BT will hire a consultant (preferably international) to prepare Environmental Policy and corporate-level guidelines and standard operating procedures (including emergency plans for oil spills) for the hazardous waste management, including PCBs, at the level of BT generation and transmission companies. This is required given the current deficiencies observed in the corporate policies related to hazardous waste management, including PCBs. The management contractor for electricity distribution will also be required to develop environmental policies and corporate guidelines. 31 7. Assessment of Social Systems 117. Key program elements, from social perspective, relate to: (i) electricity tariff increases to be implemented by BT, which will impact the different categories of consumers; and (ii) the power distribution network’s interactions with the consumers to evaluate whether the power distribution networks are effective in addressing the consumers’ questions and complaints, and providing the requested information. 118. The social protection system has been assessed through a diagnostic Poverty and Social Impact Assessment (PSIA). This comprised: stakeholder analysis and impact assessments with resultant poverty scenario. The processes comprised, as a first step, mapping of the stakeholders.12 First, a universal list of stakeholders was drawn and then prioritization was done considering significance of a particular stakeholder group. For the purpose of convenience, mapping was done considering vertical and horizontal spaces. The former relates to the administrative domains - national, province, district, village and Mohalla. Further, segmentation has been done in each of these domains. Significance is gauged by assigning scores - 5 being maximum and 1 being the lowest. Next, consultation meetings were held with different stakeholder groups. Program information were shared to evince their expectations and the issues/ concerns thereof. 119. These consultations helped in understanding the customer’s perception of effectiveness and reliability of electricity supply systems and determining the social issues likely to be addressed by the Program. The results were consolidated and the initial set of impacts was drawn. These impacts were refined further using the results of the analytical poverty assessments.13 Consultation meetings were held and covered a variety of stakeholders. The main two groups of stakeholders include the energy company (BT) and consumers. The detailed list of stakeholders and the analysis thereof is presented in Annex 6. Table 2. The List of Key Stakeholders KEY STAKEHOLDERS (i) Barqi Tojik (BT), the national integrated power company of Tajikistan, Utility Company responsible for generating, transmitting and distributing power for most part of the country; (ii) Household consumers in rural as well as urban areas; (iii) FHHs in rural as well as urban areas; (iv) Farm Households in rural areas; (v) Industries; (vi) Commercial establishments; (vii) Institutions like school/ colleges/ hospitals; (viii) Transporters; (ix) Consumers Union.14 12 A stakeholder is defined as an individual or institution who/ which can impact on the program and/ or impacted by the program. 13 Poverty Assessments have been conducted by the World Bank’s Social Protection Unit. 14 The Consumers' Union of Tajikistan was formed in the year 2002. It is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization created by experts in the areas of consumer rights, the economy and the justice system. Its main purposes are to protect consumers' rights and act in the interest of consumers and to build a fair and competitive market of goods and services in Tajikistan 32 7.1 Social System: Salient Features and Key Issues Box 1: Poverty Impacts from Tariff Increases The Government of Tajikistan plans to gradually increase electricity tariffs to full cost-recovery levels by 2025. While the tariff increase impacts all categories of consumers, potential mitigation of tariff increases for the poor households assumes significance, as electricity is becoming increasingly unaffordable for many residential consumers. Poor households, specially, in urban areas are likely to be impacted much more than their rural counterparts. With rising tariffs, poor households will devote an increasingly larger share of their household budget to energy and electricity. Without mitigation, electricity poverty – defined as households that spend 10% of their total budget or more on electricity – is expected to increase by the time BT achieves full cost recovery. Annual increases in tariffs of 15% (in nominal terms) in 2019-2021 and 8% (in nominal terms) in 2022-2025 would be expected to increase the poverty rate* by about 0.6 percentage points in 2024, or about 58,000 people falling below the poverty line. An increase in electricity tariffs – needed to make BT financially viable – also would need to be accompanied by measures to protect low-income households. The country has a TSA program, but, is too limited in its content and scope. In addition, service delivery needs to improve. Thus, it will need to be completed by lifeline tariff mechanism to ensure larger number of the poor are covered. Additionally, the following areas require attention : (i) BT’s outreach efforts; and (ii) complaints handling mechanism15. These measures will have to be backed up by strong regulatory framework. 120. Electricity tariffs have been increasing in Tajikistan since 2016. Specifically, in nominal terms, the tariff for residential consumers increased by 70 percent since 2013 (see Table 3). The last increase was made in 2018 by the Government Decree # 473, dated September 2018. In particular, the increase for residential consumers was 15 percent - from the 16.85 dirams/kWh to 19.37 dirams/kWh, including VAT. 121. The continuous increases in tariffs together with limited fiscal space of the state budget make planning and budgeting extremely difficult, especially, for the protection of the poor. Table 3. Annual Tariff Increases within 2013-2018 (dirams/kWh) Consumer groups from from from from from from from January 1, July 1, November January 1, October October November 2013 2014 1, 2016 2017 1, 2017 1, 2018 1 2018 Industry 26.63 30.6 35.65 35.65 40.99 47.13 Tajikistan Aluminum 8.116 11.8 11.8 11.8 11.8 12.88 12.88 Company (TALCO) 5.0 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.2 7.8 7.8 (including VAT) from October 1 to April 30 from May 1 to September 30 (seasonal tariff) Non-industrial consumers subgroup Ð? 26.63 30,6 35.65 35.65 40.99 47.13 (commercial) 10.63 12,2 14.2 14.65 16.85 19.37 subgroup B 18.63 21,4 24.93 24.93 28.67 33.25 (budgetary) subgroup C (average tariff)17 15 Both fall under the umbrella of Citizen Engagement. 16 From 2012 to July 2014, the seasonal tariff was in force from April 1 to October 31. 17 For educational institutions, which are not on budgetary financing (sports complexes, mosques, cathedrals and churches also pay this tariff since 2012. 33 Communal 10.63 12.2 14.2 14.65 16.85 19.37 consumers Urban electrified 6.04 8.2 9.55 14.65 16.85 19.37 transport Agricultural 26.63 30.6 35.65 35.65 40.99 47.13 consumers Pumps and pump stations 6.04 6.95 8.09 12.42 16.85 19.37 from October 1 to 1.59 1.86 2.16 4.32 5.86 6.73 April 30 from May 1 to September 30 (seasonal tariff)18 Electric boilers 65.88 75.8 88.3 88.3 101.54 116.77 and etc. 19.5 22.4 26.1 26.1 30.0 34.51 - for budgetary organizations Population 11.0 12.6 14.65 14.65 16.85 19.37 (including VAT) 7.1.1 Current Energy Consumption Patterns 122. Household energy demand is driven by lighting, heating, cooling, cooking, water pumping, and entertainment (television, radio), and other electronic gadgets like mobile, computer etc. The type of energy used for heating differs y between locations, but does not differ much between wealth groups within a location barring urban areas outside Dushanbe. In urban areas outside Dushanbe, the poorer households use relatively more wood and coal, and the wealthier households rely relatively more on electricity for heating. Urban apartment dwellers rely almost exclusively on electricity for heating their homes, while urban house residents use electricity, wood and coal in almost equal proportions. In rural areas, wood and coal are the main heating sources used. Yet. rural households also use electricity intensively, including for heating, when it is available. Figure 1. Dynamics of Electricity Tariff Growth for Residential Consumers in 2013-2018. 25 20 15 10 5 0 from from July 1, from from January from October from January 1, 2014 November 1, 1, 2017 1, 2017 November 1 2013 2016 2018 Source: Data from BT. 123. Energy deprivation and affordability especially affect poor rural households who spend a large share of their total consumption expenditure on energy. This share is higher than for households in urban areas. During the heating season, the poorest people in the rural areas spend almost 25 percent of their monthly consumption expenditure on energy. The poorest quintile in urban areas outside Dushanbe spends approximately 15 percent of their consumption on energy during winter. The residents of Dushanbe spend 14 percent of their income on energy during winter. On an annual basis, these figures are 14, 10 and 9 18 From 2012 the seasonal tariff is in force from April 1 to September 30. 34 percent respectively, which is highest in Europe and Central Asia.19 Rural households also have fewer available coping strategies than urban and are, occasionally, negatively affected by the limited supply of electricity in the winter for lighting and other basic needs. Figure 2. Consumption Expenditure on Energy by Poverty Rate. Source: Bank team estimate based on household survey, national statistical data, and other sources. 124. Electricity shortages in rural areas affect the quality of social service delivery. Some schools and medical facilities face the same electricity rationing as residential areas, which affects their functioning. They can only operate during daylight. Densely populated areas have a special electricity line for social buildings (a so-called “red lineâ€?), which supplies unlimited electricity during the heating season. However, it is common for private houses or small shops to connect illegally to the red line, resulting into social buildings receiving less energy than needed. Reduced access to heat and electricity (and therefore running water) forced many hospitals and health centers to close or work restricted hours of operation. Fluctuation in voltages affects the water pumps and often repairs become inevitable. 125. During the heating season in Dushanbe - where electricity is available on near-continuous basis – households consume at least 800-900 kWh/month, compared to 400-600 kWh/month in other urban areas and 200-250 kWh/month in rural areas. In Dushanbe, electricity is the main source for heating homes and water, and cooking. The main reasons for that are lack of alternative heating sources and low energy efficiency of residential buildings. Together with their low incomes, this explains why even with the current low electricity tariffs, the poorest households in Dushanbe suffer from high energy expenditure burdens during the heating season. 126. The situation has improved during since early 2017 after commissioning of Dushanbe-2 CHP, which also provides district heating (DH) to over 40 percent of residential consumers in the city of Dushanbe. Currently, the residential consumers pay for centralized DH a monthly price of around TJS1.1/month/square meter of residential area. This is lower cost heating option compared to electricity, but its cost is also expected to increase as DH tariffs start converting to cost-recovery levels. 127. Cutting expenditures on other necessities and under-consumption are the two most common strategies applied by rural households for dealing with high energy expenses. Households also try to reduce their consumption of energy to the extent possible. Most people, however, would rather reduce food intake to be warm and preferred to be a little hungry in a warm home. Nearly all rural focus group respondents reported that higher energy costs force them to reduce spending on food. Some population 19 Source: World Bank staff, based on data from the Central Asia Longitudinal Inclusive Society Survey (CALISS), 2013. 35 groups are considered especially vulnerable to high energy expenses given their level of income. These groups include, in order of priority, single FHHs, families with many children, pensioners living alone without family support, and people with disabilities. 128. Tajikistan’s electricity tariffs are the second lowest in Europe and Central Asia and energy efficiency is low. Many analytical studies correlate the winter energy crisis in Tajikistan to the need to raise tariffs in order to better recover costs and improve services. At the same time, there are important concerns about the affordability of electricity price increases in an environment where DH prices are also expected to increase, incomes are low, and where consumer trust in the integrity and transparency of the electricity utility company is limited. 129. Implicit electricity subsidies - resulting from supplying electricity to households at a price that does not recover its cost - are regressive and benefit richer households more than the poorest groups (Figure 2). Electricity consumption is higher among high-income households compared to those with lower incomes. Consequently, urban and richer households benefit disproportionally from the current implicit electricity subsidies. This is especially the case for households in Dushanbe where electricity is available on 24-hour basis. This renders the current low electricity tariff policy distribution ally inefficient as it favors the rich and does not protect the poor and vulnerable households from high energy expenditures. 130. Household survey data demonstrate that due to higher electricity consumption per capita, top 60 percent households disproportionally benefit from below cost-recovery tariffs. The top quintile consumes nearly 3.5 times the amount of electricity per capita than the bottom quintile in Tajikistan. Households in Dushanbe (the area with the lowest poverty rates in the country) consume more than 3.3 times the national average amount of electricity, largely due to a lack of alternative heating options in winter. Reducing public subsidies to electricity consumption are thus progressive (from distributional perspective) in its direct effect. Nonetheless, it is more difficult for poorer households to adjust to increasing energy costs. Simulations of potential consumer responses to tariff increases suggest that if full cost-recovery levels were achieved, the poorest 20 percent of households would be expected to allocate nearly 1.1 percent more of their total budget to electricity, while the top quintile of households would be expected to see an increase of approximately 0.63 percent. 131. There may be some willingness to pay (WTP) higher electricity tariff. However, residential tariff increases, especially in rural areas, might be acceptable only if a number of conditions related to quality of service, and transparent and equitable billing methods are met. These include: (i) reliability of electricity supply (details about outage presented in Annex 8); (ii) quick recovery of supply in case of outage; and (iii) metering and billing must be transparent and non-discriminatory (elimination of illegal connections and unbilled consumption of electricity). There is a widespread public perception of corrupt practices and consumer trust in BT is very low. In some areas with AMI, such as Sughd, including the city of Khujand, where EIB and EBRD have recently completed a highly successful project to install modern meters and automated billing system. The satisfactory rates of residential consumers improved, the collection rates for billed electricity increase, and commercial losses reduced. As part of the Program supported under PforR, BT plans to scale up the successful experience in Sughd and implement a metering and billing system in the city of Dushanbe, which is the largest consumer of electricity accounting for 25 percent of total. AMI leave less room for corruption and facilitate more transparent billing in the country. 132. An increase in electricity tariffs, which is needed to make BT financially sustainable, would need to be accompanied by measures to protect low-income households. Tariff increases, estimated to take place under the Program during 2019-2024, would have the largest impact on poor households in Dushanbe and other urban areas. During the heating season, spending on energy would rise from about 14 percent to almost 19 percent of household consumption in Dushanbe and would reach 20 percent for the poorest households in other urban areas. This assumes that electricity consumption patterns remain unchanged, a realistic assumption on the short term, especially for apartment dwellers for whom there are no safe heating alternatives. 36 7.1.2 Customer Orientation and Responsiveness of BT 133. The satisfaction with the quality of electricity service and overall responsiveness of BT to customers’ complaints and questions is very low, based on the results from the ongoing Listening-to-Tajikistan (L2T) survey. The existing system at BT for recording, processing, and resolving the customer complaints is inefficient and would need strengthening, especially in the regions. This is expected to improve with engagement of the management contractor on the electricity distribution side and scale-up of AMI to cover other regions of the country following the successful experience of implementing such system in Sughd region. 134. Handling of complaints. The Citizen Reception Unit under General and Control Department within Main Department of Finance and Administrative Services is responsible for handling the consumer complaints. The Chief Inspector, the only specialist of the Citizen Reception Unit, keeps track of all appeals from consumers (written\oral\received via website) in the separate ledgers differentiated by individuals and legal entities, and makes sure the customers’ requests/complaints/questions are addressed properly and in timely manner (details are presented in the Annex). The initial assessment suggests this system has adequate performance, but confined to the central office in Dushanbe. Similar arrangements at regional/ district or sub- districts could not be observed. 135. Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI).20 Consumer Union’s efforts on assessing the consumers’ satisfaction survey brings to the fore the following: (i) 36 percent of the people had to spend more than three months to get a new connection, with repetitive visits and many others resorted to enlist the services of the intermediaries; (ii) reaching out to BT’s offices is quite difficult due to distance and unsuitable working hours as well as lack of proper information; (iii) huge problems in getting repair and rehabilitation of the meters; and (iv) 15 percent of households complain of severe voltage/ quality problems and as many as 70 percent do not complain, rather, wait for fixes to be completed. Overall, about 80 percent seem to be satisfied with the services and the remaining 20 percent rate the services as quite poor. About third of respondents confirmed lack of awareness about the services they can expect and how to demand it from BT. 136. Outreach Efforts. BT has no specialized unit for public communication. However, a small cell under the leadership of finance and administrative services department is responsible for all information, education and communication efforts. A variety of communication channels (brochures, press releases etc.) are planned and adopted. However, most efforts seem to be highly focused only on information sharing and there are no mechanisms to consult and take into account the public feedback. 7.2 Social Impacts 137. The Program is expected to have overall positive social impacts as the interventions will improve the reliability of electricity supply. Specifically, rehabilitation and upgrade of T&D assets and scale up of AMI to cover the city of Dushanbe is expected to lead to increased reliability of supply. These improvements are also expected to be pro-poor as those facing unreliable electricity supply are overwhelmingly the poor and vulnerable households in the country’s rural areas. Access to modern energy in general and, electricity in particular, contributes to improved health, livelihood, and creates gender benefits. Women and girls are often primarily responsible for household activities that become substantially easier and less time-consuming when reliable electricity is available. Moreover, reliable electricity supply creates 20 The Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) is a unique network of civil society organizations dedicated to promoting transparent, inclusive and accountable decision-making in the electricity sector. They facilitate collaboration of civil society, policymakers, regulators, and other electricity sector actors using a common framework to define “good governance.â€? World Resources Institute (WRI) serves as the global secretariat for EGI, with Prayas Energy Group (PEG) acting as the Initiative’s special k nowledge partner. The Consumers Union of Tajikistan (CU) is national a non-profit, non-governmental organization, created in July 2002, the mission organization is assistance in consumers' rights and interests’ protection, building a fair and competitive market of goods and services in Tajikistan. The three institutions together developed The Electricity Distribution Interface Toolkit (EDIT) envisioned as a tool to empower civil society and consumer groups to understand problems and issues relating to electricity service delivery and enable informed engagement with utilities, government and other related agencies, Tajikistan enquiry was conducted in 2015 , details are available on the website of Consumers Union. 37 increased economic opportunities for all residential consumers, including FHHs. The Program would also contribute to the effectiveness of IRMS to be introduced together with AMI. This would include effective processing of customer claims and complaints related to reliability of electricity supply. 138. The Program would also contribute to adequacy of electricity supply through improvement of financial viability of BT. The energy company would not be financially viable in the long-term without electricity tariff increases to cover the economically justified costs and implementation of other measures in the Program. However, tariff increases would impact the poor households as they will have to devote an increasingly larger share of their household budget to electricity. Electricity poverty – defined as households that spend 10 percent of their total budget or more on electricity – is expected to increase. Other adverse impacts related to construction activities are likely to be negligible given that the Program primarily includes rehabilitation and upgrade of existing power T&D assets, which mainly include existing substations. 7.2.1 Impacts of Electricity Tariff Increases 139. The Government of Tajikistan plans to gradually increase electricity tariffs to full cost-recovery levels by 2025. While the tariff increase impacts all categories of consumers, potential mitigation of tariff increases for the poor households assumes significance, as electricity is becoming increasingly unaffordable for many residential consumers. Poor households in urban areas are likely to be impacted directly by the tariff increases, while their rural counterparts would see an anticipated similar impact from the rise in prices of alternative energy sources. 140. With rising tariffs, poor households will devote an increasingly larger share of their household budget to energy and electricity. Without mitigation, electricity poverty – defined as households that spend 10% of their total budget or more on electricity – is expected to increase substantially by the time BT achieves full cost recovery. The largest increases would take place in Dushanbe, where the poverty rate is lower than average. This analysis takes into account only direct impacts from electricity prices changes. The indirect impacts caused by impact of electricity price increases on the prices of other goods and services are not considered. 141. Annual increases in tariffs of 15 percent (in nominal terms) would be expected in 2019-2021 with subsequent increases of 8 percent (in nominal terms) in 2022-2024. The poverty impact of rising electricity tariffs can be estimated using simulation approaches based on GDP growth projections and assumptions about future progress in poverty reduction. It is likely that rising electricity tariffs would increase the poverty rate by 0.6 percentage points in 2024. The number of people falling below the poverty line due to electricity price increases would reach approximately 58,000 in that year.21 142. During the heating season, spending on energy would rise from about 14 percent to almost 19 percent of household consumption in Dushanbe and would reach 20 percent for the poorest households in other urban areas. 21 Poverty is measured using the international line for lower middle-income countries at $3.2 per person per day in 20011 PPP terms. Dynamic estimates based on the National PMT survey data for 2015, GDP growth projections from the IMF to 2024, and official inflation and population growth rates reported by the national statistical agency of Tajikistan. The poverty trends assume a .87 pass-through of GDP growth to consumption. 38 Figure 3: Impact of Tariff Increases on Poverty Rates. 21.0% 70000 19.0% 60000 17.0% 50000 15.0% 40000 13.0% 30000 11.0% 9.0% 20000 7.0% 10000 5.0% 0 Base 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Benchmark (Left) After Increase (left) # of Additional Poor Source: Bank team estimate. 143. Analysis was carried out to estimate the cost of mitigation to avoid net increase in poverty from tariff increases. The analysis is based on the high-level assumptions regarding the real GDP growth and inflation in the long-term as well as poverty levels across various consumption groups. The analysis suggests that additional US$15.7 million would be required to fully mitigate the impact of tariff increases by 2025 when tariffs are projected to achieve cost recover levels. Table 4: Estimated Cost of Mitigation of Tariff Increase Impacts.22 GDP Year Growth Tariff Inflation Population Dynamic Simulated Budget Real US$/ Increase Estimate Estimate Million US$ consumer/year US$/HH/year 2015 6.0% 9.2% 5.8% 8,548,700 $7.01 5.5 43.2 2016 6.9% 9.1% 5.9% 8,735,000 $7.88 6.0 47.5 2017 7.1% 7.7% 7.3% 8,921,300 $8.86 6.6 52.3 2018 5.0% 9.2% 5.8% 9,113,647 $9.80 7.2 56.6 2019 5.0% 9.5% 5.5% 9,310,140 $11.03 7.9 62.4 2020 5.0% 9.0% 6.0% 9,510,871 $12.34 8.6 68.3 2021 5.0% 9.0% 6.0% 9,715,929 $12.97 8.9 70.3 2022 5.0% 2.0% 6.0% 9,925,408 $14.44 9.7 76.6 2023 5.0% 2.0% 6.0% 10,139,404 $15.05 9.9 78.2 2024 5.0% 2.0% 6.0% 10,358,013 $15.69 10.1 79.8 Source: Bank team estimate. 7.2.2 Targeted Social Assistance Program 144. The TSA program was launched initially as a pilot in Yovon and Istaravshan districts in January 2011 to deliver a consolidated social assistance benefit to the poorest households with primary focusing on extreme poverty. The European Union and the Bank joined jointly supported the pilot. Given that it yielded good results, the TSA has been extended considerably and it currently covers about 100,000 households in 40 districts of Tajikistan. The remaining 28 districts are expected to be covered in 2019- 2020 to bring the number of beneficiary households to 200,000 or about 15 percent of the total number of households in the country. 22 Calculations in 2019 US$ at the exchange rate of 1US$=TJS9.41. Budget derived from dynamic model using projected poverty (.87 GDP growth pass-through) and trend population growth. Phase in amounts assume the number of beneficiaries increase proportionally with population. Gray signifies own projections. The orange area are effects in the past that were not offset. 39 145. Several important modifications in the TSA program are being discussed with the Government. The key agreement has been to link the TSA benefit to a measurable value that gets indexed annually. It has been proposed that starting from 2019, the base level of the annual benefit (TJS400) would be linked to a “budget accounting unitâ€?, which as of January 2019 will constitute TJS55. It is proposed that the annual benefit be equal to 8 such notional units. Based on this agreement, the average benefit will be increased in 2019 by 10 percent. 7.2.3 Impacts on Customer Orientation and Responsiveness 146. The IRMS will be integrated with the AMI, and support better network operations, in particular aimed at ensuring good quality in power supply to customers. Specifically, the IRMS will allow to better respond to client claims and complaints related to outages and other anomalies in electricity supply, and ensure better quality of power supply by automating the detection of distribution faults. Setting up of the IRMS will be accompanied by the establishment of a network assets and supply database, which will include data on medium and low voltage networks and on each customer’s connection to the corresponding transformer station. The system will allow a centralized, reliable, continued (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), transparent and accountable management of customers’ claims. It will enable centralizing reception and collection of all existing information on each claim, linking claims with network installations and grouping complains by affected area, ensuring targeted dispatch of field workers to the incident area, and keeping customers updated on the status of each incident, including the estimated repair time. Accordingly, the IRMS will help to minimize the response time between reception of a customer claim and restoration of regular supply, that is, the duration of each interruption, which is a critical dimension of power supply quality. The IRMS will also allow compiling statistics of outages (by hourly interval, duration, affected people), and therefore identifying equipment requiring specific repair, maintenance or replacement due to high rate of failure. This will enable effective monitoring and controlling of the overall quality in power supply. 7.3 Overall Conclusion on Social Impacts and Risks Strengths 147. The strengths of the social management system for the proposed PforR activities are: • Adequate legislation at national level for mitigating the impacts of tariff increases on the poor through indexation of compensation and benefits to be paid to eligible vulnerable consumers. • Availability of solid foundation to expand the TSA, which currently covers 40 districts and 100,000 households. A rigorous impact evaluation documented the success of the pilot TSA program in Yevon and Istaravshan districts. The evaluation report shows that the pilot project improved targeting (a greater share of benefits accrues to the poor), generated positive satisfaction about the program by the population in pilot districts, increased the perceived financial situation, improved food security perception and raised actual food consumption by 16-25 percent. • The average benefit under TSA has been increased in 2019 by 10 percent, which is the first benefit increase since the program launch in 2011. • Adequate legislation at national level to protect the rights of consumers. • Successful experience in Sughd region with improvement of consumer responsiveness and accountability of BT’s regional power distribution network. Gaps 148. Key gaps in the social management system relevant to the Program are: • The existing TSA does not cover all vulnerable households in order to allow for mitigation of the impact from increasing electricity tariffs. The increases may have larger impact on FHHs given lack of income sources and limited copying mechanisms. Additionally, the there is no energy-linked line of benefits/program to compensate for energy price changes. 40 • TSA requires further improvement of targeting and differentiation of the benefits based on family size and composition. • Implementation of the requirements of the legislation for protection of the rights of electricity consumers is substandard. The existing system at BT for recording, processing, and resolving the customer complaints is inefficient. • Access to data and information can be expensive for socially vulnerable consumers given high fees stipulated in the legislation requiring sharing of information and data by relevant government bodies and agencies, including BT. 7.4 Improvement of Social Systems 149. The following key actions will be implemented to mitigate social risks associated with the Program, with key actions included in the PAP. • Expansion of TSA program coverage and further improvements in TSA structure . The Government will expand the coverage of TSA program to include the remaining 28 districts of the country and increase the coverage to 200,000 households or 15 percent of the total. The fiscal costs can be covered from: iii. Savings in debt service costs under sovereign-guaranteed loans and credits. Currently, BT pays small amount of debt service to MOF under subsidiary agreements, which were used to on-lend the international financiers’ resources to BT. With improvement in financial standing of BT, it will be able to make timely payments, which will free up some resources at the state budget. iv. Increased tax revenues from BT given larger revenues due to tariff increases. • Going forward, the TSA Program, as a platform for the proposed energy cost compensation, may be improved further. The following aspects require attention: (a) indexing the benefit and any future energy cost top-ups on an annual basis to account for increased cost of living (which has been initiated in 2019); (b) improving the targeting performance of the TSA mechanism; (c) introducing differentiation in the benefit level, depending on the family composition; etc. Importantly, options of a separate/ supplementary top-up benefit should be considered, as part of an increased budget allocation for addressing energy poverty. This work is in progress under the ongoing policy dialogue of the Bank, including the ESMAP financed activity on Improvement of Electricity Tariff Setting and Mitigation of Impacts on the Poor. • MOHSP or the designated government agency will estimate the poverty impacts of tariff increases by July of each year of the Program implementation . This will allow MHSP to provide timely inputs to MOF during preparation of the annual state budget in order to program for TSA allocation. The Program would provide the required support to MHSP and other relevant entities in carrying out poverty impact assessment of tariff increases and estimation of the cost of mitigation. Given the importance, this step is included in the PAP. • Introduction of lifeline tariff mechanism alongside expanded TSA program benefits. Introduction of a lifeline tariff would ensure that a larger number of vulnerable consumers are protected from impacts of tariff increases given that TSA benefits are relatively small, and coverage is limited as of now. The recommendations of the Bank on a lifeline tariff structure would be finalized in discussions with key stakeholders under the ongoing ESMAP financed activity on Improvement of Electricity Tariff Setting and Mitigation of Impacts on the Poor by Dec. 2019. The preliminary results of the analysis suggest that introducing a lifeline tariff at 250 kWh/month would cover the entire electricity consumption of 60 percent of poor households, but only 43 percent of non-poor households, and 33 percent of households in the top quintile. 41 Figure 4: Estimated Share of Population Covered by 250 kWh/month Lifeline Tariff. Source: Bank team based on data from BT, surveys, and data from NSS. • Strengthening of BT’s outreach. BT has used a variety of methods to reach out to the consumers. Most of these are merely ‘sharing of the information’ and require focus on better and effective consumer engagement. Towards this, BT, with support from ongoing ESMAP financed activity on Improvement of Electricity Tariff Setting and Mitigation of Impacts on the Poor, needs to complete the assessment of existing situation and the issues thereof and draw a strategy and implementation action plan. This may have an exclusive section on complaints handling. ESSA’s reference to recent pilot on EGI23 to assess Consumers’ Satisfaction of electricity delivery could be a starting point. • Strengthening of the system for responsiveness and client orientation of BT. It is recommended to include into the AMI, to be supported under the Program, a new IRMS. It will support better network operations and would allow to better respond to client claims and complaints related to outages and other issues with electricity supply. • Increased disclosure of operational and financial data related to BT. As part of the broader agenda for improvement of corporate governance of BT and improving the access to information by consumers, the Program should promote increased disclosure of data related to power sector balance (from generation all the way down to consumption), outages, as well as tariffs and other financial information. • Strengthening of the evidence base on particular vulnerabilities of FHHs towards increasing electricity prices in Tajikistan. The Program will complement the existing quantitative data with qualitative data to understand whether the rising electricity prices will negatively impact FHHs’ ability to continue meeting their energy needs and to afford basic household expenses on food, health, education, etc. Based on the results of this assessment, the Program will contribute to the dialogue on designing of social assistance mechanisms to mitigate negative impacts of electricity subsidy and tariff reforms by ensuring that such mechanisms address particular vulnerabilities of FHHs and support them in affording electricity costs. 23 The Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) is a unique network of civil society organizations dedicated to promoting transparent, inclusive and accountable decision making in the electricity sector. Partners for Tajikistan include: World Resources Institute (WRI), Prayas Energy Group (PEG) and Consumers Union (CU) of Tajikistan. Details follow in pp 38. 42 8. Assessment of Program Consistency with Core Principles of PforR Policy and Directive and Risk Rating 150. Overarching Core Principle 1: Environmental and social management procedures and processes are designed to (a) promote environmental and social sustainability in the program design; (b) avoid, minimize, or mitigate against adverse impacts; and (c) promote informed decision-making relating to a program’s environmental and social effects. 151. The Program would operate within an adequate legal and regulatory framework. Planning and implementation incorporates recognized elements of environmental and social assessment good practice, including comprehensive EIA and obtaining the positive conclusion of the SEE. Social effects, especially due to tariff increases, will require more attention. Hence, while the environmental assessment focuses on the weakness of the existing environmental management practice and environmental performance in BT, the social assessment moves beyond, to reflect on the social protection measures, available, in general, in the country. BT is currently in the process of being unbundled into power generation, transmission and distribution companies with separate assets, staff and accounts. This further exacerbates the risks of inadequacy of E&S system management. The key element for mitigating this risk is a proposed set of activities for establishing effective E&S systems in BT backed up by effective social protection measures and strengthening of the regulatory environment. 152. Core Principle 2 aims to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts on natural habitats and physical cultural resources resulting from the Program. 153. The procedures for environmental impact assessment and SEE will be used in the PforR to assess risks and further avoid adverse impacts on natural habitats and mitigate such impacts where the avoidance is impossible. The procedures for the current environmental control and monitoring will be developed and applied in/for BT system of environmental management to prevent unpredictable negative effects of the PforR activities during the implementation and operation phases. 154. Core Principle 3 aims to protect public and worker safety against the potential risks associated with: (i) construction and/or operation of facilities or other operational practices under the Program; (ii) exposure to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, and other dangerous materials under the Program; and (iii) reconstruction or rehabilitation of infrastructure located in areas prone to natural hazards. 155. All these potential risks can occur in the PforR framework and will be evaluated and mitigated through environmental impact assessment, and further development and strict implementation of site- specific environmental and OHS management plans approved by SEE. Particular attention will be paid to the proper management of hazardous wastes, especially PCB-containing transformer oil. The ESSA recommends BT to update and develop specified manuals for handling PCB-containing oil through the full cycle of its management. 156. Core Principle 4: Manage land acquisition and loss of access to natural resources in a way that avoids or minimizes displacement, and assist the affected people in improving, or at the minimum restoring, their livelihoods and living standards 157. The Program’s civil works mainly relate to repair and rehabilitation of the existing substations, distribution lines, and construction of new distribution lines of low voltage. The substation rehabilitation activities would not require land acquisition and would be undertaken with existing boundaries of substations’ territories, which are fully fenced. Distribution lines are normally laid along the road edges and will be occupying only public land. There will be no possibility to use land under existing substations for other purposes during implementation of the Program. As mentioned before, the territories of all substations are fenced with concrete walls about 2 meters high and encroaching or use by others is not possible given also the security at substations. As regards distribution poles, enough flexibility will be available as regards the location. Due consultations with the local public will be held, and approval sought, before firming up of the locations. 43 158. Core Principle 5: Give due consideration to the cultural appropriateness of, and equitable access to, Program benefits, giving special attention to the rights and interests of the Indigenous Peoples and to the needs or concerns of vulnerable groups. 159. Key elements are as follows: • Undertakes free, prior, and informed consultations if Indigenous Peoples are potentially affected (positively or negatively) to determine whether there is broad community support for the program; Ensures that Indigenous Peoples can participate in devising opportunities to benefit from exploitation of customary resources or indigenous knowledge, the latter (indigenous knowledge) to include the consent of the Indigenous Peoples. • Gives attention to groups vulnerable to hardship or disadvantage, including as relevant the poor, the disabled, women and children, the elderly, or marginalized ethnic groups. If necessary, special measures are taken to promote equitable access to program benefits. • The social system assessments reveal that the consumer/ affected stakeholders are quite diverse and heterogeneous24. Disaggregated analysis brings to the fore, differential capacity and impacts among the various sub groups of consumers. Poor and vulnerable have been identified and the nature and extent of impacts likely to occur consequent to the Program’s key intervention- electricity tariff increases. TSA will be used as key instrument to mitigate the adverse impacts on the poor and vulnerable households. However, ESSA recommends assessing feasibility of alternative mitigation measures as well, such as lifeline tariffs. Within the context of tariff increases and broader power sector reforms, BT will also need to strengthen its public communication capacity. 160. Core Principle 6: Avoid exacerbating social conflict, especially in fragile states, post-conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. 161. The Program does not support any activities that may exacerbate social conflict, including those in fragile states, post-conflict areas, or areas subject to territorial disputes. 162. Overall environmental and social risk is rated as Substantial given: (a) gaps in environmental management capacity of BT; (b) shortcomings in the system for handling of PCB-containing oils; and (c) insufficient mitigation of the impacts of electricity price increase on the poor. 24 There are no indigenous peoples in Tajikistan. 44 9. Inputs into the Program Action Plan Issue Mitigation Measure DLI# Responsibility Timing Completion Measurement Environmental Gaps in environmental Develop corporate environmental - BT with the June 30, 2020. BT generation, transmission, and management policies policy and key guidelines, regulations assistance of distribution companies adopt corporate and guidelines, including and norms for BT generation, ESPMU. environmental policy and key environmental on PCB-containing oils. transmission, and distribution management guidelines and regulations for companies to facilitate adequate implementation of rehabilitation and environmental performance in upgrade of key assets. implementing rehabilitation, replacement, and upgrade of key assets. The only existing BT Hire additional environmental - BT. June 30, 2020. Adequately qualified environmental staff at environmental specialist specialists/consultants at BT generation BT generation, transmission, and cannot ensure and transmission companies and distribution companies ensuring adequate compliance of Program ensure that the newly formed environmental performance of activities activities (due to large generation, transmission and under the Program. workload) with distribution companies also have requirements of adequate in-house environmental applicable environmental capacity. legislation and regulations. Lack of in-house Develop relevant educational modules - - Until Dec. 31, June 30, 2020 Fully integrated environmental team of environmental and organize regular trainings on 2021: BT with and once per skilled personnel providing due management capacity at environmental management for BT the assistance year afterwards. environmental performance in three newly BT generation, generation and transmission of ESPMU and formed companies. transmission, and companies, and for their contractors. in cooperation distribution companies, with CEP. and limited knowledge - From Jan. 1, among local contractors 2022 till Dec. with the CEP 31, 2025: BT requirements. generation 45 Issue Mitigation Measure DLI# Responsibility Timing Completion Measurement and transmission companies in cooperation with CEP. Inadequate reporting on Annual evaluation, monitoring and - - Until Dec. 31, June 30, 2020 Annual evaluation, monitoring and reporting compliance of self- reporting of progress on environmental 2020: BT with and once per of progress on environmental and social financed infrastructure and social issues, especially regarding the assistance year afterwards. issues, especially regarding the compliance investment and the compliance of the Program activities of ESPMU. of the Program activities with the extant rehabilitation activities with the environmental legislation and - From Jan. 1, environmental legislation and regulations. with requirements of regulations. 2021 till Dec. environmental legislation 31, 2025: BT and regulations. generation, transmission, and distribution companies. Social No analysis of poverty MOHSP or the designated government - MOHSP Not later than The results of poverty impact analysis and impacts before tariff agency will carry out analysis of poverty July of each year estimates of the fiscal cost of ensuring that increase decisions are impacts of planned annual tariff (starting from there is no net increase in the poverty rate made and implemented increases, based on trajectory of 2020) to allow for due to electricity tariff increases are increases to be approved through timely inputs into annually reviewed and adopted by the adoption of Tariff Paper, and estimate budgeting Government when finalizing the state the fiscal cost of protection through process. budget. TSA and adjustments required to lifeline tariffs. 46 Issue Mitigation Measure DLI# Responsibility Timing Completion Measurement Existing TSA program - TSA rolled out nationally and - MOHSP, MOF. Oct. 31, 2020. - Refined design of TSA incorporates a does not reach all the refined design of TSA mechanism to mitigate the impact of socially vulnerable incorporates a mechanism to increasing electricity prices, including consumers and is not mitigate the impact of increasing corresponding budget allocation. adequately funded to electricity prices, including protect against electricity corresponding budget allocation. tariff increases. - Development of a lifeline tariff BT, MEWR, and Oct. 31, 2020. - Lifeline tariff mechanism was developed. mechanism to mitigate the impact of AMC. increasing electricity prices on the poor and vulnerable. - Implementation of a lifeline tariff BT, MEWR, and July 31, 2021 and - Lifeline tariff mechanism is implemented mechanism for residential AMC. onwards considering technical constraints that consumers exist in various regions/cities related to metering. 47 Annex 1. Public Consultations during ESSA Preparation # Date Entity/Location Name/title of persons Issues addressed 1. February 20, 2019 Office of Consumers Ilhom Obidov Executive Mission of the Union in Tajikistan, Director of Consumers Union Consumers Union and Dushanbe (CU) their experience in the field of protecting the Faridun Shoinbekov Deputy electricity consumers Chairman of CU rights 2. February 21, 2019 Barqi Tojik office, Yodgori Nosir, Head of the BT OJSHC Barqi Tojik’ public Dushanbe Press Service outreach strategy Mr. Asozoda M.Sh./First Deputy Chair/Executive Director of Power Generation (HPP and TPP) joined the meeting for a short time. 3. March 5, 2019 Barqi Tojik office, Yodgori Nosir, Head of the BT Barki Tojik GRM Dushanbe Press Service Safarova Dilbar, Head of General and Control Department Gulru Murodova, Chief Inspector of Citizen Reception Unit/division under the General and Control Department 4. March 1-13, 2019 Dushanbe city Informal consultations with Satisfaction with the around 20 residents of power supply service. Dushanbe, representing Impact of tariff increases different HHs (mid-income on their living standard HHs, FHHs, Elderly HHs, HHs and business. Willingness with disable member) and to pay more for the small business. reliable electricity supply* 5. March 13, 2019 Kulob town Komilov Jaloliddin, Director of Current problems, Kulob area electricity networks collection rate, their vision on tariffs raising issues* 6. March 13, 14, 16, Kulob area jamoats, Informal consultations with Satisfaction with the 2019 districts of Panj, Farhor, above 20 low-income HHs, power supply service. Hamadoni of Khatlon elderly and FHHs, households Impact of tariff increases region with a disable member and on their living standard those depending on and business. Willingness remittances to pay more for the reliable electricity supply* 48 The list of people met N Name of consulted Position, contact information specialists Barki Tojik (BT) Rezvon Sharipov Manager of the BT projects, tel. 988718787 Parviz Murodov Environmental specialist of BT, 933795050 M.Mukhametzhanova Specialist of the Department of electric network distribution, 927277247 M.Ergisova Department of sanitary standards and safety, 900175501 Sirodjiddin Karimov Head of Social issues and Environmental monitoring, Project Management Unit for energy sector (PMUES) under the Government of Tajikistan, 919602724 Nasriddin Khamidov Head of the Construction Department Ubaydullo Nabibov Head of the Project Implementation Group Saidov Nurullo Deputy director of the Department of energy production Faizidin Karimov Leading engineer of hydraulic engineering service Committee for environmental protection, State Ecological Expertise (SEE) , Marzadullo Mardonov Head of the Department of Waste management and Land Resourses Khusrav Makhmadullaev Head of SEE, 907776856 Djalil Khalilov Deputy Head of SEE, 935580525 Abdusalim Djuraev Head of Department on environmental policy and monitoring, 907717213 Salomat Nazarova Senior SEE specialist State “Project Management Unit for Electro-Energy Sector (ESPMU), Zafar Rahmatzoda Deputy director, 222 25 53 49 Syroniddin Karimov Head of environmental and social SG department Shakhlo Kokiroeva Environmental monitoring specialist Aziz Kholov Environmental monitoring specialist Khusrav Sharipov Social monitoring specialist Ministry of energy and water resources Daler Abdurazokzoda Head of Department of science and technologies, 900005590 The Parliament Latipov Rustam Chair of the environmental Commission Safarov Olimjon Deputy chair of the Committee on agriculture, water and land resourses Ministry of Health Makhmadkul Karimov Head of Department for monitoring of soil quality, air and water , 9335144235 Kh.Alidjanov Senor specialist of the Hygiene Department, 935873265 Independent experts Jalil Buzrukov Director, Tajik Branch of scientific information center of Interstate commission on sustainable development, International Fund for Saving the Aral Sea, 919 22 7070 Furug Usmanov Manager of the CASA-1000 WB project, Tajikistan Murod Ergashev Senior researcher, consultant Rustam Nazarov IFAD pasture management project, consultant Tojinisso Nosirova NGO Nakukor, Director Minutes of Consultations with BT The World Bank Team met with Yodgori Nosir, Head of the BT Press Service on February 21, 2019 at Barqi Tojik office. Mr. Asozoda M.Sh./First Deputy Chair/Executive Director of Power Generation (HPP and TPP) joined the meeting for a short time. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Barqi Tojik’ public outreach strategy. The following questions were put on table: how BT informs people about tariffs raising, what is the communication strategy and mechanisms for getting customers’ feedback, is it workable to establish socially responsible unity\outreach department under the new BT organization structure. Discussions were the following: 1. BT public outreach techniques. The Press Service operating under Main Department of Finance and Administrative Services of Barki Tojik is responsible for establishing effective relations with the mass media and formation of BT positive image, informing consumers as necessary on issues of raising tariffs and timely payments for the power supplied. The Press Service addresses its customers through different public outreach techniques. After the electricity tariff was increased for all categories of consumers by 15% according to the Government Decree #473 from September 25, 2018, BT addressed the country population to explain the reasons for the tariff raise through distributing leaflets; participation of BT representatives on TV and radio broadcasting where they answered to consumers questions, talk shows, and through printing media. Besides BT conducts biannual press conferences with participation of about 40 mass media representatives. Regional power networks are not authorized to conduct the press conferences, but they provide explanations via participating in regular meetings at regional and district levels and through mahalla committee leaders. The leaflets issued due to the tariff increase from November 1 2018, described that the tariff raise is required for effective maintenance and operation of the power generation and supply infrastructure. The BT structure includes 60 804 km length of wires, 18 617 transformers and over 50 12 000 employees working hard to provide constant power supply to the country population. However, the infrastructure needs to be renovated over time and this requires solid funding. Besides Barqi Tojik has to produce energy based on international standards, all equipment and spare parts are bought abroad in foreign currency. Therefore, it is necessary to pay timely for the service and use the energy efficiently. Energy is a product, and as a product it costs money. For other goods and products, even for each minute of mobile communication, people pay in advance, whereas the opposite is for energy- the energy comes to consumers houses and enterprises first and only after its usage they pay the service fee. The leaflet explains that that residential households have to pay 19,37 dirams for 1 kWh instead of 16,85 dirams and this amount won’t affect low income users as they will receive compensation for this. Despite the tariff increase, it is still one of the lowest in the CA region. 2. Mr. Asozoda M.Sh./First Deputy Chair/Executive Director of Power Generation (HPP and TPP) joined the meeting to explain what is being done up to date in terms of the service improvement: - accidents in the power supply system decreased by 2 times, - stable power supply during two last years, - new modern wires, - new transformers powerful transformers to reduce losses are installed, - aluminum-steel wires are replaced by aluminum isolated ones - since 2018 the site operates for customers 3. In terms of feedback mechanisms for citizens - BT has Citizens Reception Department. Customers can address BT in written, electronically through BT website, and verbally. Each Saturday from 8:00 to 12:00 is a day for citizens reception in Dushanbe and all regional and district BT divisions. This day all leadership and specialists of the company receive consumers. During January and February of 2019, 31 appeals were registered in central BT by the Citizen Reception Unit that operates under General and Control Department within Main Department of Finance and Administrative Services of BT. There is one specialist, Chief Inspector working in the Citizen Reception Unit that keeps track of all appeals from consumers (written\oral\received via website) in the separate notebooks, directs the appeals to appropriate departments and makes sure the customers’ requests are addressed properly and in timely manner. Time for consideration of citizens appeals varies depending on the issue. Some issues can be addressed at once, others take average 10 days. Citizens receive answers in written on BT letterhead. 4. Currently the BT structure in the process of modification. In 2011, the Government of the RT issued Decree No. 431, “On the Individual Restructuring Plan of the OJSHC Barqi Tojik. This document emphasizes the government’s commitment to reform and tasks ministries and agencies to take action. With the support of the ADB, in November 2012, the implementation of the Technical Assistance Project “Improving the sector's operating activitiesâ€? began. 5. Since 2012, at ADB financial support the Barqi Tajik has been restructured into three business units (production, distribution and transmission). In addition, guidelines for the implementation of various activities were developed, the separation of assets and liabilities, the separation of financial reporting systems and the management of dispatching services were carried out. In 2018 the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan adopted Resolution No. 234, which provides for the creation of two new legal entities (OJSC Transmitting Electrical Grids and OJSC Distribution Electric Grids) on the basis of existing legal entities comprising Barqi Tojik. 6. The BT restructuring also provides for improved electricity metering system. In this regard, automated billing and collection system was piloted in Khujand, Sughd Region at EU financial institutions support. As a result, collection rate of payments reached 102%. The system excludes corruption and energy losses. 51 7. Establishment of socially responsible unit\outreach department. The company's communication strategy is mainly aimed at the dissemination of information, and there is no specially developed communication or information plan. BT addresses its customers, when the need arises. BT considers that establishment of a socially responsible client-oriented unit (public outreach department or Public Council) at the new BT structure is pointless as customers have enough existing mechanisms to submit their appeals and get proper feedback. Minutes of Consultations with Consumers Union (CU) of Tajikistan The World Bank team met with Ilhom Obidov, Executive Director of Consumers Union (CU) of Tajikistan, and Faridun Shoinbekov, Deputy Chairman of CU, on February 20, 2019 at the office of Consumers Union. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss mission of the Consumers Union and explore their experience in the field of protecting the electricity consumers’ rights. The following questions were put on table: How does CU function; what is the method or regular system of data collection by CU; what problems do consumers address to them, CU relationship with OJSHC Barqi Tojik; is there any communication platform that involves all stakeholders, is there any network of organizations that protect consumers rights in the power sphere; what would happen if electricity tariff goes up; CU experience in power sector (reports to share). WB team first provided overview of the upcoming WB Power Sector Financial Recovery Program that aims to support Government of RT efforts in energy sector reforming, including financial recovery of main energy company Barqi Tojik (BT), which provides for electricity tariff increases for all categories of consumers. Discussions were the following: 1. The Consumers Union is created by General Assembly of the founders on July 10, 2002 (officially registered by Ministry of Justice of Tajikistan in October 4, 2002, certificate # 56). The consumer association "Consumers' Union" (CU) is a non-for-profit, non-governmental organization. The purpose of creation of Consumers Union is assistance in consumers' rights and interests’ protection, building a fair and competitive market of goods and services in Tajikistan. Since December 2007 Consumers Union (former local consumer group) became national consumer association and was renamed to Consumers Union of Tajikistan (Certificate of re-registration # 481 «Ð?», 24.12.2007). The CU is affiliated member of Consumers International, full member of International confederation of consumer societies KonfOP, and member of NGO Forum at ADB. Since October 20, 2003 the Consumers Union has declared the beginning of work of "hot telephone line» for consumers. Within the framework of the “Hot lineâ€? program the legal service of the Consumers Union accepts citizens’ appeals on their consumer rights violations. The CU has two regional offices- in Khujand, Sughd region and Bohtar, Hatlon Region. In 2008 CU joined the Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) - network of civil society organizations dedicated to promoting transparent, inclusive and accountable decision-making in the electricity sector. World Resources Institute (Washington, DC) and Prayas Energy Group (India) serve as the global secretariat for EGI. Within framework of this program CU created the constant working civil monitoring network for Tajikistan’s electricity sector (more information at the www.barknest.info). 2. CU protects only the rights of residential consumers of electricity (HHs). In order to obtain the consumers’ support, the process of raising tariffs for electricity services must be transparent and comprehensive. Within 10 last years the tariff increased by 100%: from 0,7 to 0,19 somoni. Costumers should be informed about the reasons for the fee raising by means of clear indicators. They should know and understand what exactly they are paying for. 3. Public council should operate at BT to ensure consumer rights protection. The CU attempted to establish such a mechanism, but this initiative was not supported by BT. 52 4. The problems that HHs face with don’t change over the years. Consumers turn to the CU with the following issues: a) Inadequate metering service/no standardization/ faulty meters. According to the country legislation the service provider is responsible for the meter, its seal status and serviceability. Thus, the service provider must regularly check their equipment and carry out preventive maintenance to ensure it is in good working condition. b) Not working hotlines. Until 2016 there was limited power supply throughout the country in winter period. In this period BT opened hotline phone numbers for consumers to address their appeals in Dushanbe and regional offices. However, consumers reported to CU that the lines were not working. c) Wrong installation of electric panels. There were cases of improper installation of the panels close to the ground in accessibility for children reported by the CU volunteers. d) Illegal fines for faulty meters. At the WB financial support old meters were replaced with e- meters in Gissar district. There were cases reported to CU by HHs regarding illegal fines on breakdowns of the meter’s seals or faulty meters. The controller of the local power grid came into the house, asked the owners to bring a drink and, using their absence, broke the seal and then issued the fine. After taking certain measures by CU she was dismissed, but then she was hired to work in another area. The fines were cancelled. The question is - why to raise tariffs if the system is not working correctly. The system should operate effectively first otherwise the tariff increase is useless. e) Incorrect calculation of power consumption. In Gissar a household owner didn’t live in his house, but was forced to pay for electricity. f) Power outage in rural areas in winter period. In the case of a transformer failure, the residents had to buy it and wires at their own expense, however this was not taken into account during payments for the service. g) Power fluctuation/Low voltage. – In the frame of Electricity Governance Program, CU received a special equipment - line voltage meter. They measured the grid voltage with this device and detected that it was 165 V instead of 220 V, in particular in winter period. 5. There is no regular system\methods of the data collection established by CU, usually customers address CU themselves as needed in Dushanbe or through regional offices (Khujand, Bohtar) via email, Facebook, phone, direct visit, hot lines, sites of www.barknest.tj and www.obinushoki.tj. In 2012 CU established a network of volunteers in 59 cities of the country to monitor electricity supply. During these years there was a limit in electricity supply. CU does not possess necessary resources for systematic approach. 6. Relationship with BT is complicated and there is no communication platform. However, there was a dialogue in the regions – round table discussions were conducted with the BT enterprises and public councils were established at the service providers during 6 months on the pilot bases. The public councils met on monthly basis to discuss existing issues with power supply. After this experience CU attempted to establish the same Public Council at BT, but BT didn’t support the initiative. CU turned to Ministry of Energy and Water Resources. As a result, the MEWR developed an informational strategy (2018-2020) and CU included establishment of the Public Council to the strategy. CU cannot maintain performance of the Public Council (that includes representatives of BT and Pamir Energy) as it requires resources, equipment. 7. There is a Law on Natural Monopolies according to which the service providers should conduct Public hearings (PH) before increasing their service fee, but BT does not conduct PH. 8. There is no concrete entity or network of organizations that protect consumers rights in the power sphere. Tajikstandart and Antimonopoly Agency are dealing with the issue at certain extend. CU 53 cooperates with Antimonopoly Agency as Antimonopoly Agency often readdress consumers' appeals to CU. 9. Impact of tariff increase – Power tariff increase will immediately lead to water supply tariff increase as well as other utility services fees. As the result, cost of all products, including food will go up. The tariff increase will more affect the urban area due to houses heating by electricity in winter period. Last increase in tariff already affected small enterprises. For instance, a number of small bakeries closed as payment for the power reached 5000-7000 somoni per month and their business became unprofitable. Farmers that are using pump irrigation were also affected - VAT increased for them from 5% to 18% in 2019. At the end the CU shared their brochures and relevant reports with the WB team. 54 Annex 2. Public Consultations during ESSA Finalization Date: April 22, 2019 Location: World Bank office, Dushanbe Participants: representatives of MEWR, MOF, OJSHC Barqi Tojik, State Committee on Investment and State Property Management of RT, Committee of Environmental Protection, CASA1000 Secretariat, CBOs, WB team and STCs. (Attached) Purpose: discussion of the ESSA findings, gaining participants feedback on the document. Takhmina Mukhamedova, WB team member, briefly described the purpose of the meeting, provided overview of the PforR and introduced participants from WB side. Presentation on environmental system assessment Malika Babadjanova, STC on Environmental issues, made a presentation on environmental aspects and findings of environmental system assessment, existing gaps and measures/steps, which will allow to support the sustainable development while implementation of the program. Discussions Participants discussed the importance of availability of certificates and other documentation illustrating the content of transformer and breakers oils at existing substations, regulatory procedures for relevant management of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes including their transportation, storage and disposal, replacement of outdated facilities and the benefits of application of safety measures. Issues of occupational and community health and safety were also discussed. As mentioned by Saidov Ibragim (Academy of sciences, Institute of energy, water and environment), capacity building activities for the staff of responsible organizations as Barqi Tojik, Committee for environmental protection are very important in order to ensure compliance with environmental requirements in functioning of energy sector infrastructure. There is need to conduct inventory old transformers in order to check the potential presence of PCB in old oils. The experience of neighboring countries as Kyrgyzstan can be used applied in Tajikistan too. Jamshed Shoimzoda, Deputy Minister, MEWR, informed participants about the inclusion of environmental provisions to the Charters of three divisions of Barqi Tojik, and referenced to the need on development of regulatory documents allowing adopt the environmental policies. Establishment of environmental and social management system in Barqi Tojik and its components as policies, instructions and trainings for responsible staff were discussed. The meetings concluded that the draft ESSA document covered practically all potential impacts of physical activities proposed by the Program and needed mitigation measures. Presentation on social system assessment Savriniso Kurbonbekova, STC on Social Safeguards, made presentation on social system assessment findings, adequacy of existing legal framework and social benefits, risks and impacts related to the PforR interventions, identified gaps and mitigation measures/recommendations to address the gaps. Discussions An active discussion began around: the impact of tariff increases in general and its impact on vulnerable households; lack of adequate social assistance to households to cover particular the electricity cost; lack of alternative energy sources for urban citizens; problems with meters. The amount provided through TSA program is very small and does not cover the households’ needs. Mukim Timurov, WB team member, briefly described the TSA program and the WB efforts to improve the TSA system in terms of coverage and targeting of the assistance to vulnerable HHs, however the amount of the TSA is coming from the country budget and depends on fiscal situation. 55 Jamshed Shoimzoda, Deputy Minister, MEWR comments: - This year, there is a trend towards reduction of electricity outages. - Tariff increase is a necessary measure to restore reliable electricity supply in the country. Some HHs would definitely need governmental support to cope with the impact of the tariff raising. However, there is a paradox - usually, when the tariff increases, then logically, the consumer should reduce consumption and begin using electricity economically, but some households, on the contrary, increase consumption up to 3,000 kW per month while complaining about the high rate – example -a woman used a washing machine of old model as a centrifuge for the dairy product, chakka production. The machine worked without a break for 18 hours. It would be much cheaper to purchase a small Chinese specialized equipment for this purpose. The resulting product was not worth the cost. Our citizens should learn how to rationally use available resources. - Pamir Energy has a good practice of periodical informing of its customers via SMS about the volume of energy they consumed, so they can regulate their consumption. - Another problem is energy stealing/illegal connection to the network on the ground. Introduction of AMI system in Sughd, automated billing and collection system that was mentioned during the presentation, is very successful. It resulted in increase of payments collection to 97%, but there are consumers who manage to cheat even this system. Regarding necessity to work closely with customers, establishing platform for dialogue - MEWR acknowledges the need to work more with citizens on the issues of rational use of electricity/water supply and that the services cannot be free only because our country has rich water resources. An example is Turkmenistan, which is now experiencing a serious crisis due to the provision of free services previously (light\gas). They had to introduce tariffs for all services now. - Unfortunately, the Institute of homeowners ' associations is not developed in the country. This complicated the recently performed replacement of the heating system infrastructure. People did not want to restore the heating system inside the houses. Question asked by Malika Babadjanova, STC and Muazama Burhanova, Dastgiri Center, community organization, regarding energy saving techniques usage at new multi-building construction. - MEWR works with new buildings constructors. According to existing construction standards and norms, they have to connect the new building to the heating network where possible. In case if the network is far from the building, the constructor installs dry transformer in the building. The constructors should also make thermal insulation of the building. Participants agreed that the increase in tariffs only would not bring the necessary results without overall effective management and transparency of the entire process. At the end, it was mentioned once more that the report is placed on MEWR, WB and BT websites and comments still might be sent by April 23. The presenters thanked the attendees for their time, participation and productive discussion. 56 Key questions and suggestions Bank team clarifications Public consultation in Dushanbe, April 22, 2019 Figure 2. Consumption Expenditure on Energy by Noted. We will include the new data. Poverty Rate (page 31)– The figure contains old data. Figure 3: Impact of Tariff Increases on Poverty Rates Noted, we will correct that. (page 32) -why the line of additional poor is broken in few places. Certificates and other documentation on producer of Yes, this is one of the gaps revealed by ESSA transformers, circuit breakers and spare parts at project. Proposal on development and keeping existing substations illustrating the content of relevant record documentation, certificates transformer and breakers oils are often not available and other necessary documentation was to the interested parties. included to the recommendation parts of the ESSA. Incorporation of environmental provisions to the Charters of three newly created divisions of Barqi Tojik, is in process. The Charters will contain references on development of regulatory documents allowing adopt the environmental policies. Are there any regulatory procedures for relevant There are some references and old management of hazardous and non-hazardous instructions from Soviet time at substations, wastes including their transportation, storage and but the modern procedures should be disposal, replacement of outdated facilities? developed and incorporated to the policies 57 Key questions and suggestions Bank team clarifications and charters of Barqi Tojik. It was also proposed recommendation of the report What are the main environmental problems when Occupational health and safety, as well as the rehabilitation activities will be implemented? hazardous and non-hazardous waste management (including transportation, storage and disposal). Will be any capacity building activities for the staff of Yes, the capacity of Barqi Tojik and Committee responsible organizations as Barqi Tojik, Committee for Environmental Protection is very important for Environmental Protection? to ensure the sustainability and environmental considerations during implementation of Finance recovery Program. There are weak and strong aspects of current environmental system, however capacity building for energy sector agencies and but agencies on central and regional level responsible for the state environmental control and performance are important in order to apply all mitigation measures and comply with environmental safeguards requirements. Will be any survey or inventory of old transformers There is need to conduct such surveys. It would at substation all over the country in order to check be very useful for Barqi Tojik to have relevant the potential presence of PCB in oils? equipment and trained staff for detection of PCBs in old transformer oils to exclude any risks for the health and pollution. Kyrgyz Republic has this experience in frame of ADB project and equipment was also provided. Transformer oils were tested for PCB at many substations all over the country. Relevant measures and management plans, procedures were developed and can be replicated in Tajikistan too. We will consider the possibility of replicating it under the proposed PforR. Many pump stations for the irrigation purposes have The Program does not plan to solve the issue debts on electricity and can not pay for that. Will be of arrears from pumping stations directly. The their problems solved in frame of this Program. broader Government Program plans to intensify the efforts in collection of old receivables. This work is already underway. It is necessary that main industrial users of the This comments is noted and welcomed. energy as TALCO and other organizations apply the Cooperation with the regional and national environmental management practices at their levels of the Committee for Environmental substations and establish Environmental and Social Protection is one of the key measures to management systems (ESMS) too at their level. prevent the negative environmental impacts, ensure of functioning pf environmental safeguards policies and ensure sustainability of the proposed Program Comments received by email from Kamolidin Sirojidinov, civil society organization representative Paragraph 1. It is recorded that the energy sector We will include the third generator (Rogun consists of Barqi Tojik, three independent electricity HPP) to the text. 58 Key questions and suggestions Bank team clarifications producers and a concession in GBAO, which includes the production and distribution of electricity. Further the name of only two independent producers of the electric power (HPP Sangtuda-1 and Sangtuda-2) is mentioned. What is the third independent producer of electricity? Paragraph 5. It is written: Barqi Tojik was in distress We will include justification of the statement because of, a) tariffs below the level of cost recovery; to the text. This statement is not true. Tariffs have always been many times higher than the cost of electricity production. For example, the unit cost of electricity production at Nurek HPP (the main electricity producer in Tajikistan) has never exceeded one Diram per kWh until recently. Paragraph 6. The set of problems # 2 outlined in the Correct. Report are the main issues of the unfavorable state of affairs in Barqi Tojik. Paragraph 9. (Challenge#5). It is written: 200 We will clarify the figure. thousand people have no access to electricity. About 2.5 per cent of the population does not have access to electricity. However, government sources cite completely different figures and indicators. Thus, in the national report on the implementation of the country's strategic documents in the context of the sustainable development Goals published at the end of last year, 2018, it is noted that "the share of the population with access to electricity is 99.5%" that is, only 0.5% of the population do not have access to electricity. In February 2018, at a press conference, the First Deputy Chairman of "Barqi Tojik" said that "to date, about 710 villages remain not connected to the power system of the Republic. Most of these settlements are located in Khatlon region. In most villages there are 5- 8 families, and there are villages, where only 3-4 families". Also, according to other sources, it is known that in GBAO only about 30 villages out of 394 do not have electricity. Based on the above, the amount of 200 thousand people without access to electricity is not accurate and too high. Paragraph 10. It would be desirable to attach the MEWR will disclose the Program for Financial Government of RT "Financial Recovery Program of Recovery of BT for 2019-2025 on its website. OJSHC "Barqi Tojik" to the report. Item 1.2 "Program Description". It would be We will change the title accordingly. necessary to write down "Program for Results (PforR) Description" to avoid confusion with the " BT Financial Recovery Program". 59 Key questions and suggestions Bank team clarifications Paragraph 12. The key measures of the PforR are Another key measure supported by the generally acceptable and suitable for the current Program should be: "Reducing financial costs operating conditions of the BT and its systems. It is for the production, transmission and extremely correct that: "the Purchase of electricity distribution of electricity" and "Improving the from an Independent electricity supplier Sangtuda-1 operation and maintenance of systems and will help to avoid a shortage of supplies." As you networks under the jurisdiction of BT." know, at present the Sangtuda-1 HPP is loaded by Barqi Tojik only by 50% of the installed capacity. Also, support for "Economically sound and financially sound investments in the sector" is worthy. Section 3, Add the country name to the title “Legal There is no need to use the precise legal name and Regulatory Framework of the Republic of because this is not a legal document. Tajikistan Applicable to Environmental Aspects of the Program Paragraph 38 In the final version of the Report, would We will request MEWR to disclose tariff policy be good to receive detailed information "on the new report on its web-site. tariff policy for electricity, which was approved by the Government of Tajikistan" Section 5, Environmental Systems Assessment (paras. We will consider adding the recommended 45-95). It would be recommended to add to the text statement. of paragraph 47 (f): "Replacement of obsolete wooden pillars with reinforced concrete". Paragraph 60. Expand information on civil We will expand the list of organizations. society/public organizations, include, for example, the Engineering Academy of the RT. Paragraph 76 States that electricity transmission and There will most likely be one management distribution companies will remain state-owned, but contract for electricity distribution. The the electricity distribution company will be operated Government will not be pursuing management by a private management contractor. Paragraph 94 contract for electricity transmission. The further states that transmission and distribution management contractor will probably be a companies will be operated by private operators. foreign company given lack of local companies with experience in operation of electricity transmission and distribution assets. Section 6 "Evaluation of social systems" (paragraphs When determining the level of electricity 96-135 of the Report). Of course, the emphasis on tariffs, the Government will also carry out social aspects is the highest priority of the Program. poverty impact analysis and broader This can be clearly seen from the text of the section, assessment of impacts on other economic where the social consequences (both positive and sectors. negative) of further increase in electricity tariffs are set out extensively and in detail. Paragraph 103 States that poor households spend, on This will be clarified in the Program Appraisal average (per year), between 9 and 14 percent of their Document, which will be made publicly income on electricity bills and that this is the highest available after the Program is approved by the rate in Europe and Central Asia. This is despite the fact World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors. that electricity tariffs in Tajikistan are the second lowest in the Europe and Central Asia region and energy efficiency remains low (Paragraph 108). When energy costs account for a large proportion of the family's budget, their ability to pay for health, education, food and other needs is reduced. In 60 Key questions and suggestions Bank team clarifications addition, annual average payments may hide price surges that cause extreme need in the month of Ramadan, when family budgets are under extreme stress. Reducing the financial burden of energy costs in family budgets would in many cases increase family incomes. Further, there is unproven, groundless and wrongly written that the supply of electricity to households at a price that does not cover the cost of generation and delivery to the end consumer is regressive, does not fully reimburse the costs, production costs, etc. However, the Report does not provide any information about the costs of generation, supply and distribution of electricity. What are the complex costs, cost groups, total costs? What, according to the authors of the Report is included in the cost structure and the structure of electricity prices? What is the practical basis for setting the level of tariffs? After all, we all know that the total cost (costs), which include: the cost of production, transmission and transformation, distribution and sale of electricity in specific terms is many times lower than the current electricity tariffs. Current tariffs cover production costs. Why, then, the financial viability of BT is not ensured? What are the reasons? Perhaps one of the main reasons is inflation and depreciation of the local currency, rather than "low tariffs"? According to Table 3 of paragraph 101 of the Report, The tariffs are often revised upwards. After all, for the period 2013-2018 (5 years) the tariff for the they should be reviewed only in connection population increased by 76%, despite this, according with changes in the conditions of the cost of to my calculations, the tariff in dollar terms electricity supply to consumers. The issue of decreased. There were more than 2 cents per kWh winter deficit is there, but it is not as significant that became smaller. This table clearly illustrates as before after commissioning of Dushanb-2 inconstancy and instability of the electricity tariff CHP. system. Since the demand for electricity is not fully met in the cold period of the year, it seems that the increased level of tariffs is determined by this (consumption is deliberately limited). It may be more effective in the future to introduce The Program will be supporting the "block tariffs" - a system of charging, in which the Government to introduce lifeline tariffs, which price increases every time after spending a certain is another form of mitigation of increasing threshold amount (Paragraph 105, 110 of the tariffs on the poor. This will be implemented in Report). parallel to roll-out of TSA program, which is The number of thresholds to be paid, as well as the providing social assistance to socially step of price increase, should be different. Block vulnerable households. tariffs contribute to the achievement of a number of goals of state policy, the policy of the World Bank. 61 Key questions and suggestions Bank team clarifications Low tariffs for minimum electricity consumption are designed to make energy available (social or life- support tariff), but when using large amounts of prices should increase sharply. Large volumes should allow Barqi Tojik to increase the efficiency of energy supply, preventing excessive energy consumption, and mobilize revenue to cover costs. Thus, block tariffs create the potential for income equalization according to costs, build a solid financial model and at the same time meet the basic needs of the population in electricity at a price not too higher than the cost and maintenance. The size of the initial rate and allowances for large amounts varies. Allowances should not be particularly high, the price should increase very moderately. Under normal conditions, rising block tariffs contribute to increased electricity availability and equality in energy supply. Paragraph 120 of the Report states, for unknown This aspect will be elaborated and completed reasons, that "indirect effects of rising electricity as part of the World Bank financed activity on prices on the pricing of other goods and services are Power Tariff Setting and Mitigation of Social not considered". Why? Long-term observations show Impacts on the Poor. The World Bank will that with the increase in electricity prices, prices of present the findings of both direct and indirect works, goods and services tend to increase. Especially updated poverty impact analysis and seek on bread! Sometimes, depending on the regions, the inputs from key stakeholders before indirect negative impact is equal to or greater than finalization its recommendations. the direct impact of the increase in the cost of electricity. In General, Section 6 is well developed, although not sufficiently comprehensive. Section 7 Paragraph 145 rightly states: "...within the This refers to possible lifeline tariff. framework of the ESSA, it is also recommended to assess the feasibility of alternative mitigation measures, such as a preferential tariff for the poor (electricity tariff for vital needs)." In General, the Report concludes that "the Overall Correct. level of environmental and social risk is assessed as High". Not all current projects in the energy sector are We will revise the list, include for example, listed in Annex 5. current modernization of two large electric substations of the city of Dushanbe (the donor is Government of Japan, the contractor is a Japanese company). 62 Annex 3. National Legislation and International Treaties Annex 2: Table 1: List of National Laws and Regulations • Law on Consumer Rights (2004, last amended 2018); • Law on Energy Savings and Energy Efficiency (2013); • Law on Energy (2000, last amended 2013); • Concept on Tariff Regulation in Energy Sector (2017); • Law on Safety of Hydro-technical Facilities (2010, last amended 2018); • Law on Indexation of Population’s Income considering the Price Growth of Consumer Goods and Services (1997 never amended); • Law on Natural Monopolies (2007, last amended in 2017); • Law on Public Procurement of Goods, Works and Servicesâ€? (2006, amended in 2012) ; • Law on Targeted Social Assistance (2017); • Land Code (1996, amended 2016); • Law on Land Administration (2008, amended 2016); • Law on Land Valuation (2001); • Regulation # 641 “Order of compensation for losses of land users and damage of the agricultural production processâ€?, approved by the Resolution of the Government of the Republic of Tajikist an (2011); • Civil Procedural Code; • Law of Republic of Tajikistan on Appeals of Individuals and Legal Entities (2016); • The Law on Freedom of Information; • Law on Public Meetings, Demonstrations and Rallies (2014); • Labor Code (2016); • National Program on Liquidation of Worse Forms of Child Labour for 2015-2020 (2014). In addition to national legislation and regulations on social issues25, Tajikistan is also party to several international treaties focused on environmental and social issues. Annex 2: Table 2: List of International Treaties and Convention ratified by Tajikistan • Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure (ratified in 1998); • Signatory of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (2002); • Convention on Biological Diversity (1997) and to its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (2004); • Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1992); • The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (1997); • The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (1998); • The Ramsar Convention (2000); • The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (2001). • Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (2016); • Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (2016) • Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2006); • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; • Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women; • Convention on Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (1993); • Convention on Worst Forms of Child Labor (2005); • Abolition of Forced Labor Convention (1999); Annex • -- Comparison Employment of electricity Policy Convention tariffs in the countries of Central Asia (1993); • Labour Inspection Convention (2009); In 2016 BT conducted analysis of electricity tariffs for some CIS countries. Below is the table that • UN Convention on the Rights of the Child CRC (1993); indicates • tariffs Tripartite for different Consultation categories (International of consumers Labor in cent for (2014); Standards) Convention, 1kWh. • Occupational Safety and Health Convention (2009). 25 ILO Information System on International Labour Standards verified on 16.02.2019 63 Laws, Rules and Regulations in Environmental Sector Strategic documents on environment There are several strategic documents covering specific direct and cross-cutting environmental issues, such as State Environmental Programme for the period 2009-2019, Programme on Improving Access of the Population to Clean Drinking Water for the period 2008-2020, State Comprehensive Programme of Development of the Environmental Awareness and Education of the Population until 2020), The Programme of Water Sector Reform for the period 2016-2025. There are some strategic documents adopted specifically to facilitate implementation of commitments taken by Tajikistan under international environmental agreements, such as the National Implementation Plan of the Republic of Tajikistan on Realization of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Environmental legislation The system of legal acts in Tajikistan includes, from the top downward, the Constitution; laws adopted by national referendum; international agreements to which Tajikistan is party; constitutional laws; codes and laws; joint resolutions of the two chambers of the parliament, Majlisi milli (National Assembly) and Majlisi namoyandagon (Assembly of Representatives); resolutions of Majlisi milli and resolutions of Majlisi namoyandagon; decrees of the President; resolutions of the Government; resolutions of ministries, state committees and other state bodies; and acts of the local representative and executive authorities. Environmental laws The "Framework Environment Law on Environment Protectionâ€? (2011) stipulates that Tajikistan's environmental policy should give priority to environmental actions based on scientifically proven principles to combine economic and other activities that have an impact on the environment with nature preservation and the sustainable use of resources. The Law defines the applicable legal principles, the protected objects, the competencies and roles of the Government, the State CEP for Environment, the local authorities, public organizations and individuals. The Law stipulates also measures to secure public and individual rights to a safe and healthy environment and requires a combined system of ecological expertise and environmental impact assessment of any decision on an activity that could have a negative impact on the environment. The Law also defines environmental emergencies and ecological disasters and prescribes the order of actions in such situations, defines the obligations of officials and enterprises to prevent and eliminate the consequences, as well as the liabilities of the persons or organizations that caused damage to the environment or otherwise violated the Law. The Law establishes several types of controls over compliance with environmental legislation: State control, ministerial control, enterprise control and public control. State control is affected by the CEP, the Sanitary Inspectorate of the Ministry of Health, the Inspectorate for Industrial Safety and the Mining Inspectorate. Public control is carried out by public organizations or trade unions and can be exercised with respect to any governmental body, enterprise, entity or individual. The novelties of the Law include provisions on strategic planning in environmental protection, provisions on rights of public associations in the area of environmental protection, concepts of environmental certification and environmental audit, and a chapter on compensation for environmental damage. The Law is more detailed on the delineation of responsibilities of the environmental and sanitary authorities in setting ambient quality and emissions standards, and on the environmental requirements for sectoral activities. Remarkably, the Law introduced the presumption of environmental danger from all planned activities and stated that decisions on siting the potentially dangerous projects are to be taken after considering the opinion of people living in the area. The Water Code (2000) stipulates the policies on water management, permitting, dispute resolution, usage planning and cadastre. It promotes rational use and protection of water resources exercised by all beneficiaries and defines the types of water use rights, authority and roles of regional and local governments for water allocations among various users, collection of fees, water use planning, water use rights and dispute resolution. The Code delegates Water User Associations to operate and maintain on- farm irrigation and drainage infrastructure. In 2012, a new chapter was added to the Code, devoted to basin management of water resources. It provides for the creation of the National Water Council to coordinate 64 the activities of various bodies for basin water resources management and the development of basin plans for the use and protection of water resources, as well as the establishment of basin water councils. The Land Code (1992) defines the types of land use rights, the authority and the role of regional and local governments for land allocation, collection of land taxes, land use planning, land use right mortgaging and settlement of land disputes. It defines the rights of land users and lease holders. The Land Code regulates land relations and it is directed at the rational "use and protection of land and fertility of the soil". The land may be used in a rational manner only and the Code allows local authorities to decide what constitutes "rational" land use. It includes also mechanisms that make it possible to take the land-use permit away from users, including in situations where land use causes land degradation. This decision is taken by the district administration. The 2011 Forest Code regulates the organization of forestry, monitoring and inventory of the state forest fund, afforestation and reforestation and permitting of forest use, and establishes the State Inspectorate on Forest Protection. Land Administration (2001). The Law obliges the authorities to map and monitor the quality of land, including soil contamination, erosion and water logging. The Law on Ecological Expertise (2012) streamlines the procedures of environmental assessment of projects. It brought several procedural adjustments such as introducing more flexibility into the duration of the State Ecological Expertise (SEE), which is now linked to the complexity of projects. The Law introduced the right for the public to participate in the development (and not only the discussion) of EIA data, but did not provide details to enable implementation of this right. It increased the rights in relation to the public ecological expertise, such as the obligation of the proponent to provide to the public project documentation of the same completeness and complexity as to the SEE. The 2011 Law on Environmental Audit provides for mandatory and voluntary environmental audit to be performed by licensed environmental audit organizations. The mandatory audit takes place upon the decision of governmental authorities. The Law on the Licensing of Certain Types of Activities (2004, amended in 2015) include several types of activities, in particular handling hazardous waste; environmental audit; collection and processing of ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metals; and others. The licenses are to be issued by the CEP under the Government, which is also the specially authorized state body in charge of regulating environmental audit. The 2012 Law on the Protection of Atmospheric Air introduces the classification of sources of emissions of air pollutants and provisions regulating the requirements on air protection for stationary and mobile sources, for combustion of fuels and incineration of waste, and for harmful physical effects (noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields, etc.), as well as provisions on air protection during unfavorable meteorological conditions. The 2010 Law on Drinking Water and Drinking Water Supply obliges local authorities and owners of water supply systems to take measures in the event of interrupted functioning of drinking water supply systems. The Law includes the requirements for sanitary protection zones for all sources and systems of drinking water supply. The 2011 Law on Environmental Monitoring describes the organization of the Consolidated State System of Environmental Monitoring and establishes the state register of environmental monitoring objects. The Law provides for obligations of enterprises to organize local environmental monitoring, i.e. monitoring at facility level. The 2015 Law on Inspections of Economic Entities provides a detailed description of several procedural aspects and strengthens the risk- based approach to inspections, by setting the general risk-assessment criteria and requiring inspection authorities to elaborate specific risk-assessment criteria. It introduces the Council for Coordination of Activity of Inspection Authorities as a mechanism to improve coordination. The 2011 Law on Permitting set the legal, organizational and economic basis for the permits system: the list of activities that require a permit, the permitting procedure, and the types of permits and the competent state bodies authorized to issue them. The Law was one of the elements of the country's permit system 65 reform that reduced the total number of types of permits (more than 600) to only 88. Eight types are issued by the CEP. The 2004 Law on Industrial Safety of Dangerous Production Facilities provides a regulatory framework focused on accident prevention at dangerous industrial installations. The 2011 Law on Environmental Information is a new law for Tajikistan. It describes the notion and categories of environmental information and regulates terms and conditions of access to such information. The 2010 Law on Environmental Education of the Population aims to ensure that all citizens receive minimum ecological knowledge and declares the mandatory character of ecological education at all levels of the educational system. The 2002 Law on Waste from Production and Consumption was amended in 2011 to include the concept of waste ownership, to introduce the notion of abandoned waste and the responsibility of local executive authorities for handling abandoned waste, and to clarify the competences of various governmental bodies in waste management. The 2015 Law on Oil and Gas declares the need to observe environmental protection requirements during exploration and use of oil and gas reserves and requires SEE for mining facilities and for oil and gas pipelines. The 2015 Law on Ensuring the Environmental Safety of Road Transport provides for the introduction of ecological classification of imported vehicles, inspections of the ecological status of vehicles, introduction of fuel standards, production and sale of ecologically clean fuel, systematic control of fuel quality, introduction of technologies for secondary treatment or decontamination of car batteries, and ecologically safe disposal of end-of-life vehicles, used tyres and car batteries and used oil. The 2012 Code on Urban Planning declares the observance of environmental protection and ecological safety requirements and sanitary rules and standards among key requirements of urban planning. The 2011 amendments to the Law on Ensuring the Sanitary-Epidemiological Safety of the Population introduced the notion of sanitary and epidemiological expertise, which checks the compliance of project documentation and economic facilities to state sanitary and epidemiological rules and standards, and also enhanced the provisions on sanitary-hygienic, anti- epidemic and information measures. Legislation on the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) There are several documents playing crucial role in labour health and safety decision-making process. Under the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan everyone has the right to safe labour and health protection, which requires the state measures to improve the environment (Article 38) Labour Code of the Republic of Tajikistan contains main occupational health and safety principles? including: a working environment that meets safety and health requirements; the responsibility of the employer for violation of OHS requirements; restrictions on work in harmful or hazardous labour condition; training and instruction of employees on OHS matters; development and introduction of instructions on OHS that are mandatory for the employees. The Law of the Republic of Tajikistan on Occupational Safety (2007) lays down the main provisions on ensuring the constitutional rights of citizens to occupational safety and guarantees the right to safe labour, sets down the main principles of occupational safety in the workplace and envisages economic mechanisms of ensuring occupational safety. The law applies to all the ministries, agencies, concerns, associations, enterprises, organizations, institutions, cooperatives, lease and other organizations regardless of the form of ownership and business activities. The Law of the Republic of Tajikistan on inspections of business assets (2006) sets an order of inspections, rights and obligations of business assets and officials of inspecting authorities and aims protection of this activity from unwarranted intervention. Inspection of business assets are performed by authorized state agencies, in particular: on protection of environment and forestry - by an authorized agency on protection of environment and forestry; on protection of labor during production process - by an authorized agency on labour protection; on compliance with sanitary norms and rules - by an authorized agency, performing Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance. 66 Law on public sanitation and epidemiology welfare (2013) sets legislative, organizational and economical frameworks, measures, relating provision of sanitation and epidemiology welfare of population. It defines right of citizens on friendly environment (natural environment, labour conditions, accommodation, recreation, training, food, consumerable and used goods) and for full access to reliable information on sanitation and epidemiology situation, condition of environment, quality and safety of products of manufacturing and technical purpose, food and drinking water. Environmental regulations and standards. Norms are set for air and water pollution, noise, vibration, magnetic fields and other physical factors, as well as residual traces of chemicals and biologically harmful microbes in food. The exceeding of their thresholds results in administrative action, including financial sanctions. Several ministries determine environmental quality standards, each in its field of responsibility. Standards. Standards are divided into national, territorial, sectoral and standards into account the requirements to means of production, transport, processes, raw and other materials, the working environment as well group protection of workers. Under an agreement signed by the CIS heads of states the Republic of Tajikistan recognizes the standards, norms and rules developed and applied by the Gosstandart of the former USSR and the Russian Federation, including: Sanitary rules and norms (SanPiNs); Construction norms and rules (SNiPs); State standards of occupational safety and health systems (GOST OHS); Norms of harmful substances content (maximum allowable concentrations and levels). Legal framework for EIA Two laws (Law on Environment Protection (updated in November 2018) and Law on Ecological Expertise (2011)) stipulate all aspects of the EA. The Law on Environment Protection introduces the concept of state ecological review (literally, state ecological "expertise" - SEE) which seeks to examine the compliance of proposed activities and projects with the requirements of environmental legislation and standards and ecological security of the society. The mentioned laws stipulate the mandatory cross-sectoral nature of SEE, which shall be scientifically justified, comprehensive, and objective and which shall lead to conclusions in accordance with the law. SEE precedes decision-making about activities that may have a negative impact on the environment. Financing of programs and projects is allowed only after a positive SEE and conclusion has been issued. The laws stipulate that all types of economic and other activities shall be implemented in accordance with existing environmental standards and norms and shall have sufficient environmental protection and mitigation measures to prevent and avoid pollution and enhance environmental quality. The SEE studies analyzing the short- and long-term environmental, genetic, economic, and demographic impacts and consequences shall be evaluated prior to making decisions on the sitting, construction, or reconstruction of facilities, irrespective of their ownership. If these requirements are violated, construction will be terminated until necessary improvements are made, as prescribed by the Committee for Environmental Protection and/or other duly authorized control bodies, such as sanitary, geological, and public safety agencies. The Environmental Protection Law states that a SEE should be conducted by the CEP, which has a comprehensive mandate that includes policy formulation and inspection duties. The CEP has divisions at each city or district. A small unit in the ministry is entrusted with guiding and managing both EIA and SEE. EIA preparation is the responsibility of the proponents of public- and private-sector projects, who, in addition to complying with various environmental standards, procedures, and norms, shall meet the standards of other sectors and environmental media line agencies, such as sanitary-epidemiological, geological, water, etc. The proponent should develop all of the EIA materials, including alternatives and mitigation measures, ensure public participation in discussions and take comments into account. The role of the State at this stage is limited to the selection of the project site and approval of the terms of reference (the latter usually never occurs in practice). EIA is a component of the SEE, and its procedure includes: General guidelines, terms of reference, coordination and approval of design estimates, development of the EIA text, state approval, and feasibility documents. The EIA should follow the categorization of the proposed activities, which contains 180 types of activities, grouped according to four environmental impact categories: from A (in Cyrillic sounds A) "high risk" to Г (in Cyrillic sounds G) "local impact"). If the activity is not included in the list, then it is not required 67 to pass either an EIA or a SEE. The EIA is the responsibility of the project proponent. The "Procedure on Environmental Impact Assessment" (2013) establishes general requirements for the contents of the EIA documentation. The State Ecological Expertise for all investment projects is the responsibility of the CEP and its regional offices. Furthermore, according to the Law on the State Ecological Expertise, all civil works, including rehabilitation, should be assessed for their environmental impacts and the proposed mitigation measures reviewed and monitored by the CEP. A detailed project description and the EIA study are the basis to go for the environmental permit and have to be submitted to the CEP. As a rule, the CEP prepares its conclusion within one month. The CEP provides three options of the conclusion: allowed, not allowed, and allowed on conditions (usually some additional requirements) to be followed by the company during the activity. If the CEP concludes that an environmental permit cannot be provided due to different circumstances, the company can change its design and resubmit the documents once again. It is not allowed to change the approved project to the detriment of environmental safety requirements. Public participation. SEE and public ecological expertise are not equal. The element of public participation in the EIA procedure is described in detail in the Procedure (Order) for Conducting an EIA. The procedure assumes public discussions only after the preparation of the EIA report by the project's customer. While SEE expertise is an obligatory prerequisite for beginning any activity that may have an adverse environmental impact, public ecological expertise is required only after its results have been approved by CEP. The SEE is authorized to invite leading scientists and qualified independent specialists to participate in the review. Approval should be issued within 30 days, unless the project developer agrees to an extension, and remains valid for two years, if the decision is positive. For very complicated projects the term of consideration and approval can be extended for 60 days. According to the Law on SEE the public ecological expertise can be carried out by any public organization and citizen. They have a right to send the proposals to the responsible government bodies. The materials reflecting the public expertise delivered to the experts' commission should be taken into consideration under preparation of conclusion of the SEE. The public ecological expertise is carried out under the state registration of application from the public organization (within 7 days). The public organizations organizing this expertise should inform the population about the expertise and then about its results. Legal framework for environmental penalties When detecting violations of environmental legislation, waste management in particular, the CEP authorities apply penalties in accordance with the following articles of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Tajikistan. Namely: Article 223. Violation of standards, rules, regulations, instructions and other environmental requirements for the protection of the environment and the rational use of natural resources; Article 224. Release (discharge) of polluting substances into the environment with excess of standards or without a permit, waste disposal, physical and other harmful effects Article 232. Violation of environmental protection requirements during transportation, disposal, use, disposal (dumping) industrial, household and other wastes into the natural environment. The fines can only be witnessed by the local CEP authorities. 68 Annex 4. Potential Adverse Environmental Impacts Annex 3: Table 1. Potential Adverse Environmental Impacts of the Program No Project activity Type of impacts Scale of impact (local/ regional; temporary/ permanent) 1 Repair and replacement of Pollution of land and ground water by oil Local and power and voltage products, spilling of transformers’ oil temporary transformers at substations; containing PCBs; Health and labor safety replacement of old oil circuit impacts breakers with vacuum circuit breakers at substations; 2 Construction of new 0.4 kV Construction-related impacts (dust, noise, Local and and 10 kV power distribution safety, loss of access to public facilities) temporary lines, and rehabilitation of Waste accumulated during dismantling of existing power distribution equipment and construction units lines. 3 Replacement of disconnectors Labor safety Local temporary at substations; installation of Solid waste management new relay protection and automation cubicles at substations 69 Annex 5. Key Elements of the PCB-containing Materials Management PCBs are highly toxic to aquatic organisms in relatively low concentrations. The 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants banned their production. The following potential PCB contamination scenarios can occur without adequate measures within the PforR framework: Spills: -Maintenance operations -Transport operations -Draining, refilling operations -Drainage systems, storm water systems, discharge points, sumps, and areas adjacent to surface waters -Disconnection/disassembly of transformers -Lack of spill containment provisions in work pits/servicing areas -Improper storage. Leaks: -Normal wear of equipment in service (e.g., valves, gaskets, and fittings) -Dismantling/reassembly of equipment -Damaged equipment -Cracked or damaged transformer bushings -Containers used for storage and transport -Equipment stored for disposal or reuse. Improper storage of PCB-containing and/or PCB-contaminated equipment, and Low level of worker knowledge of hazards -Spread of contamination through insufficient protective clothing and equipment -Improper handling techniques -Improper disposal of defective PCB-containing and/or PCB-contaminated equipment. Other -Contaminated waste liquids -Contaminated rags, filter media, and debris gathered during cleanup operations -Contaminated parts -Contaminated soil -Fires When handling waste oils that contain persistent organic pollutants, one should be guided by the provisions of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (Stockholm, May 22, 2001). It is prohibited: - discharge of the above substances into water bodies, onto the soil and into public sewer - networks; - their removal to landfills for household and industrial waste, and burial; - mixing them with natural oil (gas condensate), gasoline, kerosene, other fuel in order to obtain fuel intended for power plants; - mixing them with products containing organohalogen compounds; - the use of such substances as anti-adhesive materials and means for impregnating building materials. 70 Annex 6. Projects Funded by International Donors during Last Five Years and Relevant National Implementing Agencies Completed projects: 2015. Power transmission line - 220 kV: Kairakum – Asht (78 km). ESPMU 2016-2017. Power transmission line “Geran –Rumi (78 km). ESPMU 2016-2017. Ayni-Rudaki transmission line (98.5 km). ESPMU 2018 Transmission lines-500 kV “Dushanbe – Rogun (two lines, 100 km each). ESPMU The following main projects are currently being implemented in the energy sector, which follow the environmental requirements of the relevant donors: - Regional power transmission project, by the ADB. ESPMU - Rehabilitation of Sarband HPP with capacity of 240 MW, by the ADB. ESPMU - Rehabilitation of Ravshan 220/35 / 10kV, by Islamic Development Bank, Export-Import Bank of the China and Government of the Republic of Tajikistan. ESPMU - Implementing the Ledging of Power Transmission and Improvement of Electricity Supply, by the ADB. ESPMU - Regional Electricity Transport Project (CASA - 1000), by Islamic Development Bank, EBRD, European Investor Bank, USAID, World Bank, DFID, and Government of the Republic of Tajikistan. ESPMU - Reconstruction and construction of 500 kV power transmission line in the republican subordination, by the Export-Import Bank of China. ESPMU - Energy Conservation for the Winter Period, by the World Bank. ESPMU - Sugd Energy Loss Reduction Project, by EBRD, European Investor Bank, and European Commission. PIU BT - Qairokkum Hydro Power Rehabilitation Project, by EBRD. PIU BT - Norak Hydro Power Rehabilitation Project, Phase 1, by the ADB, World Bank. PIU BT 71 Annex 7. Stakeholder Analysis Stakeholder Mapping Stakeholder is defined as an individual/ institution (agency) that can impact upon or get impacted by the project. In order to define a communication process with the stakeholders, several groups that may be interested and/or affected by the project implementation have been identified. There are a number of groups of people and social groups who are interested in the Project on different levels. The project stakeholders identified so far are listed in the table below. The list can be updated and modified in the course of the Project implementation and as a result of cooperation of the parties. Stakeholder mapping is done vertically (across the administrative space) and horizontally (within an individual space). Each stakeholder / group is rated for the relative importance- starting from rating from 1 to 5 stars. Five being high and is to be accorded full scale attention. Universal Mapping Annex 6: Table 1. Stakeholder Mapping and their Significance Sl No Level – Stakeholders Significance Administrative ***** Space 1. National / Country MEWR ***** MOF *** Open Joint Stock Holding Company “Barqi ***** Tojikâ€? State Service for supervision in Energy Sector *** Committee on Environment Protection (CEP) ** World Bank ***** International Financial Institutions/donors **** (AIIB, International Development Association (IDA), ADB, IMF, EBRD, KfW Development Bank, USAID) Anti-Monopoly Service **** Donor Coordination Unit/Energy Working *** Group Investment and State Property Management *** Committee Ministry of Labor, migration and employment ** of the Republic of Tajikistan (MLME) Sanitary and Epidemiological Department ** under MOHSP Land Reclamation Agency and State Land ** Cadaster Consumers Union (CU) *** Tajikstandart ** Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) * Large State-owned enterprises (SOEs) *** Mass media *** 2. Provincial Regional electricity networks **** Line departments of the MEWR *** Consumer Union’ regional branches *** 72 Mass Media *** 3. District\city District electricity companies **** Local governments (khukumats) *** Hydropower Plants (HPPs) and Thermal Power **** Plants (TPPs) Industries (cement, vegetable oil, food **** processing, cotton processing) Urban electrified transport *** Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), petty **** shops, commercial establishments Water utilities *** Social institutions (schools, hospitals) **** Print media ** Community based organizations (CBOs) ** 4. Sub District \jamoat Private sector *** Farmers *** 5. Village Water pump stations *** Water users association (WUA) *** 6. Mahalla Mahalla leaders *** Urban mid and high-income users /households **** Urban low-income users ***** Urban FHHs ***** Urban elderly\disable HHs ***** Urban HHs depending on remittances ***** Rural mid- and high-income users **** Rural low-income users ***** Rural FHHs ***** Rural elderly\ disable HHs ***** Rural HHs depending on remittances ***** Segmentation/ Prioritization: The identified project stakeholders were segregated by their areas of influence. The stakeholders of high and substantial significance that received 4-5 stars are described in the Table 2 below. Annex 6: Table 2. Stakeholder Segmentation No Level – Administrative Space Stakeholders Areas of Influence 1. National / Country Ministry of Energy and Water Regulator of energy policy in the Resources country International Financial Providing TA to the Government of Institutions/donors (AIIB, RT in addressing the power sector International Development challenges. Association (IDA), ADB, IMF, EBRD, KfW Development Bank, USAID) 73 OJSHC “Barqi Tojikâ€? The state-owned utility responsible for generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Tajikistan. Project implementation, oversight, reporting WB Supervision, no objections, implementation support Anti-Monopoly Service under Responsible for review and the Government of RT approval of tariffs for all-natural monopolies, including electricity tariffs 2. Provincial Regional electricity networks Responsible for power distribution 3. District District electricity companies Responsible for power distribution, billing and collection HPPs and TPPs Power generation facilities Industries Production of cement, vegetable oil, food processing, cotton processing Small and medium enterprises Bakeries, cafes, canteens, sale of (SMEs), petty shops, commercial different goods, small production establishments and sale of food and non-food products, office services (copying, scanning of documents, printing and translation of documentation). Repair of computer equipment, phones, watches. Legal services, translation agencies and etc. Social institutions Provision of social services to population (hospitals, schools) 4. Households Urban mid and high-income Will be directly affected by the users /households project. The project success depends on their willingness to pay Urban low-income users Will be directly affected by the Urban FHHs project. The project success Urban elderly HHs depends on their ability to pay. Urban HHs depending on They cannot afford paying remittances electricity fee without government support. Rural mid- and high-income Will be directly affected by the users project. The project success depends on their willingness to pay Rural low-income users Will be directly affected by the project. The project success Rural FHHs depends on their ability to pay. They cannot afford paying Rural elderly HHs electricity fee without government Rural HHs depending on support remittances Stakeholder Analysis The key stakeholders have been separated by levels and sub groups. Table 5 below is based on consultations/ discussions with the respective sub groups. It describes the current status of subgroups, 74 their concerns and issues raised; their expectations and significance of risks associated with high expectations and proposes the enabling conditions to mitigate those risks. Annex 6: Table 3. Stakeholder Analysis. 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project National Level Ministry of Regulates legal The Government of RT undertook Implementatio moderate Technical and Energy and norms in the field of several actions toward electricity n of the financial support of Water fuel power power sector improvement. In Government’s international donors Resources production, natural 2011, the Government issued Power Sector in implementation of resources, including Decree No. 431, “On the Financial the Government’s renewable energy Individual Restructuring Plan of Recovery Power Sector sources in the the OJSHC Barqi Tojik. This Program Financial Recovery industry, technical document emphasizes the (2017-2024) in Program (2017-2024) and technological government’s commitment to the parts of BT field, construction reform and tasks ministries and Financial industry, in the food agencies to take action. Recovery and food processing (2019-2024). industry. In 2018 the Government adopted * Coordination, Resolution No. 234, which management and provides for the creation of two supervisory over new legal entities (OJSC relevant state Transmitting Electrical Grids and services, State OJSC Distribution Electric Grids) energy sector on the basis of existing legal control service, and entities comprising Barqi Tojik. other organizations In 2017, the Government of the and enterprises Republic of Tajikistan adopted a under the Ministry new tariff policy, which provides for full cost recovery and tariffs based on the cost of services. The above normative acts aimed to improve quality of electricity supply in the country. However, Tajikistan will need international donors financial support and expertise to implement the projected measures. OJSHC * Production The current tariff does not cover Financial substantial IFI support in “Barqi Tojikâ€? transportation, BT costs. Old infrastructure and recovery of establishment of transmission, inefficient billing and collection BT, transparent effective distribution and sale system - BT infrastructure needs rehabilitation sector management of electrical and to be renovated over time and of local (involving foreign heat power energy this requires solid funding. infrastructure, experts), installing mainly on the local Besides Barqi Tojik has to produce BT staff automated billing market of the energy based on international members and collection country; standards, all equipment and capacity system, staff capacity * Deals with issues spare parts are being bought building, building. of country’s power abroad in foreign currency. improvement stations and grids Collection rate for supplied of the service Reduction of external operation; electricity is low, in particular quality. interference in 75 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project * BT is the major from budget organizations/social Introduction personnel policy, shareholder of the institutions. There are cases of of effective motivation of joint-stock Illegal connections to the system, billing and employees to work companies in the energy losses. Lack of motivation collection effectively. energy sector, has among BT staff members due to system, and the right to own, low salaries. Another sensitive effective use and disposal of problem is personnel policy – transparent property of the outside interference and as a internal enterprises and result inefficient management. personnel entities under its Corruption on the ground is also policy. management; affects the sector. * Includes 26 joint- stock energy objects, Employs over 12,000 persons WB The PfoR instrument Lack of government transparency The Program Substantial. Engaging community will support the and accountability, weak civil supports in preparing, Government’s society and economics, achieving implementing and Power Sector complicated political situation in financial monitoring Financial Recovery neighbor countries -unstable sustainability government Program (2017 to region. in the power programs. BT 2024) in the part of sector and capacity building. BT Financial BT financial insolvency and debts, strengthen Transparent and Recovery for the lack of experience in sector effective period of 2019- implementation of the programs governance, management in BT. 2024. like this. Low willingness to pay which would Effective and for the increased tariff by help to targeted use of funds different categories of improve the consumers. environment for private investment. The reliable power supply would promote the country economic development Internationa Donors coordinates The risks and concerns are the Financial Substantial Effective l Financial their activities same described above for WB. recovery of collaboration and Institutions/ through the the country communication flow donors Working Group of power sector between the donors the Development at joint donor Coordination efforts. The Council (DCC), that Program incudes complements: representatives of 1) Sector World Bank, ADB, Development European Bank for Program of Reconstruction and ADB- US$90 Development million (EBRD), United State operation for Agency for BT International restructuring 76 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project Development and (USAID), KfW, Japan improvement International of governance Cooperation Agency 2) The draft of (JICA), and European the IMF’s Union (EU). Policy Document on 3-Year US$220 million Arrangement under Enhanced Credit Facility, which is under negotiations and focuses on fiscal sustainability, SOE reform, and banking sector stability; 3) The Regulatory TA Project of EBRD that would help to operationalize new tariff methodology, establish the regulatory entity for the power sector, and strengthen its capacity. Anti- Responsible for The new tariffs should be Increased Moderate Anti-monopoly Monopoly review and pre- economically and socially efficiency of Agency cannot serve Committee approval of tariffs justified. power sector, as an independent under the for all-natural improvement regulator. In practice Basic services like water, solid Government monopolies, of the service it doesn’t promote waste, electricity, heating and gas of Tajikistan including electricity quality. consumers interests. are considered ‘natural tariffs. New tariffs Socially and monopolies’ and are provided are being approved economically exclusively by the government by the Government sound tariffs. and are regulated by the Decree. The Anti- dedicated agency. The Procedure monopoly Agency is in place, but there is no gives its conclusion common practice of conducting only on compliance Public Hearings on tariffs with of the new tariffs community. with the relevant legislation. 77 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project There is a Procedure for Holding Public Hearings on Draft Tariffs for Commodities, Labor and Services of Natural Monopoly Entities that was promulgated by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan on April 18, 2014. It was developed with the technical assistance of USAID’s Local Governance Project in 2013. According to the Procedure, ‘public hearings’ are required for the acquisition of commodities, labor or services as a means of ‘securing transparency.’ Provincial 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project Regional Responsible for Old infrastructure that requires Infrastructure Substantial clear guidance and electricity power distribution big investments, energy losses, renovation, instruction by PIU, networks regionwide lack of specialists due to low decrease of personnel capacity salaries. energy losses, building effective billing and collection system District District Responsible for Infrastructure that request Infrastructure Substantial clear guidance and electricity power distribution, renovation, low payment renovation, instruction by PIU, companies billing and collection collection from all categories of decrease of the staff capacity within designated users. Low motivation of the energy losses, building, automated area company employees to work hard effective billing and collection and ensure proper collection of billing and system of power payments. collection consumption Much depends on effective system, staff management - in the Kulob zone, capacity the collection of payments for building and electricity was 21% in 2018. After motivation recruiting new managers and 78 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project specialists, within 5 months, the (salary collection of payments reached increase) 77%. This is a record number for this region. As representatives of the service provider, the company employees understand the need in tariff increase, but as the consumers they don’t support further fee raising. Further tariff raising may lead to illegal use of energy increase. Hydro Power generation Low water level affects the power Rehabilitation Moderate Effective power generation process. High cost of of the plants management system plants the plant’s maintenance. and personnel policy. (HPPs) and Limited opportunities for Thermal electricity exports; expensive power heavy fuel oil (HFO) plants (TPPs) Industries Production of Equipment failures at power Reliable Substantial Transparent cement, vegetable supply outages. The power tariff power supply, comprehensive BT oil, food processing, increase will lead to the cost of transparent public outreach cotton processing. production increase billing and strategy. simultaneously. Along with the collection Introduction of increase of the VAT from 5% to system. energy saving 18%, this may adversely affect the Not willing to techniques. business environment. pay more as Government support. the business However, big and medium environment enterprises are closing mainly due is already to unhealthy competition, tax difficult. The burden and endless inspections, problem of not due to electricity tariffs raising the energy as different surveys show. sector is in ineffective management system. Small and Bakeries, cafes, The lack of reliable electricity Increase in Substantial Transparent medium canteens, small force commercial consumers, to quality of the comprehensive BT enterprises production and sale look for alternatives, like power supply public outreach (SMEs), of food and non- expensive diesel generators and with no strategy. greenhouses food products, office solar batteries. Unreliable voltage Introduction of , petty services (copying, electricity supply leads to fluctuations. energy saving shops, scanning of production and equipment Not willing to techniques with commercial documents, printing damage and result in income loss. pay more. government and establishme and translation of Small shops that use electric Usually, if a international donors nts documentation, scales cannot sale the products country is rich support . preparation of due to long absence of electricity in any necessary if they don’t have diesel resource (oil, documents). Repair generator. The products gas), the cost of computer deteriorate if the refrigerator of its use is equipment, phones, does not work for a long time. very low for 79 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project watches. Legal The tariff raise will increase rental the country services, translation costs for those entrepreneurs inhabitants. agencies and other renting space for their business. Since services. The products and services costs Tajikistan is will also go up. This will result in rich in water loss of clients. Last tariff increases resources (it is already resulted in closing small among 20 bakeries that had to pay over leading 5000 somoni for power supply countries) the monthly. electricity should be cheap and affordable for the population. People expect that the electricity fee should be decreased, or at least should not be increased anymore as the Rogun HPP started its operation. Social Provision of social Lack of budget to cover electricity Improvement Substantial Introduction of institutions services to demands of the institutions. of power energy saving population Wasteful use of electricity – actual service techniques at budget use exceeds the planned one. quality, its organizations. Lack of alternative less expensive financial energy sources, in particular in accessibility. urban areas. In rural areas the Increase of the institutions use coal, wood in power supply winter period to save electricity, effectiveness which is not safe for children and decrease health. of the tariff as Tajikistan possesses great potential for energy production so it should be accessible for internal consumers. Households 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. Expecta- 5. Signifi- 6. Enabling Subgroup tions from the cance of Risks Conditions required project Urban mid Consumers pay for There is no limit to the light, but People expect Overall risk A dis-aggregated and high- electricity by meter there are voltage drops and that the tariff rating is high analysis of the 80 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project income In case of debts, the accidents, in particular in winter will decrease - as success of current status of the users service provider period. The tariff is increased, but as a first the project electricity poverty /households disconnects the HHs quality of the service is not aggregate of directly needs to be from electricity changed. People consider that Rogun HPP is depends on undertaken and supply. From current tariff is already too high. commissioned the further scenarios November 1 2018, They don’t trust controllers and and CA power population (corresponding to people pay 19.37 electricity meters. There should network to be willingness to different tariff dirams per each be a unified payment system and restored. pay increases) are to be kWh. meters should be checked Some people developed. periodically for reliability. In some are aware that Subsequently, areas of Dushanbe there were no the tariff for mitigatory measures problems with the electricity two electricity in are to be drawn to last years, but the residents don’t Tajikistan is contain electricity want to pay more for the service. considered to poverty. be low, however population solvency is also the lowest. The tariffs for population should be decreased for 25% and for industry for 35%. There should be unified register of social bonuses created. Urban low- Same as above Concerns are the same as above. Same as Substantial as Increased financial income Current government’ support at above. the project support from the users 100 somoni in three months does depends on national budget to not cover electricity expenses of The subsidies their cover electricity fee households in need. from state willingness There were cases, when in winter, budget should and capacity people installed a stove for be increased to pay heating and cooking on their to cover real balcony due to electricity outage costs of or its cut for non-payment. electricity – at least 150-200 somoni per month Urban FHHs HHs that are headed Concerns are the same as already The same as Substantial Set benefits for by widows or described above. above. women headed women whose Reliable and households – set The HHs try to save electricity, use husbands are labor acceptable basic limit for power gas in cylinders for cooking, for migrants. power supply. consumption instance. Single mothers Decreased receive power and compensation from other utilities Government of 81 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project about $ 10 per child services per month. The tariffs. tariff increase will affect those FHHs that don’t have permanent income. Many women are self-employed to support their families (sewing, selling, handicrafts ) Urban In Tajikistan, The concerns are the same as Decrease of Substantial benefits for elderly children mentioned above- not reliable the electricity pensioners and HHs \disable HHs traditionally take and expensive electricity. People tariff with disable care of their assume that BT sales electricity to members parents, and pay for Afghanistan, as lately the power is utilities, but there being disconnected at nights. are cases when the pension is the only Establish permanent income Elderlies and disable people don’t benefits for of the households. have any benefits in payment of pensioners the electricity fee although their and HHs with According to the pension compensation is very disable Resolution of the small. members. Cabinet of Ministers Establish basic of RT dated October consumption 2, 1992 for No. 368 limit and and changes to this differentiate Resolution No. 491 tariffs from 10.11.2003, for families that have disabled members of I–II group and disabled children till 16 years, benefits of payment for premises, utilities, except for payment for the electric power, natural gas and phone, are established in the amount of fifty percent. Urban HHs HHs that don’t have The concerns are the same as Decrease of Substantial Same as above depending permanent income. stated above. Paying for services the power on after receiving money. Trying to supply tariff remittances economically use the electricity. Rural mid- Consumers pay for There were no problems with All categories Substantial as Transparent public and high- electricity by meter. electricity supply in winter period of users users are not outreach strategy income In case of debts, the in 2018\2019. However, expect that willing to pay users service provider electricity outage started in power supply more. 82 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project disconnects March. According to residents of quality will be electricity jamoats of Kulob, and Panj, improved and Farhor, Hamadoni districts, for the tariff will the last two weeks, power is be decreased available only at 8am-10 am in the as first morning and at 6pm-8pm at aggregate of evenings. People assume that Rogun is this is due to the very low water commissioned level in the Nurek HPP reservoir. . The situation will change with the onset of rain, under which the snow melts faster and the reservoir will be filled with water. Users that live in multiapartment houses spend more money for electricity in winter period as they use it for heating. Those, who live in private houses, spend less money for electricity in winter period as they use coal for heating to pay less for the light. HHs with high income use diesel generators during power outage. Rural low- Usually mahalla The concerns are the same. Decreased Substantial To undertake income committee leaders power supply mitigation measures If the low-income HH is users determine a list of tariff. for protecting all disconnected from power supply low-income HHs and Increase of the categories of due to debt, they use coal and submit the list to a compensation consumers rights, in wood for heating and domestic certain district amount from particular those in needs. They cover the debts to administration for 100 somoni need. restore connection to the service inclusion into the list per three by borrowing money from of vulnerable groups months to 200 neighbors, relatives or when their for receiving somoni per relatives-labor migrants send compensation in the each month. money from Russia. amount of 100 somoni per three All consumers are not ready to months. pay more as the current tariff is already high and it is a burden to low-income users. In case of the tariff raise, people will turn to alternative sources of energy. Low-income users receive 100 somoni each 3 months as financial support from Government. This money doesn’t make any difference. People expect that the power fee increase will bring to increase of the rest utility services, like water supply, heating, as well as taxes and cost of food and other products. As a 83 1. Group/ 2. Current Status 3. Concerns and issues raised 4. 5. 6. Enabling Subgroup Expectations Significance Conditions required from the of Risks project result, overall living standard of population in the country will go down. Rural FHHs Same as for the Concerns are the same. Decreasing Substantial Set benefits for Urban FHHs. power tariffs, women headed Many women are benefits for households – set also self-employed single mothers basic limit for power to support their consumption. families (sewing, Government support selling, handicrafts, in kind of grants for plus agriculture women to establish business -farming) their business. Rural Same as for Urban Same as already mentioned for Same as for Substantial benefits for elderly/disa elderly/disable HHs urban elderly\disable HHs urban pensioners and HHs ble HHs elderly\disable with disable HHs members Rural HHs HHs that don’t have The concerns are the same. The same Substantial Mitigation measures, depending permanent income. expectations – governmental Unlike the urban HHs depending on reliable power support in kind of on remittances have an remittances service, grants for agriculture opportunity for farming. decreased business tariffs. development. Institutional Analysis No Level Sub Current Role Change/ Rationale group/agency Adjustments suggested 1. National Ministry of Regulatory, coordinating The MEWR will be responsible for The Ministry of Energy and Energy and and monitoring role M&E under the Program. Its financial Water Resources is the Water and economic department will main central government Resources conduct the required M&E function. authority that formulates (MEWR) MEWR will be responsible for and carries out the public adoption and implementation of the policy and fulfills cost-recovery tariff methodology and regulatory functions in the restructuring of BT debts to MOF. The area of fuel, energy and MEWR’s Financial-Economic, water resources. Accounting, Technical, and Internal Audit departments will be involved in the Program implementation. MEWR will also be responsible for overall oversight of the Program implementation. 2. OJSHC “Barqi Since 1991 Barqi Tojik is BT will be the Project Implementation BT possesses a status of Tojikâ€? the state-owned energy Unit for the Program. It will be “Qualified procuring company that is responsible for: 1) timely entityâ€? and included to the responsible for implementation of critical roster of procuring production, rehabilitation and upgrade works at entities. It has specialized transportation, electricity distribution networks; 2) unit for procurement and transmission, distribution expansion of billing and metering staff certified as public and sale of electricity and system to cover all service areas to procurement specialist. 84 No Level Sub Current Role Change/ Rationale group/agency Adjustments suggested heat, including operation increase collection rates for billed According to the Tajikistan of power plants and electricity; 3) reduction of electricity Public Procurement Law networks of the country. losses. (PPL) the status allows BT The BT structure includes to independently conduct 60 804 km length of wires, its own procurement as 18 617 transformers, 26 well as act as a centralized enterprises and over purchasing body for its 12 000 employees. regional offices and Since 2012, at ADB substructures. BT has financial support the Barqi experience in procurement Tajik has been of goods, non-consulting restructured into three services, business units construction/rehabilitation (production, distribution works and consulting and transmission) services (e.g. design). Currently there are 3 BT has designated project separate departments at implementation groups BT Power Generation, that have gained Transmission and experience in Distribution headed by implementation of Deputy Chairs. complex IFI funded 2 Provincial Regional Responsible for power Implementation of the Program in the projects (e.g. Nurek, CASA- electricity distribution, billing and field under PIU supervision 1000). networks collection within 3 District Energy designated area divisions Impact Assessments and Risk Management List the role and responsibilities of different (key) actors at different levels. Please note impacts, as of now. are ‘potential’. No Level Positive Impacts Negative Risk Mitigatory Measures Impacts 1. National Financial recovery of the main None Timely implementation WB team will conduct electricity supplier -OJSHC of the proposed assessment of the existing Barqi Tojik, including activities may be at financial and program strengthening of the power risk– subject to political managements systems at sector transparency, and, as a stability in the country, MEWR and BT, including result improvement of available legislation, reporting and controlling, electricity supply reliability. MEWR and BT staff and safeguard measures to This theoretically, should capacity and adequacy ensure timely and promote economic of financial resources. appropriate use of the development of the country Program funds. and improve the population livelihood. 2. Sub national The prioritized rehabilitation none There is low motivation BT should build the level\BT and upgrade interventions at and sometimes capacity of its regional staff infrastructure regional power distribution capacity for the utility for timely and effective networks. Reliable electricity staff to perform implementation of the supply to the population. effectively Program on the ground Reduced corruption and increased collection rate for the supplied power. 85 3. Subnational - Reliable electricity supply will n\a There is a risk that the Introduction of energy Social promote introducing modern social institutions debt saving techniques at institutions teaching methodology with to BT will increase due Government and use of modern technology to lack of budget to international donors cover electricity support. demands of the institutions 4. District Reliable electricity will reduce Tariff increase Small business, such as According to the Сoncept of level\Industry cases of equipment and may lead to bakeries may close due Tariff Regulation in the and small production damage due to the products to unprofitability. Electricity Industry of the business electricity outage and voltage and goods cost Republic of Tajikistan (May fluctuation. There will be no increase. 27, 2017, No. 259) the need for expensive diesel Government will consider generators. the possibility of developing a mechanism for providing legal entities (in particular in the agricultural sector) grants, loans and other benefits. 5. Sub national The Program is expected to The increase in There is a risk that the The Сoncept of Tariff level\Households have overall positive social tariffs will tariff will increase Regulation in the Electricity impact. Household equipment remarkably volume of losses due to Industry of the Republic of will function sufficiently and impact the low unauthorized use of Tajikistan (May 27, 2017, will not be damaged due to -income energy and corruption No. 259) provides for issues voltage fluctuations, children households -in on the ground. Percent of access to electricity for would be able to do their -particular of population that vulnerable groups of homework at adequate light. FHHs and won’t be able to pay population, for their social Women and girls would have households the service fee will protection through the more time for self- with disable increase. People will adoption of necessary development – time they member/s with prefer to use financial measures spend for cooking on fire and no stable alternative sources of (subsidies from state collecting firewood in rural income. The energy (solar high- budget), as well as the areas. Cooking using payment for income users; and low- establishment of electricity is safer than electricity for income users will differentiated tariffs. cooking on gas in cylinders them already continue using coal and that is common practice in exceeds 10%. wood. The process of tariffs urban areas. Teaching The latest tariff regulation should be methodology, in particular at increase is transparent and coherent rural schools can be improved already burden for population. by using computer for these HHs, equipment. they prefer to The Government of the use coal and Republic of Tajikistan will wood for consider the possibility of domestic developing a mechanism purposes. The for providing individuals (in electricity tariff particular, low-income and increase will be vulnerable consumers) followed by grants, loans and other increase of the benefits. rest utility services tariffs (water, heating, housing) and as a result products prices will go up. 86 Annex 8. Consumers’ Complaint Handling at BT The World Bank Member met with Safarova Dilbar, Head of General and Control Department and Gulru Murodova, Chief Inspector of Citizen Reception Unit/division under the General and Control Department on March 5, 2019 at Barqi Tojik office. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Barqi Tojik’ GRM The following questions were discussed: how people address BT, who receives and registers the citizens appeals, process and terms of the appeals consideration. Discussions revealed the following: 1. Citizens Reception Unit/Division operates under General and Control Department within Main Department of Finance and Administrative Services. Ms. Gulru Murodova, Chief Inspector, the only specialist of the Citizen Reception Unit, keeps track of all appeals from consumers (written\oral\received via website) in the separate Notebooks of statistical accounting of appeals of individuals and legal entities, and makes sure the customers’ requests are addressed properly and in timely manner. 2. The Unit keeps records in accordance with Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan dated July 28, 2017, No. 358 "On the Model Instructions for Records Management in Government Agencies, Institutions, Enterprises and Other Organizations of the Republic of Tajikistan". 3. In 2018, Citizen Reception Unit in Dushanbe, registered 238 written appeals; 131 verbal and 49 electronic appeals from customers, not only from Dushanbe, but other areas designated to BT. The telephone appeals are not being registered, because most of them are regarding reasons of temporary outage of electricity, and the reasons are reported at once. 4. The hot lines and specialists on duty operated in all Barki Tojik entities until 2017. There were complaints that the lines were not working well because they were busy all the time due to high demand in winter period. 5. Time for consideration of citizens appeals varies depending on the issue. Some issues can be addressed at once, others take average 10 days. Citizens receive answers in written on BT letterhead with the outgoing number. 6. Each Saturday from 8:00 to 12:00 is a day for citizens reception in Dushanbe and all regional and district BT divisions. This day all leadership and specialists of the company receive consumers. 7. Regional/district BT divisions/units don’t have a separate Citizen Reception Unit , but Secretary receptionist receives and registers complaints of citizens. 8. There is an Order on reception of citizens by the BT leadership approved on May 29, 2017 that determined the following schedule of citizens’ personal reception by the company management: # Officials Day Time of citizens reception 1. Chair and Deputy Chairs Saturday from 9:00 to 12:00 2. First Deputy Chair (Mr. Asozoda M.Sh.) - Monday and from 14:00 to 16:00 Executive Director of Power Generation (HPP Friday and TPP) 3. Deputy Chair (Mr. Ubaidullozoda Gh.Kh.) Tuesday from 14:00 to 16:00 Executive Director of the “Power Transmission Networksâ€? 4. Deputy Chair (Ms. Kholikzoda) – Executive Wednesday from 14:00 to 16:00 Director of “Power Distribution Networksâ€? Department 5. Head of Main Department of Finance and Thursday from 14:00 to 16:00 Administrative Services 87 The Order also prescribes the procedure of the citizens appeals consideration and assigns specialists responsible for the process based on the existing legislation and the company internal policy. 88 Annex 9. Environmental Impact Assessment Procedure Flow Chart Fig. General scheme of Environmental Impact Assessment (OVOS) procedure (by UNECE, 2015) 89 Annex 10. References 1. ПоÑ?тановление ПравительÑ?тва РеÑ?публики ТаджикиÑ?тан «О мерах по Ñ?озданию Ñ?иÑ?темы безопаÑ?ного Ñ?бора, хранениÑ?, транÑ?портировки и переработки ртутьÑ?одержащих ламп». Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan “On measures to create a system for the safe collection, storage, transportation and processing of mercury-containing lampsâ€? 2. Правила Ñ?бора отработанных ртутьÑ?одержащих ламп у наÑ?елениÑ?, юридичеÑ?ких лиц, индивидуальных предпринимателей, организациÑ? их хранениÑ?, транÑ?портировки, утилизации. Rules for the collection of waste mercury-containing lamps from the public, legal entities, individual entrepreneurs, the organization of their storage, transportation, disposal 3. Предельное количеÑ?тво токÑ?ичных промышленных отходов, допуÑ?каемое длÑ? Ñ?кладированиÑ? в накопителÑ?Ñ… (на полигонах) твёрдых бытовых отходов (нормативный документ). The maximum amount of toxic industrial waste allowed for storage in solid state waste in storage devices (landfills) (regulatory document) 4. Правила предоÑ?тавлениÑ? уÑ?луг по вывозу твердых и жидких бытовых отходов. Rules for the provision of services for the removal of solid and liquid household waste 5. Правила предоÑ?тавлениÑ? коммунальных уÑ?луг. Rules for the provision of utilities 6. ПоÑ?тановление ПравительÑ?тва РеÑ?публики ТаджикиÑ?тан «О ПорÑ?дке выÑ?влениÑ? и учета беÑ?хозных отходов. Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan “On the Procedure for Identification and Accounting of Waste Waste 7. ПорÑ?док выдачи разрешений на захоронение (Ñ?кладирование) промышленных, бытовых и иных отходов (за иÑ?ключением радиоактивных отходов). Procedure for issuing permits for the burial (storage) of industrial, household and other waste (except for radioactive waste) 8. ПоÑ?тановление ПравительÑ?тва РеÑ?публики ТаджикиÑ?тан «Об утверждении ПорÑ?дка, уÑ?ловий и Ñ?поÑ?обов Ñ?бора, иÑ?пользованиÑ?, обеззараживаниÑ?, транÑ?портировки, хранениÑ? и захоронениÑ? производÑ?твенных и бытовых отходов в РеÑ?публике ТаджикиÑ?тан». Decree of the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan “On approval of the Procedure, conditions and methods for the collection, use, disinfection, transportation, storage and disposal of industrial and household waste in the Republic of Tajikistanâ€? 9. ПорÑ?док, уÑ?ловиÑ? и Ñ?поÑ?обы Ñ?бора, иÑ?пользованиÑ?, обеззараживаниÑ?, транÑ?портировки, хранениÑ? и захоронениÑ? производÑ?твенных и бытовых отходов в РеÑ?публике ТаджикиÑ?тан. The procedure, conditions and methods for the collection, use, decontamination, transportation, storage and disposal of industrial and household waste in the Republic of Tajikistan â€? 10. ПоÑ?обие по проектированию полигонов по обезвреживанию и захоронению токÑ?ичных промышленных отходов (к СÐ?иП 2.01.28. – 85). Manual on the design of landfills for the disposal and disposal of toxic industrial waste (to SNiP 2.01.28. - 85) 11. Временный клаÑ?Ñ?ификатор токÑ?ичных промышленных отходов и методичеÑ?кие рекомендации по определению клаÑ?Ñ?а токÑ?ичноÑ?ти промышленных отходов СанПиÐ? 4286 – 87. Temporary classifier of toxic industrial wastes and guidelines for determining the toxicity class of industrial wastes SanPiN 4286 - 87 12. СниП 2.01.28–85. Полигоны о обезвреживанию и захоронению токÑ?ичных промышленных отходов. ОÑ?новные положениÑ? по проектированию. Norms and regulations SniP 2.01.28–85. Landfills for the disposal and disposal of toxic industrial waste. Design Basics 13. Environmental Performance Reviews, UNECE Committee on Environmental Policy, New York and Geneva, 2004 14. National State of the Environmental reports, ZOI Environmental network, November 2012 15. Materials of the IEEs of the energy sectors of ADB 16. Tajikistan: rapid assessment and analysis of gaps in the energy sector 17. Materials of the IEEs of energy sector projects of ADB 18. TаджикиÑ?тан: Ñ?кÑ?преÑ?Ñ? оценка и анализ пробелов в Ñ?нергетичеÑ?ком Ñ?екторе, UNDP_TJK_SE4ALL_Rapid_Assessment_and_gap_analysis (2012) 19. Waste and chemicals in Central Asia: a Visual synthesis, FOEN/Grid Arendal, May 2013 90