St. Lucia - Water Supply Infrastructure Improvement Project

Page 1 INTEGRATED SAFEGUARDS DATA SHEET CONCEPT STAGE Report No.: AC1406 Date ISDS Prepared/Updated: 04/01/2005 I. BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data Country: St. Lucia Project ID: P094416 Project Name: ST LUCIA WATER SUPPLY INFR IMPROVEMENT Task Team Leader: Jordan Z. Schwartz Estimated Appraisal Date: April 15, 2005 Estimated Board Date: May 19, 2005 Managing Unit: LCSFW Lending Instrument: Specific Investment Loan Sector: Water supply (100%) Theme: Infrastructure services for private sector development (P) IBRD Amount (US$m.): 3.85 IDA Amount (US$m.): 3.85 GEF Amount (US$m.): 0.00 PCF Amount (US$m.): 0.00 Other financing amounts by source: BORROWER/RECIPIENT 0.00 0.00 B. Project Objectives [from section 2 of PCN] The Saint Lucia Water Supply Infrastructure Improvement Project will support a short term investment program to carry out critical works which are required to achieve the following objectives: (i) alleviate the water shortage in the north of the country. (The infrastructure works proposed will allow the utility to supply the entire north of the island with a more efficient, continuous and reliable service.) and (ii) implement urgent investments which will result in additional revenues, reduce the likelihood of commercial users (important sources of cross-subsidy for poor consumers) abandoning the system and improve the potential of a successful partnership between the government and the private sector. C. Project Description [from section 3 of PCN] The project will improve the reliability of the Roseau Dam water supply system (Compton Dam) by raising the flow volumes of water to the north of St. Lucia in accordance with the original system design specifications. This is required to meet the current shortfall in water supply in northern sections of the island and to assist with the reduction of costs for water production Page 2 through improved system efficiencies. The system components that would be upgraded under this phase include: replacement of inefficient pumps at the Roseau Dam pumping station, the removal of pipe restrictions along the Roseau Dam raw water transmission line to the Theobalds (Cicero) Treatment plant, construction of the phase II raw water treatment facility at the Theobalds plant, and improvements to the Morne Bocage distribution pipeline that will connect the Hill 20 system, (an area suffering from severe water shortages) to the Roseau system. The increase in the flow capacity from the Roseau reservoir reduces the drought return period for which the reservoir was designed. The current flow restrictions along the distribution system are largely responsible for turning every year to a drought year. Removing these restrictions will raise the extraction capacity from the reservoir to original design levels and generally satisfy all the forecast demand under normal operating conditions. The issue of drought years will be taken care of in the medium term investment program by the future owner/operators under which an expansion of the water source for the north may be considered, or alternatively, an aggressive water losses reduction in the distribution network will be pursued. The components of the proposed project are thus the following: Component A: Infrastructure Improvement Works: This component includes the following infrastructure improvement works, which are detailed in Annex 1: ? Roseau Dam Pumping Station Upgrade: This entails the upgrade of pumping capacity to match future demand. ? Vanard-Sarot Pipe Replacement: This requires a new 24? ductile iron pipe to be installed from Varnard to Sarot (1.3 km) parallel to the existing 18?, which will upgrade the raw water transmission pipeline capacity up to 10 MGD. ? Theobalds Treatment Plant Upgrade: Consisting of doubling the capacity of the treatment plant by adding treatment units. ? Morne Bocage Distribution Pipeline: This new pipeline functions as a dedicated transmission pipeline directly to existing storage tanks at the Morne and Morne Du Don, for enhancing water supply to the Hill 20 area. Due to the urgent nature of the works and the close inter-relationship among the components of the project it is considered that a turnkey contract will be the most efficient and safe way to implement this type of project and achieve project objectives as demonstrated in other Bank projects such as the Espiritu Santo project in Brazil. Component B: Technical Assistance and Project Management. This component includes: ? consulting services for: ? preparation of preliminary designs and tender invitation documents for all civil, mechanical and electrical works; ? preparation of pre-qualification reports where necessary; ? assistance in the evaluation of tenders, preparation of tender the evaluation reports, selection of the winning bidder and negotiation of contracts; ? supervision of the quality of works ? other activities, as required, to provide support to the project management unit. Page 3 ? Additional support to the PMU and the Government in TA and training, as necessary. D. Project location (if known) Works contemplated under this project, aside from the pumping station upgrades at the Roseau dam, extend from the Vanard distribution line (in the Roseau river valley) through the Theobalds treatment plant, near Castries to areas north and east of the plant. The works will be installed through agricultural areas and along existing roadways to service the northern part of the country. Works are to be constructed in inland areas away from tourist, and coastal zone localities. Improvements to the Theobalds plant will occur onsite, in a section set aside during the first phase construction program. E. Borrower