Mauritania - Third Highway Project

Report No. 493a-MAU d p, Appraisal of a Third Highway Project Mauritania October 30, 1974 Western Africa Projects Department Highways Division Not for Public Use Document of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development International Development Association This report was prepared for official use only by the Bank Group. It may not be pu9ished, quoted or cited without Bank Croup authorization. The Bank Croup does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or cormpleteness of the report.  Currency Ecjuivalenta Ourrency Unit = Ouguiya (UM) US$1.00 = UM 50 UN 1 = US$ 0.02 UN 1 million = US$ 20,000. Fiscal Year: January 1 - December 31 SYstem of Weights and Measures: Metric :=tric Britiph/eS Bcuivalents 1 meter (m) 3.28 feet (ft) i kilometer (km) = 0.62 mile (mi) i square kilometer (kom') 0.386 square mile (sq mi) 1 metrie ton (m ton) 2,204 pounds (lb) 1 liter (1) - 0.26 US gallon (gal) = 0.22 British gallon (imp gai) Abbreviations and Acronms ADF - African Development Fund CIDA - Canadian International Development Agency DfW - Directorate ef Public Works IF - Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development ME - Ministry of Equipment MP - Ministry of Planning M2T - Ministry of Trade and Transportation vpd - vehicles per day  MAURITANIA APPRAISAL OF A THIRD HIGHWAY PROJECT TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. SUMMARY .....................i............................... i ii 1. INTRODUCTION. 2. THE TRANSPORT SECTOR .. 2 A. Economic Setting. 2 B. The Transport System. 3 C. Transport Policy, Planning, and Coordination 4 3. HIGHWAYS 5 A. The Network............. * ... 5 B. Characteristics of Road Traffic and the Road Transport Industry. 6 C. Administration 7 D. Engineering and Construction 7 E. Maintenance and Betterment. 8 4. THE PROJECT 9 A. Description .. 9 - Technical Assistance ..... .............. 9 - Purchase of Highway Equipment l.......... i - Betterment Program. 12 - Feasibility Study and Detailed Engineering of the Rosso-Boghe Road 12 B. Cost Estimates .12 C. Financing and Disbursements 13 D. Execution ..14 5. ECONOMIC EVALUATION .15 A. General .15 B. Consolidation and Expansion of Highway Maintenance .15 C. Betterment Program .16 D. Feasibility Study and Detailed Engineering of the Rosso-Boghe Road 17 6. AGREEMENTS REACHED AND RECOtMMNDATION 18 Tlis report has been prepared by Messrs. E. Bonhomme (Engineer) and P. Gyamfi (Economist), and updated by Messrs. E. Staffini (Engineer) and A. Byl (Economis t).  TABLE OF CONTENTS (cont'd) TABLES 1. Highway Classification and Conditions 2. Vehicle Registration, 1967-73 3. Annual Consumption of Motor Fuel, 1968-72 4. Minimum Training Requiremen'ts 5. Hiighway Expenditures, 1968-75 6. Highway Equipment Requirexnents 7. Projece Cost Estimates 8. Cost Estimates for Mechanic.dl Equipment and Consulting Services 9. Financing Plan 10. Estimated Schedule of Disbursements 11. Operating Costs of Highway :Equipment MAP Mauritania - Third Highway ,?roject - IBRD 10995  MAURITANIA APPRAISAL OF A THIRD HIGHWAY PROJECT SUMMARY i. Mauritania covers a total land area of about one million km2, of which about two-thirds are largely barren, arid parts of the Sahara desert, and the remainder mostly savanna grassland. Although some 90% of the 1.2 million inhabitants are subsistence farmers and nomadic herdsmen, the coun- try's economy is dominated by enclave mining activities. The demand for in- ternal transport is therefore generally low. Roads are the predominant mode; transport by railway, air, and water is specialized both with respect to traf- fic type and location. The road network totals about 7,000 km, of which only about 500 km are paved; the remainder are mainly earth tracks with no definite alignment, making transport costly, arduous, and hazardous, and seasonally im- possible on some roads. Improving these conditions progressively, as warranted by traffic development, has been the strategy of the Government and the Bank Group over the past several years. ii. The Association helped finance a (First) Highway Project (Credit 69-MAU, US$6.7 million, 1964) which included construction of the Nouakchott- Rosso road (200 km), the most heavily trafficked in the country, and a study of the highway maintenance organization. Since completion of the road, traf- fic on it has developed much more rapidly than forecast at appraisal. Con- sultants BCEOM (France) carried out the maintenance study which provided the basis for the ongoing maintenance project, and for its continuation and exten- sion as recommended in the proposed third project. iii. As mentioned, the Second Highway Project (Credit 159-MAU, US$3.0 million, 1969) was aimed at implementing the recommendations of the BCEOM study, and provided for the purchase of equipment and provision of technical assistance to execute a four-year highway maintenance and betterment program. Under this project, the Equipment Division of the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) has been reorganized, a betterment program executed through the highway bases was initiated, and about 60% of mechanics and operators trained. The training program could not cover all the available personnel because of dif- ficulties encountered in finding counterparts to the consultants in the early stages of implementation, and because of the need to provide lower-level staff with basic reading and writing skills. It is therefore now necessary to provide additional technical assistance for training the remaining operators and mechanics. iv. Under the proposed Third Highway Project, it is planned to extend the training facilities to include all other highway personnel. There is also a general need to improve the present organization for planning, execut- ing, and supervising highway operations. Highway maintenance and betterment need to be continued and strengthened, and a year-round connection between Nouakchott and the eastern regions ensured.  - ii - v. The proposed project therefore includes: (a) technical assistance to the Infrastructure Department of the Ministry of Equipment (ME), to the Ministry of Planning (MP), and tc> the Transport Department of the Ministry of Trade and Transportation (MTT); (b) purchase of highway equipment for mainten- ance and betterment works; (c) continuation of a betterment program on about 365 km of roads; and (d) feasibility study and detailed engineering for con- struction of the Rosso-Boghe roacd (200 km), the most heavily trafficked unpaved road in the country. vi. The total capital cost of the project is estimated at about US$13.7 million equivalent, including foreign exchange costs of US$9.5 million (69%), and US$2.4 million equivalent in taxes. The project will be financed by the Association, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KF), by Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Govern- ment, under separate agreements for each aid agency. The United Nations Development Programne (UNDP) has indicated that it has no funds available for participation in this project. lhe financing plan is scheduled as follows: (i) US$3.0 million by the Association and US$3.8 million by KF to meet the total cost (net of taxes) of tecbnical assistance, preinvestment studies, and the betterment program; (ii) US$4.5 million by Canada to meet the entire foreign costs of equipment procurement and related services; and (iii) US$2.4 million by the Government to cover the tax component of the project. The Government will also allocate funds to meet the recurrent costs of road maintenance and betterment works not included in the project. The Government has stated that an amount of UM &0 million will be provided in its highway main- tenance budget for 1975, and has agreed to an annual review by the Association of its road maintenance program and budget for fiscal years 1976 through 1979. vii. The Ministry of Equipment will be responsible for implementing the project, except for small items of technical assistance which will be carried out by the Ministries of Planning and of Trade and Transportation. The project is expected to start in 1975 and be completed by mid-1979. Consultants for technical assistance and for the feasibility study and detailed engineering will be selected on terms and conditions acceptable to the Association. Terms of reference for all the above services have been discussed and agreed with the Government. Signing of the consultants' contract for technical assistance to the Infrastructure Department will be a condition of effectiveness of the proposed IDA Credit. Execution of the betterment program will be mainly by force account, with support provided by contractors as required; a 7-1/2% margin of preference will be granted to domestic contractors. Procedures for equipment procurement to be financed by Canada will follow the general condi- tions of CIDA. viii. In order to ensure that the interdependent aspects of the project items are adequately taken into account, the Association has entered into an understanding with each of the co-lenders that progress made in implementing each part of the project will be compared, and the implementation schedule revised if necessary. In addition, the understanding with KF for joint finan- cing provides that the Association will act on behalf of KF with regard to technical assistance and preinvestmnent studies, while the betterment program will be administered and supervised by both agencies.  - iii - ix. The principal aim of the proposed project is to consolidate and expand the maintenance effort started under the Second Highway Project; im- plementation of this program will lead to a reduction in vehicle operating costs on the network, and will also extend its seasonal use. The economic return on the maintenance item is estimated at about 36% over the six-year expected life of the capital investment. The betterment program will ensure all-weather transport on two roads serving the most agriculturally produc- tive and densely populated areas of the country. This project item yields an economic return of about 35% on the Boghe-Kaedi-Kiffa road in the south, and of about 16% on the Akjoujt-Atar-Choum road in the north. The preinvest- ment studies concern improvement of the most heavily trafficked unpaved road in the country. x. The proposed project is suitable for a Credit of US$3.0 million to the Government of Mauritania on standard IDA terms.   MAURITANIA APPRAISAL OF A THIIRD HIGHWAY PROJECT 1. INTRODUCTION 1.01 In 1964, a Credit of US$6.7 million (Cr. 69-MAU) was made to the Government of Mauritania to help finance the engineering and construction of the Nouakchott-Rosso road (200 km). The construction work was completed on schedule in 1969 following initial delays due mainly to the scarcity of good road materials in the project area. Since completion of the road, traffie has increased much more rapidly thar forecast at appraisal. The Credit also included funds for a highway maintenance study which was under- taken by consultants BCEOM (France), and which provided the basis for the ongoing maintenance project (para. 1.02), and for its continuation and ex- tension as recommended in the proposed Third Highway Project. 1.02 The second Bank Group project in the transport sector, the ongoing Ilighway Maintenance Project (Cr. 159-MAU, US$3.0 million, 1969) focussed on the purchase and management of maintenance equipment, and on reorganiza- tion of the Equipment Division of the Directorate of Public Works (DPW). Five mechanical experts from BCEOM assisted *n carrying out the reorganization, and the Equipment Division which was previously rudimentary, now has a Central Workshop in Nouakchott for heavy equipment repairs; minor repairs and routine maintenance of the equipment are performed in the field with light facilities of the highway bases and the subdivisions. The BCEOM experts also helped implement a training program for operators and 'mechanics, but its execution was delayed in the early stages by the need to provide lower-level staff with basic skills in reading and writing, as well as by the difficulties en- countered in finding middle- and higher-level local personnel to be counter- parts to the consultants. As a result, only about 60% of this staff were trained, and it is therefore now necessary to continue the program for the remaining operators and mechanics, and to extend the training facilities to other highway personnel. During the proposed project, work started under the second project will be continued and strengthened, and new efforts will be directed to DPW's Highways Division and the local subdivisions to improve present methods of planning, executing, and supervising highway operations. Also, efforts will be directed to continuing and strengthening highway main- tenance, and to creating a year-round connection between Nouakchott and the eastern region of the country. 1.03 The proposed Third Highway Project therefore includes: (a) technical assistance to the Infrastructure Department of the Ministry of Equipment (ME), to the Ministry of Planning (MP) and to the Transport Department of the Ministry of Trade and Transportation (MTT); (b) purchase of highway equipment for maintenance and betterment works; (c) continuation of a betterment program on about 365 km of roads; and (d) feasibility study and detailed engineering for construction of the Rosso-Boghe road (200 km). The total capital cost of the project is estimated at about US$13.7 million equivalent, including for- eign exchange costs of US$9.5 million, and US$2.4 million equivalent in taxes. T?he project will be financed by the Association, the Kuwait Fund for  - 2 - Arab Economic Development (KF), by Canada through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Government, under separate agreements for each aid agency. UNDP has indicated that it has no funds available for participation in this project. The financing plan is scheduled as follows: (i) US$3.0 million by the Association and US$3.8 million by KF to meet the total cost (net of taxes) of technical assistance, preinvestment studies, and the betterment program; (ii) US$4.5 million by Canada to meet the foreign costs of equipment procurement and related services; and (iii) US$2.4 million by the Government to cover the tax component of the project. 1.04 This report is based on information supplied by ME, as well as on the findings of an appraisal mission comprising Messrs. E. Bonhomme (Engineer) and P. Gyamfi and T. Lott (Economists) which visited Mauritania in September 1973, and a follow-up mission by Messrs. Bonhomme and Gyamfi in December 1973. 2. THE TRANSPORT SECTOR A. Economic Setting 2.01 Mauritania covers a total land area of about one million km , of which about two-thirds are largely barren, arid parts of the Sahara desert, and the remainder mostly savanna grassland. The population of about 1.2 million, which has grown at 2% p.a. over the past decade, is concentrated around Nouadhibou and Nouakchott, and along the Senegal river in the south. Because of the combined effects of low population density, long distances between towns and settlements, harsh climatic conditions, and poor road- making soils, the provision and maintenance of transport infrastructure is expensive and technically difficult, and the operation of vehicles is costly, arduous, and often hazardous. 2.02 About 90% of the active population are subsistence farmers and nomadic herdsmen, yet agriculture, livestock-raising, and other traditional activities generated in 1972 only about 31% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This traditional sector grew at about 4% p.a. between 1960-68, but production fell between 1969-72 due to severe drought conditions. Tne corres- ponding annual increases in mining activities (generating about 36% of GDP) during the periods abovementioned were 19% and 6%. Per capita GDP increased from US$110 in 1962 to US$170 in 1972. However, individual incomes of most of the population have probably not increased over the decade, as growth was limited to the modern sector, which employs only about 10% of the active population, and whose activities are located 600 - 700 km from the center of the agricultural zone.  -3- B. The Transport System 2.03 Transport infrastructure consists essentially of about 7,000 km of roads (mainly earth tracks), about 740 km of privately-owned railways serving the mining sector, a deep-water port and a wharf, two international airports, and about 19 airstrips for domestic services; in addition, the Senegal River provides for almost half the year about 600 km of navigable waterway between Rosso and Gourai (Bakel) (see Map IBRD 10995). The system is generally ade- quate to serve the needs of external transport. For internal services, roads presently constitute practically the only mode; river transport was once sig- nificant, but has now dwindled to a few small itinerant craft which provide infrequent services (para. 2.07); internal air transport has proved essential in helping alleviate the effects of the recent drought, but is at present too costly to attract significant and continuous demand. Ilighways 2.04 Details on the highway system and its administration, as well as the characteristics of the road transport industry, are provided in Chapter 3. Railways 2.05 The only railway in the country is owned and operated by Mines de Fer de Mauritanie (MIFERMA), the iron-ore min4ng company located in the north. Although traffic is largely confined to shipments of ore from deposits near Zouerate to the port of Nouadhibou (amounting in 1972 to about 8.4 million tons), small amounts of general merchandise (about 7,000 tons in 1972) and limited passenger service, are carried on the back-haul. In order to allow development of this general traffic, and to ensure better connections between Nouadhibou and the rest of the country, the proposed project provides for improvement of the road linking the railway stop at Chounm with Atar, the trade center cf the northwest. Ports and Waterways 2.06 Seaport facilities comprise the deep-water port at Nouadhibou and the 350 m wharf at Nouakchott. The Nouadhibou port is effectively two special- ized facilities: a bulk cargo port for MIFERMA's ore traffic, and a general cargo and fishing port. The Association is currently appraising a project for extension of the latter facility. The wharf at Nouakchott handled about 153,000 tons of cargo in 1973, only about two-thirds its capacity. Over the past five years, wharf traffic has increased at more than 25% p.a., but this was mainly due to a shift of imports to Nouakchott from the port of Dakar (Senegal). This shift is now almost complete, and traffic is expected to grow at a maximum of 9% p.a. over the next decade. 2.07 Transport on the Senegal River was once an important mode for the agriculturally productive southern region, with about five power crafts and several barges owned and operated by a Senegalese firm, but there are now only  - 4 - infrequent services by a few small boats. At the time when operations were efficient, river transport was a useful complement to road transport along the Rosso-Boghe-Kaedi corridor, and if revived, could still play an impor- tant role for carrying bulk low-cost commodities. This possibility is being studied by the Senegal River Basin Commission 1/ in the context of an overall strategy to harness the Senegal River and develop its valley. Airways 2.08 The air service networl. is sufficiently well developed to help over- come the long distances over largely inhospitable regions, and to compensate for the lack of surface transporl; capacity, especially to remote and seasonally isolated areas. There are two international airports, at Nouadhibou and Nouakchott, but only the former can handle long-range jet aircraft. There are also 19 airstrips for domestic services which can accommodate DC-3 and DC-4 type equipment. In spite of this internal air transport capacity, how- ever, passenger demand has been :imited, principally because the cost of air fares still remains far beyond the means of the average local traveller. For transport to remote areas, howevtr, it is not inconceivable that on a total- cost basis (i.e. infrastructure and operating costs), air transport for pas- sengers and perishable goods, in combination with the use of off-road vehicles for other goods, could be an economically cheaper alternative to the more con- ventional road transport used under prevailing conditions. C. Transport Policy, Planning, and Coordination 2.09 Transport policy has in recent years been characterized by the following features: (a) a shift in the orienta -ion of external transport for goods and passengers from the port of Dakar in Senegal to the Mauritanian ports; (b) use of transport as an integral part of a strategy to achieve national unity, and to reduce the wide discrepancies in living standards in diUferent areas of the country with the Government absorbing part of the transport costs to the consumer of certain essential commodities; and (c) efforts to establish a reliable transport system necessary to develop the more poiulated and agriculturally productive regions in the south a