ESIA for Water as Leverage Cartagena - Colombia

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency requested NCEA involvement as part of the ‘Water as Leverage Cartagena – program’: a partnership between the City of Cartagena and the Government of the Netherlands. Two multidisciplinary teams are hired to develop infrastructural interventions for water- and climate change adaptation related challenges in Cartagena. Invest International is a strategic partner in the programme, as it is the ambition to derive multiple DRIVE-ready infrastructural projects. The trajectory consists of multiple phases, starting with the development of conceptual designs, further specified in project proposals on pre-feasibility level, ultimately detailed out in one full feasibility study per team. ESIA is a key item of the work ahead, for which the involvement of the NCEA would provide an important added value. Potential activities could involve independent quality review of deliverables that are part of the different phases, interaction with Colombian (governmental) counterparts and ESIA capacity building of environmental licencing authorities.  

Significant details

The following options for independent review of deliverables (in bold below) have been identified:

• Phase 1 includes an indicative risk and impact assessment for 4-6 conceptual designs per team as one of the deliverables.
• Phase 2 includes as one of the deliverables for at least 3 project proposals per team Risk- and impacts assessment; E&S scoping, and Terms of reference for the ESIA according to the IFC Performance Standards and local Colombian ESIA requirements
• Phase 3: Assuming a positive GO decision from the Advisory Board, the team will develop the selected project proposal from phase 2 to full feasibility level (1 proposal per team = 2 in total). This includes amongst the deliverables: Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA)