Environmental impact assessment for island access jetty reconstruction project Inmandhoo, South Ari Atoll

Abstract

1. The proponent of ADh. Mandhoo Island access Jetty reconstruction and maintenance dredging project is the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure (MHI). The Ministry is the government’s responsible body for the development and regulate the housing and infrastructure of the country. Maldives Road Development Cooperation (MRDC) has been contracted to undertake the access jetty reconstruction and maintenance dredging work in ADh. Mandhoo. 2. Two freelance EIA consultants has been contracted through public bidding process to provide preparation services of an Environmental Impact Study (EIA) by (MHI) for the access jetty reconstruction project in ADh. Mandhoo Island. 3. The assessment addresses specific key issues stated in the Terms of Reference (ToR) as agreed between EPA and the Proponent following the scoping meeting held on the matter. 4. ADh Mandhoo is an inhabited island located on the southern half of south western side of Ari Atoll. The island lies on huge reef system with fairly large deep lagoon with large number of patch reefs. The lagoon is accessible from the eastern side and can reach very close to the island shoreline. 5. The island can be accessed by using two jetties constructed from the shore and extend into the deep lagoon on the eastern side of the island. The jetty on the south eastern end of the island was constructed by the management of Conrad Maldives (Rangali) to use to access the land plot (southern part of the island) during the period they rented land from the council to establish resort support facilities. The second jetty is located approximately 190m north of the jetty, constructed by the island community in early 2008 to access the island. This is the main jetty that is used by the island community to go in and out of the island. 6. The existing jetty was built manually by the people of the island. Hence pad columns structures are not placed deep enough consequently they started scouring at the base, particularly columns in deeper water and the sandy slope. Columns are slowly collapsing and the whole structure is unstable at present. The concrete sheet on top of the pillars has crashed leaving large holes and making the jetty unsafe and risky for the public to use. The people of Mandhoo requested for Government’s assistance to reconstruct a jetty to access the island. As a response for their request the Government proposed this project to reconstruct a T- jetty at the footprint of the existing jetty. The project involves development of a T-jetty, maintenance dredging of areas near the jetty. 7. The study investigates impacts associated access jetty reconstruction and proposed maintenance dredging neat the jetty area of ADh. The access jetty will be 35 long and 6m wide the project also proposes to do some maintenance dredging in the vicinity of the jetty. 8. Main focus this reports is to document the general baseline condition surrounding island and particularly the proposed area for jetty reconstruction and maintenance dredging. The following studies have been carried out as part of this assessment. a. Assessment of the marine and coastal species and habitats in surrounding impact areas. b. Coastal conditions and coastal processes. c. Wave and shoreline assessment study to evaluate the potential for the proposed jetty reconstruction and maintenance dredging to impact adjacent shorelines. d. Climatic and oceanographic conditions of the project site. 9. Findings from the environmental studies are summarized as follows; e. The pillars in the deeper water at the slope of lagoon have already collapsed and the concrete sheet on top of the pillars has crashed leaving large holes thus, making the jetty unsafe and risky for the public to use. f. Jetty area is very deep within the range of 5-7m, therefore, it is not necessarily required to undertake maintenance dredging as proposed in the project. g. Based on the discussion with the people of the island they have requested to shift the location of the new jetty 20m south of the existing one and lengthen the jetty 4-5m into the deep lagoon and extend the shore parallel section of the T-jetty 30-40m to accommodate larger vessels. 10. Field investigation during the EIA report preparation process has identified that the initially proposed maintenance dredging of the jetty area can be excluded from the scope of the project as the area is deep enough to accommodate larger vessels. With this finding the major activity that will cause significant environmental impact has been eliminated. The proposed method for reconstruction of jetty will have very negligible environmental impact on the nearshore areas of the Mandhoo Island. In fact environmental impact assessment is not required as per the EIA regulation schedule (Raa) for jetties standing on pillars that allows water and sediment flow underneath it. However, this EIA has been completed to fulfil the requirements of the ToR issued by the EPA on 13th June 2017 based on the discussions at the scoping meeting held on the 11th of June 2017. 11. Based on the scale of the proposed development project, environmental impacts associated with the proposed jetty reconstruction work is insignificant and negligible. The positive socio economic impacts from the proposed development outweigh the temporary negligible impacts related to jetty construction work. 12. Even though the impact is negligible and of short-term the report has come-up with a monitoring programme that will keep on monitoring coastal and marine environmental changes associated with the development to make necessary adjustment based on the findings of various measured environmental parameters suggested in the monitoring plan. 13. Therefore, on the basis of this environmental impact assessment study and the impact mitigation measures in the report, it is concluded that the benefits of the access jetty reconstruction project in ADh. Mandhoo eastern coast will substantially outweigh its imposition on the environment.