2 December 2004
Mechanism recommends new environmental and social impact assessments be conducted, but declines to recommend suspension of loan disbursements.
The Special Project Facilitator (SPF), in its Review and Assessment Report on the Southern Transport Development Project in Sri Lanka, has found that:
- planning and preparation of resettlement sites have been inadequate,
- opportunity for participation has been limited,
- communication strategy has been ineffective and counter productive,
- information and transparency have been lacking, and
- not enough social and environmental data has been generated to make the change of trace justifiable.
With these findings, the SPF has recommended that:
- a new Environmental Impact Assessment and a Social Impact Assessment be conducted for the final trace,
- a comprehensive resettlement audit that will lead to tangible improvements for Affected Persons (AP) be done,
- training in and use of systematic participatory methods by field staff be used, and
- an effective AP-oriented communication and information strategy ensuring transparency be done.
The Special Project Facilitator, however, declined to recommend the suspension of loan disbursements for the project as requested by the complainants, stating that "this would currently hinder a constructive solution."