Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes

Annex 4. Bank Lending and Implementation Support/Supervision Processes

Annex 5. Beneficiary Survey Results

Annex 6. Stakeholder Workshop Report and Results

Annex 7. Summary of Borrower’s ICR and/or Comments on Draft ICR

1. The IIIMP was originally a seven-year multidonor funded project implemented under the Egyptian MWRI that aimed to enhance the management of irrigation and drainage and to increase the efficiency of irrigated agriculture water use and services in the Mahmoudia and Meet Yazid command areas in the Middle and West Delta. It addressed the water management issues in the two command areas in an integrated and participatory manner.

2. The overall objective was to improve water distribution, quantity, quality, equity, and timeliness and hence to increase agricultural production and alleviate poverty. Key elements to achieve these goals were the rehabilitation and improvement of the water management infrastructure. This was accompanied by institutional reform and user participation.

3. The IIIMP is regarded as a pioneer project where the policy reforms of integrated planning and development of water management service through better integration of the MWRI departments and other Government agencies are rolled out on a large scale.

4. The IIIMP implementation program was covered by five (5) components: (1) Improved and Integrated Water Management; (2) Improved On-Farm Water Management; (3) Institutional Development and Capacity Building; (4) Project Management, Coordination, and Integration; and (5) Environmental Mainstreaming.

5. The IIIMP involved a great number of sectors and departments within the MWRI as well as other ministries, in particular the MALR and Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MEE).

6. The framework for implementation, which was prepared during 2006, elaborated the IIIMP project concept as defined in the PAD and consisted of two documents:

• 
  A Project Implementation Plan
  
• 
  A Project Implementation Manual
  

8. The main partnership arrangements included (a) a loan from IBRD for financing infrastructural improvements and equipment, (b) an additional loan from KfW for financing infrastructural improvements, (c) a grant from KfW for financing the TA services, (d) a grant from the Netherlands Government for the preparatory phase and institutional development and capacity-building activities relating to WUAs on the one hand and the MWRI on the other and the rehabilitation of district buildings, and (d) the GOE with a national counterpart fund budget.

9. The original project duration covered a period of approximately seven years from March 2007 to March 2014. The original closing date of the IBRD loan was March 31, 2014. However, because of the political unrest in Egypt (January 2011 and June 2013), which affected the implementation progress of the IIIMP in various ways, in March 2014, the IBRD extended its loan for another two (2) years up to March 31, 2016.

10. The original Netherlands Contribution Arrangement also covered a period of seven years, that is, from 2006 to December 2013. For similar reasons, this closing date was extended for three months up to March 31, 2014.

11. The original closing date for KfW funds (both Loan and Grant) was December 31, 2015; again for similar reason this was extended to December 31, 2016. At present, a second extension is being contemplated up to December 2017 to complete the ongoing activities in the KfW areas of the IIIMP.

Summary of Implemented Activities

12. The IIIMP is implemented through the various departments of the MWRI and the MALR (EALIP) and MEE and coordinated through a PMU and RCUs at regional level. The three RCUs (in each of the three governorates) assist the PMU in the coordination, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting. A Steering Committee has been established to provide strategic leadership for the timely and effective implementation of the IIIMP. At the governorate level, the project implementing sectors and partners are represented in a Regional Management Committee. The TA for the IIIMP includes (a) individual consultants hired directly by the PMU (and financed by the NDC) and (b) the main consultant Euroconsult Mott MacDonald in association with Mott MacDonald (United Kingdom), CES (Germany), S&H (Egypt), and CBI (Egypt), financed through the loan and grant from KfW.

13. Moreover, the PMU-IIIMP decided to make use of the MWRI’s in-house expertise in the various disciplines to establish a cost-effective mechanism for implementing the different IIIMP components through a number of task forces (TFs); the aim of these TFs was to facilitate the preparation, coordination, and implementation of the various IIIMP activities.

14. The actual activities are summarized in Table 7.1:

15. Actual expenditures up to the end of March 2016 amounted to US$247.35 million, of which US$118.56 million for IBRD, US$60.93 million for KfW, US$10.76 million for NL-CA, and US$57.71 million for the GOE (see table 7.3).

17. Law 213 of 1994 provides for recovery of mesqa improvement costs from the landowners benefiting from such investments.²⁵ The costs of pump sets are repaid within 3 years, while repayment of the cost of civil works takes place over 20 years. Costs are repaid without interest. Taken together with the fact that there is usually a significant delay between the time when the investments are made and the start of repayments, this means that, particularly in the case of the civil works, that there is a significant element of subsidy.

18. Collection of the instalments is the responsibility of the LTA. After deduction of fees for the LTA and IIS, the amount collected is paid into a revolving fund which is intended to be used for further mesqa improvement.

19. Until 2013, arrangements to start the cost recovery were delayed while a decision was being awaited as to whether the costs of electrification (low-voltage networks), should also be included. During summer 2013, a formal decision was made by the MWRI in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance that the costs of the low-voltage networks should be taken into account for the cost recovery, with repayments to be made over 15 years.

• 
  Initial indications show that costs and irrigation time have decreased after the improvement of the mesqa and the establishment of WUAs.
  
• 
  Improved water flows have increased crop yields, particularly at the tail end of improved branch canals.
  
• 
  Increased women participation has been observed in some WUAs and BCWUAs.
  
• 
  Conflicts between farmers on the same mesqa have decreased after improvement works were completed.
  
• 
  The exposure to contaminated irrigation water supply has been reduced at the tail end of the system through the provision of mesqa pump stations.
  
• 
  Land saving because of buried feeder pipelines from the offtakes to mesqa pumping stations and buried feeder lines and hydrants when developing the marwas.
  
• 
  The increase in land value because of improved farm infrastructure and improved environmental conditions was not taken into account in the economic analysis model used.
  

25. The Electricity Distribution Companies (EDCs) are responsible for the development and O&M of electricity distribution and as such they are best placed to undertake the additional work rather than awarding yet more contracts to private and state enterprises.

26. The use of a more flexible, yet firm approach to farmer participation could reduce problems during later stages, though this may result in more fragmented construction sites. The farmers themselves have to accept that the opportunity to participate brings with it responsibilities to ensure that all the farmers with a stake in a mesqa are fully involved in the development process and that they all accept the mesqa layout and other conditionalities.

27. A key requisite for continuous flow is the ability to measure and regulate flows into the branch canals and at present only a limited number of flow measurement devices have been installed. The regulation of flows into branch canals, particularly during periods of low flow or high demand, has to be equitable and transparent so that farmers are able to check the flows into neighboring canals. Until such time as all the branch canals have a flow meter with visual display, this is not possible.

28. There have been a number of projects to establish and build the capacity of BCWUAs and DWBs; however, neither of these bodies have any legal status under Law 213 of 1994, which amends the Irrigation and Drainage Law 12 of 1984. Given the necessary powers, BCWUAs would have an important role in any future plans to introduce Integrated Water Resources Management, whereby users have a greater stake in the management and O&M of the infrastructure.

29. The overall manpower and technical staff within IAS and CDIAS involved in this work was underestimated, more so if this same staff was involved in participatory design activities and problem solving during construction.

30. The introduction of an IWM system requires a long-term effort well beyond the completion date of the project and its construction activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation

31. Establishment of a centralized management information system would considerably streamline activities and information flows. The management information system should contain data on contracts signed, implementation progress, and individual target objects (for example, main and branch canals, mesqas, marwas, WUAs).

32. Remote Sensing Analysis (RSA) can provide additional dimensions. Main contributions of RSA to results monitoring improvements in irrigation and drainage have been the high reliability when identifying main cropping pattern, the overall calculation of water consumption, and crop growth/biomass. The outcomes of RSA and field monitoring ideally support each other. Aligning seasonal RSA with field monitoring activities is considered essential.

33. In view of small average field sizes in the Egyptian Delta, the use of high-resolution images (<10 m) should be considered to reduce interference of different crops grown in adjacent fields. As high-resolution images are more costly, certain study areas could be carefully selected, for example, in line with field surveys being done.

34. The implementing agencies are all project oriented and once the works are complete, there is no support for the farmers in terms of specialist training, workshop, and spare parts; building the capacity of the WUA, IWMDs, and DWBs; operation and management of irrigation infrastructure; and so on. In theory, the MALR is charged with agricultural extension, but this tends to focus on crop and livestock production, not on the particular skills needed to operate an irrigation system efficiently. It would be relevant to reserve a special budget line within the MWRI Training Center overall annual budget allocation for training and strengthening of farmers (WUAs), IWMDs, and DWBs.

35. The IIIMP is widely considered as a pioneer project, where the policy reforms of integrated planning and development of water management service through better integration of the MWRI departments and other Government agencies are rolled out on a large scale.

36. Implementation of the IIIMP to date has been difficult because of complex conditions in the field, including the political upheavals during 2011 and 2012, which extended to the rural areas being served and the limited capacity of some local contractors; the combination of these factors caused delays in implementation, which could not be foreseen at the start-up of implementation and as a consequence also had their effect on the disbursement rate.

37. However, with the approved extension of the IBRD loan from March 2014 to March 2016, the IIIMP managed to use the completed IBRD loan of US$120 million and fulfilled most of the revised results indicators, which were amended during the MTR.

38. Long-term sustainability of the IIIMP, however, requires additional support, especially in the field of capacity building of beneficiaries, to ensure long-term sustainability. The IIIMP has created an unprecedented momentum and expectations within the Delta region and its local population. However, not all expectations have been met as yet. Nevertheless, the contribution in the field of institutional strengthening and capacity building within the IIIMP implementation program, particularly with regard to the WUOs, has been of primordial importance and remains important.

39. The MWRI foresees a continuation in the field of mesqa development in other parts of the Nile Delta and Upper Egypt, building on the experiences gained under the IIIMP.

40. With the experiences gained, however, the PMU would propose to have the existing Agricultural Cooperatives actively involved in the establishment of the WUAs instead of the IIS as they have a more intimate knowledge of the farmers’ organizational structures at the field level, whereas the IIS has limited staff available for such activities, particularly so when the IIS has to be involved at the same time in the designs and construction supervision.

41. In such a case, the MWRI could arrange for a protocol between the MWRI and these agricultural cooperatives.

42. Moreover, in any future endeavor we would recommend having a separate loan in parallel with the MEE to provide for electricity networks in the future areas of mesqa improvement without the direct inference from the MWRI, similar to the scenario of Assuit Barrage (where the loan for civil works is assigned to the MWRI and a separate loan is assigned to the MEE). If the pilot(s) of supplying solar energy for the mesqa pumping stations show that this is a feasible option, this could become an alternative energy source.