Mekong Urban Climate Resilience Development Project

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22. The proposed project focuses on investments to unlock the development potential of the urban cores of Ca Mau, Rach Gia and TraVinh cities and promote a more compact development pattern. The three cities have been identified as key hot spots in the MekongDelta region for climate change and water related disasters, including coastal erosion, landslides, flooding, subsidence and salineintrusion. Poor connectivity is also a significant challenge, which forms a barrier to spatial integration and development of thecities. Improving the management of flooding and other water related risks as well as intra-urban connectivity are expected topromote the economic and demographic densification of these cities and enable them to function as economically and physicallyintegrated metropolitan areas. 23. A comprehensive set of structural and non-structural measures will be introduced includinggreen climate resilient infrastructure and flood control solutions that mitigate flooding, while simultaneously addressingenvironmental pollution, land subsidence and salinity through ground water recharge and other water quality improvement measures.The operation will also focus on investments in strategic roads and bridges to improve intra-urban connectivity, especially accessto centers of employment, and to guide urban growth to areas with lower risk. Increased demand for land along transport corridorswill also create an opportunity for the local governments in the cities to capture some of the associated land value increase.Citizens and community organizations will be engaged throughout the project preparation and implementation process in order toraise their awareness about flood risks and enhance their ownership of the project. Urban management in the three cities will beimproved in order to strengthen the efficient operation and maintenance of infrastructure and enable the cities to become moreinterconnected, livable and resilient to disasters.24. The project will enhance and leverage prior and ongoing World Bankfinanced projects. The operation will build on the recently completed World Bank financed Mekong Delta Region Urban UpgradingProject (MDR-UUP) (2012 to 2017), which invested in tertiary infrastructure upgrading in Low Income Areas (LIAs), including in thethree cities under this proposed operation. The MDR-UUP also financed key transport links to connect LIAs to primary road networkand dredging of heavily polluted canals adjacent to LIAs. Design Guidelines on Green Infrastructure and Universal Access developedunder the ongoing Scaling Up Urban Upgrading Project (2017-2023) will be systematically applied in this project. Complementaritywith other ongoing World Bank financed projects will be leveraged, including: The Vietnam Improved Land Governance and DatabaseProject (VILG) (2016 to 2021) which is improving the efficiency and transparency of land administration services in 33 provincesincluding Kien Giang and Tra Vinh, through the development and implementation of the national Multipurpose Land Information System(MPLIS); the Mekong Delta Integrated Climate Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods Project (2016 to 2022) which focuses on controlof salinity intrusion and aquaculture in rural areas in 9 provinces in the Mekong Delta, including the provinces targeted by theproposed project. 25. The project will build on the assistance being provided by other donors to the three cities. GIZ issupporting Ca Mau and Rach Gia through phase 2 of the Mekong Urban Flood Resilience and Drainage Programme (closing in December2019). The GIZ programme seeks to address flood risk reduction, planning and resilience, including improving hydraulic modeling,updating Digital Elevation Models, providing training on flood early warning systems and developing drainage master plans (not yetapproved by the provinces). In addition, GIZ have piloted innovative approaches to sustainable urban drainage systems inroundabouts (Ca Mau) and sidewalks (Rach Gia). These pilots are highly relevant to the proposed project and the project design willbuild on these studies. GIZ has also supported a land subsidence study that is being used to inform the development of the projectand has provided support to improve planning and monitoring capacity in Ca Mau and Rach Gia. In addition to GIZ, there are someadditional supports from other donors:• In Tra Vinh, KfW has funded the construction of a WWTP and a primary sewage network to becommissioned shortly. The proposed project will expand on the achievements of the KfW project through construction of the secondaryand tertiary sewage network in Tra Vinh’s urban core.• In Ca Mau, funding from the Italian ODA has been secured for anenvironmental sanitation project covering construction and rehabilitation of the wastewater network and construction of a wastewater treatment plant with capacity of 8,000 m3/day, as well as provision of equipment and technical assistance to the ProjectManagement Unit. The project has already been approved but not yet implemented, mainly due to lack of counterpart funds.• Rach Giaprovince is discussing funding for the construction of two WWTPs for the city with a combined capacity of 25,000m3/day anddrainage/sewage network project covering three urban communes (not overlapping with the proposed Bank financed project) withDANIDA. The project is awaiting approval and funding. Rach Gia has also received support from the Republic of Korea for technicalassistance in green urban planning (completed in 2018), which is closely linked to the proposed project.• Despite thesecomplimentary project investments, there is a clear need for a transformative operation for the three cities, similar to theongoing Vietnam Scaling Up Urban Upgrading Project (SUUP) (2017 to 2023) .Project Components26. The project is organized aroundfour components:Component 1: Environmental improvement and flood risk management (WB Loan: US$ 67.5 million)27. The objectiveof this component is to improve environmental sanitation and enhance flood risk management in the urban cores of the participatingcities. The investments include: (i) upgrading and constructing drainage and sewer systems, dredging inner city canals andrehabilitating detention lakes; and (ii) developing information systems to support integrated flood risk management.28. Theinvestments proposed by the participating cities are in line with the approved cities’ master plans. They follow no-regretinvestment principles and prioritize green infrastructure approaches rather than traditional grey structures, in order to increasethe cities’ climate change resilience capacities for sustainable urban development. Design of this component will be based on anassessment of the flood risks, including flood hazard and the vulnerability of the affected community. Non-structural measures willfocus on putting in place effective mechanisms for institutional coordination, integrating flood risk analysis in urban planningand management, and improving operation and management (O&M). In addition, the design of infrastructure will factor in access toservices for women and men and universal design considerations. The protection of land from flooding under this component, isexpected to create an opportunity for the local government in these cities to capture some of the associated land value increaseaccrued to the private sector. The reduction in flood-related risk in the urban core of the cities, is expected to result in areduced housework burden for local women and girls, freeing up their time to participate in education and income generatingactivities.29. Sub-component 1.1: Environmental improvement and flood mitigation. Under this sub-component, measures will betaken to improve tidal and stormwater flooding in the three cities. The approaches taken to flood mitigation will also assist ingroundwater recharge, in order to combat subsidence and saline intrusion. Investments will finance structural measures that improvethe pathwa