- EETC commissioned Environics to conduct an Environmental and Social Audit to assess the compliance of the Samallout/Suez Gulf/Gabal El-Zeit 500 KV Overhead Transmission Line (OHTL) to the provisions and mitigation measures it committed in the ESIA and its Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP), as well as the relevant Operational Policies (OPs) of the World Bank.
- The scope of the audit encompassed:
- Documents review including primary and secondary data reviews covering before, during and after the site visits.
- Extensive meetings and interviews with various project personnel and key informants (KI), in addition to consultation with stakeholders and Project Affected Persons (PAPs).
- Field visits to Menia and the OTL route from Menia to Ras Ghareb. The route segment was classified into two broad sections, namely the desert segment and the agricultural segment. The segments were divided into extents. All extents were visited, and a number of interviews with PAPs took place to ensure the representation of different types of lands, tenure, crops, and impacts on PAPs as a result of land acquisition.
- An Audit report was prepared including a description of the project, scope, activities, approach and methodology of the review, relevant Environmental and Social Regulatory requirements and standards, as well as the limitations. It also presented results of the Environmental & Social Monitoring review and provided remarks & recommendations.
- Moreover, Environics provided recommended actions for EETC to develop an Environmental and Social Management System Plans (ESMS) comprising different environmental and social management plans (ESMPs) for its other projects taking into consideration the audit results of the Samallut/Gulf of Suez project.
