Public hearings on environmental and social issues were held in WUA Sulaiman-Suu of Ala-Buka rayon of Jalal-Abad oblast

From March 22 to March 24, 2018, the specialists of the Project Implementation Unit for “Agricultural Productivity and Nutrition Improvement Project” on environmental and social issues, together with the engineer-designer of the southern region, held public hearings on environmental and social issues.

The main objective of public hearings was to study public opinion, inform the public and stakeholders on possible environmental and social impacts in rehabilitation and modernization of irrigation and drainage infrastructure.

A welcoming speech was made by the head of the Aiyl Aymak T. Baltagulov – B. Zh. Sadykov. He presented the PIU staff, briefly told about the planned activities for rehabilitation and modernization of on-farm irrigation and drainage networks of this aiyl aimak.

The engineer-designer of the southern region – K. Zheenaliyev has spoken about the project, in which he talked about the alleged works on the rehabilitation of on-farm networks and structures.
Neronova, PIU environmental consultant, has spoken about the requirements of the environmental legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic and the World Bank’s policy on environmental protection in the implementation of the project.

The PIU social specialist, S. Orozalieva, has told the participants in the public hearings about the activities and components of the project, in particular about the World Bank policy 4.12 “Forced resettlement” and on the mechanism for redressing appeals and grievances.

A total of 62 people took part in public hearings, 24 of them were women, water users and their families, representatives of peasant farms, farmers and WUA members. Participants of the hearing have actively asked questions of interest to them, exchanged opinions and expressed their desire to actively participate in the activities held by the project and unanimously supported the implementation of this project. The tasks assigned to the PIU staff were fulfilled. This activity will undoubtedly contribute to increasing the awareness of the public and stakeholders on project’s activities, as well as about ongoing activities on environmental and social issues.