Infrastructure and Equipment Design and Safety
Potentially negative community health impacts stem from dust and noise due to the movement of heavy equipment, materials and project personnel during construction. During operations, blasting and heavy trucks with raw and processed materials will affect the population of rural villages and settlements located within a few kilometers of the cement plant and along nearby roads, including National Highway 1, which will be an important conduit for importing raw materials and exporting finished product for the project. Community safety risks will also result from a marked increase in vehicular traffic during both the construction and operational phases and the concomitant potential for accidents involving both humans and domestic animals. To avoid risks to public health and safety and to minimize disruptions to local residents during the construction and operation phases, the Sponsor has commissioned specialized noise, dust, and traffic studies, and it intends to put into place specific programs and preventive/mitigation actions, including a Construction Management Plan and a Construction Control Plan.

With regard to traffic safety, the Sponsor has undertaken to design and implement a Traffic Safety Plan, in addition to upgrading and maintaining an 8-km stretch of unpaved Provincial Road No. 111 from National Highway No. 1 to the plant. The Traffic Safety Plan envisions enhanced road signals, vehicle speed control initiatives and safety standards by controlling against overloading, safety and defensive driver training, and sanctions for traffic violators. This Plan will also take into account traffic generation as a result of the other new cement plant such that cumulative issues area addressed.  Monitoring of the implementation of these actions will occur as a routine component of the client?s ESMS. 

With regard to potential negative social impacts of the increased presence of truckers waiting at/near the plant to offload or load, the Sponsor will include in its design of the plant an internal waiting area sufficiently large to accommodate 200-300 trucks per day. Included as ESAP action item, this waiting area will be secure and properly provisioned with sanitation, food services, and other small shops so as to minimize if not eliminate the need for waiting truckers to enter nearby villages for such services.  

The presence of a new cement operation is also likely to increase population in the broader area of PPC's plant, particularly in towns like Kimpese and possibly Songololo. In the short run, no influx of workers who might stay in the project area is envisioned as a result of the construction phase, since PPC is hiring an EPC contractor staffed with temporary foreigner workers. PPC also plans to construct a residential village for its permanent operations staff, estimated to number 275, who will be almost exclusively Congolese. PPC has undertaken to hire such staff as locally as possible, given the availability of qualified candidates. This will help to minimize influx associated with its permanent workforce. The major likely source of population influx is, therefore, the growth of third-party companies, particularly trucking and logistics services that might base themselves and their personnel in Kimpese and/or Songololo. Through its Community Health and Safety Plan and its Community Development Plan, PPC will therefore seek to strength the capacities of relevant local authorities to plan for and manage the demands of increased population on public services and infrastructure.

Hazardous Materials Management and Safety
The operation of the cement production plant will not generate hazardous wastes different from those already experienced in relation to vehicle operations (used oils, oil filters, etc.), and the plant will not use hazardous chemicals in its processes.  The quarry operation will require the use of explosives.  Explosive usage is strictly regulated by the authorities, and PPC will follow all rules in this respect.  The storage for explosives will be established in a remote location to avoid any interference with operations and any risk of accidental impact from e.g. passing vehicles. No other hazardous materials are anticipated in the operation of the plant.

Ecosystem Services
Ecosystem services will mainly be impacted by the restriction of access to the land to be used by the project.  The impact will however be minimal as the project land is currently degraded and converted from its natural form due to past removal of all sizeable wood (which has been harvested and used for charcoal production) and yearly burning of all grass.  The surrounding areas are in the same conditions and do not support any substantial grazing of domestic animals. There is also no significant wildlife present in the area.

Community Exposure to Disease
The PPC project site is located within the Kimpese health zone, which is serviced by 30 health posts and five health centers. The nearest health center for the four villages close to the project site is located in one of them, Malanga, but it is considered to be poorly equipped and has a staff of only two nurses. Kimpese, a town about 20 km away, has the Evangelical Medical Institute hospital for treating patients with more serious conditions. However, healthcare infrastructure in the DRC is generally considered inadequate, due to lack of sufficient medical personnel, equipment, medicines, logistical capacity, etc.  Diseases prevalent in the region are malaria, gastrointestinal and respiratory illnesses, and sexually transmitted infections including HIV.  Based on the framework ESIA, the expectation is that the community health impacts associated with migrant worker influx and the additional demands on existing health services will be significant and primarily negative.  For its own workforce and as part of its commitment to Zamba village under agreements negotiated by PPC?s Congolese partner, PPC has undertaken to construct a medical clinic for the project and provide access to community members, although the details regarding the type of facility, its management, and how community access will function have yet to be defined.  The framework ESIA envisions that PPC will establish and implement a Community Health and Safety Plan.

The ESAP requires PPC to create an internal action plan by 31 December 2014, based on the Community Health and Safety Plan to be disclosed by 31 October 2014, and develop appropriate partnerships with health authorities, local health providers including NGOs, and other relevant stakeholders to strengthen local health infrastructure and services and to begin implementing such a plan by 31 January 2015. This Community Health and Safety Plan should take into account the broader impacts that population increase will place on the health zone's infrastructure and resources and include measures for bolstering health services not only in the villages neighboring PPC's operations, but also the towns of Kimpese and, if appropriate, Songololo, where companies such as third-party trucking services are likely to establish themselves. PPC will provide information on the implementation of these Plans in its Annual Monitoring Reports to IFC.

Security Personnel
DRC law prohibits the arming of private security personnel. PPC reports that it typically hires its own security guards, who are unarmed, for access control, patrolling perimeters, and surveillance within its facilities, and that the company generally minimizes the use of third-party security personnel. In the DRC, PPC has not yet determined its approach to establishing a guard force, including whether it will hire such personnel directly or outsource such services, and it has not yet defined how it will handle surveillance and security outside the perimeter of its facilities. The company has also yet to establish a policy in the DRC with regard to identification, analysis, and documentation of risks associated with third-party security providers (whether public or private), use of force, procedures for vetting security personnel (whether in-house or third-party) for any alleged human rights violations, or establishing norms for hiring, training, equipping, and supervising such personnel, including procedures for the investigation of any allegations of illegal or abusive acts and measures to prevent such abuses from recurring.

An ESAP action item ? due by 31 August 2014  ? is for PPC to carry out a security risk assessment and develop appropriate policies and procedures for managing the project?s use of and relationship with security personnel, whether public or private (including either an in-house or third-party guard force), in light of IFC Performance Standard 4.