An approximately 1.2 million-dollar Project¹ was financed from the World Bank loan to the Government of Kazakhstan. The environmental component included the following elements:

1. Framework for Inter-Agency Coordination

• Reviewing and assessing the present environmental staff, organizational structure, and financial and budgetary requirements and developing recommendations for improvement;

• Assessing the costs associated with the institutional changes, staff requirements, and operational policies to be adopted under the recommendations provided;

• Identifying training needs and formulate a training plan including short-term overseas training and on-the-job training;

• Reviewing major environment-related legislation, including laws, regulations, and decrees pertaining to environmental protection and resource use in Kazakhstan to identify gaps or deficiencies that may arise in harmonizing the regulatory framework for environmental protection;

• Providing training workshops and seminars to broaden awareness among public and private sector agencies about the role of environmental legislation in their developmental activities and the importance of the regulatory framework for effective environmental compliance and enforcement.

2. Enhancement of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Procedures and Practice

1. Designing the most appropriate institutional arrangements to implement the EIA program, with particular attention to organizational efficiency;

2. Developing an effective approach to strengthen the EIA capabilities of related agencies (including implementing agencies, academic institutions, and private consulting firms);

3. Developing reference materials and provide training on:

• how to screen environmental projects, including the use of the initial environmental evaluation process to determine the need for detailed EIA;

• how to conduct an EIA study, including preparing the terms of reference, identifying the required expertise, estimating the inputs and the international expertise required to ensure acceptable results, and planning its implementation;

• how to prepare critiques of draft EIA reports to ensure that the needed environmental management measures are included in the EIA and in the project feasibility study;

• how to plan the environmental management measures that will be observed and compiled with;

• how to measure environmental cost and benefits including economic analysis of environmental impacts for different types of projects.

3. Enhancement of Existing Environmental Monitoring Programs and Systems

• Formulating cost-effective, and feasible environmental monitoring programs, including justification based on cost-benefit analysis, and delineating the monitoring to be done by the project proponents and by the Government;

• Outlining the procedures for reporting and distributing the monitoring results so that the concerned agencies will be informed and the necessary corrective measures will be undertaken by the appropriate authorities;

• reviewing the existing environmental conditions and analyzing the future trends;

• reviewing and assessing the existing laboratories that can be used to measure pollutants, and identifying the main environmental parameters measures; and distinguishing between capacity in use and potential capacity identifying the requirements for strengthening existing laboratories and monitoring stations;

• identifying future needs for environmental monitoring (including items to be monitored, places, periods, monitoring agencies, and communication channels for data analysis and dissemination);

• developing an actual environmental monitoring system for one land track subject of the Project.