In April 2014, prolonged heavy rainfall associated with tropical cyclone Ita caused severe flooding in the Solomon Islands’ capital, Honiara, and the surrounding Guadalcanal province on Guadalcanal island. The storm damaged or destroyed roads, bridges, houses, water supply systems, and other major infrastructure. The government declared a state disaster for Honiara and all of Guadalcanal. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and various aid agencies provided emergency humanitarian support, and in May 2014, conducted a rapid assessment of the macro and sector-specific impacts of the flood. Total losses were assessed at about $107.7 million—equivalent to 9.2% of Solomon Islands’ gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014.
The sectors that bore the greatest damage were housing, at about 56% of the total damage, and transport at about 23%. The rapid assessment also determined that roads and bridges should be repaired immediately to minimize secondary economic impacts and restore connectivity to essential services such as hospitals, schools, and markets and commercial areas in Honiara. Based on the rapid assessment, the government developed a recovery plan and estimated the total reconstruction needs for the transport sector at about $34.66 million.
To help implement the recovery plan, ADB approved a loan of $6.61 million and a grant of the same amount for the Transport Sector Flood Recovery Project in August 2014. The project’s anticipated impact was socioeconomic activities restored to at least pre-flood levels. Its expected outcome was restored and more resilient connectivity, and intended output was transport infrastructure in priority locations reconstructed and climate- and disaster- proofed.
At project approval, three high-level bridges; five low-level crossings, particularly culverts and low-level bridges; and 1.6 kilometers (km) of bridge approach roads, 1 km bridge approach road protection work, and 300 meters river training work were identified as possible subprojects. Eight priority subprojects were later selected, based on their importance in reestablishing the connectivity of the main road, estimated cost, and complexity of construction. During implementation, the executing agency successfully negotiated for the inclusion of seven additional subprojects. However, because of unresolved land issues, two subprojects were dropped, putting the final count of subprojects at 13.
At completion, the project substantially met its output targets. All works have gender-responsive features. All bridges have railings, 50% have connecting stairs to the river, and high-level ones have footpaths. However, the project completion review (PCR) mission observed that although all the project roads themselves were in good condition, sections of the east–west road not covered by the project had deteriorated and required immediate maintenance and climate-proofing. Furthermore, because they were not included in the civil works contracts, sealing and carpeting of the approach roads to the high-level bridges were not undertaken. With all the subproject roads located on the floodplains, measures should also be put in place to manage floating debris, including large logs, during the rainy-season floods and prevent future damage to the road assets.
Substantial output deliveries enabled the project to achieve its expected outcome, in some cases exceeding targets. Average travel time to markets, schools, and health care facilities declined by about 5% compared with pre-flood levels. However, due to the deteriorating condition of sections of the road network, average transport cost increased by 2%, over the past four years leading to the PCR. Nevertheless, the communities worst affected by cyclone Ita reported an average 15% decrease in public transport fares compared with the post-flood transport fares in 2015. Following the reconnection of the main east–west road corridor through subprojects executed by the government at post-completion, the people of Honaria have gained access to better-quality public transport.
Reconstruction of the roads supported the restoration of economic activities to pre-flood levels. Solomon Islands’ GDP grew by 3.2% in 2017 and 3% in 2018, compared to the pre-flood levels of 3% per annum, The project had the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) as executing agency. The MID created a central project implementation unit to take charge of the project on day-to-day basis.
