Ex-post Evaluation

1-1. Background of the Project

Hard coal deposits in Turkey are largely located only in Zonguldak province. The production of hard coal in Zonguldak is one of the main income resources for the local people. Turkish Hardcoal Enterprise (TTK) is the main state-run enterprise in the region that extracts, processes and sells the hard coal. There are several hard coal mines that belong to TTK in Zonguldak, two of which are Armutcuk mine and Kozlu mine. Two big gas/coal dust explosions occurred in Zonguldak: one was Armutcuk mine disaster with 103 causalities in 1983 and the other was Kozlu mine disaster with 263 causalities in 1992. This latest disaster reminded the Government of the Republic of Turkey the importance of mine safety and measures to be taken for the prevention from mine accidents. Upon request from the Government of Turkey, the Government of Japan, through JICA, provided assistance within the scope of the Project on the Improvement of Mine Technologies. The project duration was 5 years, between 1995-2000. As a follow-up to the project, an expert was dispatched between 2002-2004. The Japanese expert assisted in various aspects of the safety system such as analysis of accidents, development of training methodologies, combating underground fires, use of reflective materials, improvement of underground traffic conditions, making the gas monitoring systems IBM compatible, upgrading of the ventilation system, introduction of the gas chromatographs into the system, and translation of training videos into Turkish and dissemination of the CD copies to all other quarries.

1-2. Project Overview

The project focused on the Kozlu colliery as the pilot project area, and brought in the appropriate technologies for central monitoring, going in-and-out checking, ventilation control, underground communication, spontaneous combustion prevention, gas and/or coal dust explosion prevention, mine fire prevention, degasification, breathing apparatuses, gas detectors, flame-proof machinery and appropriate safety and rescue education program and materials. Counterpart engineers were trained in Japan, and were responsible for disseminating their knowledge and experience through courses and seminars back in Turkey.

(1) Overall Goal

To reduce coal mine disasters in the Republic of Turkey.

(2) Project Purpose

To improve the technologies for prevention of coal mine disasters of TTK.

(3) Outputs

a) The safety control technology is improved.
b) Technology of disaster prevention is improved.
c) The maintenance management technology for the safety equipment is established.
d) Education and training technology is improved.

(4) Inputs (as of the Project’s termination)

Japanese side:

Turkish side:

3-1. Summary of Evaluation Results

(1) Impact

The technology for mine safety in Kozlu was improved along with the new equipment installed and the trained safety staff. However, there are a number of other factors that contribute to the decrease in number of accidents as well as occurrence of occupational diseases since the completion of the project. Therefore, despite the available statistics, only a qualitative interpretation pertaining to the project can be made, based on the observations and focus group meetings. Although effective safety systems were established in Kozlu before the project, the project accomplished a more systematic management of safety in the mine. The difference in the views of focus groups show that they are affected from the project at different levels. Overall, awareness of engineers and mine workers increased significantly as regards the safety measures. No negative impact related to the Project was reported or observed during the whole study period.

(2) Sustainability

Despite that project sustainability was secured through regular and extensive training, it is limited by the constraints in repair and maintenance of installed equipment. Problems have already been confronted in repair due to unavailable equipment parts.

Another bottleneck is the low level of dissemination of technology in other collieries of TTK. Although Kozlu is well-equipped in terms of mine safety, the same can not be said for other collieries, mainly due to financial factors. However, the staff control system for going in-and-out checking is installed in other collieries as well.

The trained staff is very motivated for further developing the system and disseminating their knowledge. As a means of sustaining the efforts of the Japanese expert, TTK has been working on establishing an accident database. Various issues such as the number of occupational diseases, participation of workers in the trainings, the level of dust emissions, etc. are planned to be included in this database.

3-2. Factors that have promoted the project

Training of counterpart engineers in Japan has created a high level of commitment in the Safety Department of TTK for further improving the project technologies and disseminating the project knowledge and experience.

The Japanese expert dispatched to Turkey in 2002 after 2 years of project completion has been very effective in promoting the project sustainability. Currently, TTK managers are motivated and focused on creating new financial resources for upgrading the safety technologies in the Kozlu colliery and extending the systems to other mines as well. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources promotes establishment of safety technologies in other mines through TTK.

The Safety Department of TTK made a contract with a private company for regular maintenance of the existing equipment and repairs upon need.

3-3. Factors that have inhibited project

Financial constraints limit extending the project outcomes and thus inhibit project sustainability. It needs more lobbying on the side of TTK to raise finances for new investments.

3-4. Conclusions

Before the project, TTK was strong in technical capacity regarding the safety issue with plans for a number of investments, and the project triggered TTK in implementing its plans for improving the existing systems.

Impacts of the project can be conceived at the level of management staff and safety staff, but not at the level of engineers at the production line and mine workers. It is understood that the production engineers were not included in the project planning process and flow of information to the engineers was insufficient. This has caused a lack of sense of ownership toward the project on the side of the production engineers. This contradicts with the managers’ new holistic vision of safety and production as a whole. TTK managers could have been encouraged to attain a more participatory manner, as production engineers and workers are the beneficiaries and users of the safety systems.

TTK’s reputation for having the best available mine safety technology in the country does not owe only to the project. Therefore, a clear answer can not be given for the part of the project in reduction of accidents and decrease in occupational diseases since implementation of the project. Certainly, the safety systems established with the project have also contributed to efficiency in production, and it is another fact that the production has been going through a decrease in quantity since the commencement of the project.

Training courses and seminars have been considered by TTK as effective means of disseminating the project outcomes. Wider participation could have been attained to achieve an extensive dissemination. The managers explain this with the limited institutional capacity of TTK. It is also likely that TTK did not give much priority for including the production staff in the trainings on safety issues.

Sustainability of the project is limited by the institutional structure and capacity of TTK, with limited financial resources and dependence on the government in its investments. The catalytic effect of the project can no longer be continued after the project is over, while there is need for new investments for upgrading and improving the mine safety system.

Supply of spare parts and equipment for maintenance and repair is the main bottleneck as regards the sustainability of the project. All stakeholders are now aware that this should have been considered at the project planning stage. Although the Safety Department of TTK has made contract with a private company for regular maintenance, supply of equipment from Japan is necessary, which restricts on-time measures.

3-5. Recommendation

Training materials produced in the project are disseminated in other collieries of TTK, however not used as extensively as in Kozlu. Efforts should be concerted in spreading the knowledge through such materials in other collieries as well.  A regular training program for all the engineers (other than Counterparts) about the new safety regulations and safety technologies should be organized. The counterparts should take more incentives to disseminate their knowledge to a wider range of collieries and engineers. The administrative structure of TTK allows the enterprises to work independently. Therefore, the Counterparts should also promote the enterprises to set up their own safety system and should give advice to the enterprises.

Safety systems other than staff control system (going in-and-out checking) have not been extended to other enterprises and their collieries. The procurement and use of these technologies should be promoted.

Project knowledge and know-how is observed to localize at the Safety Department of TTK. Sharing of this know-how among as many engineers as possible should be secured for sustainability of project outcomes.

Sustainability of a project can only be achieved by the sense of ownership of the staff. In this case, ownership with respect to the JICA-TTK project is only in a group of staff, mainly in the group of counterparts and managers. The project could be designed, implemented and followed up by sharing the experience, the bottlenecks and the vision with the pertinent staff.

TTK should build up a team for the repair and maintenance issues, which is crucial for the sustainability of the installed safety systems. As an alternative to this option, local distributor/dealer of the Japanese equipments should be promoted to serve TTK immediately whenever necessary and/or in a compensable way.

Focus Group of counterpart engineers recommend that regular visits of a Japanese expert in 2-year periods would be very effective in control and maintenance of the established safety systems.

The focus group of engineers agrees that the project technologies are outdated today. New projects are needed to improve the established technologies. Training of a specific “maintenance staff” could be a particular project.

3-6. Lessons learnt

The Japanese technology brought some problems with it. Although it was the most developed one in the mining sector, TTK is facing and will face serious problems in repair and maintenance issues. This arises from TTK’s institutional limitations (in terms of human resources and finance) and from the equipment itself. This also may lead the institution to resist disseminating similar technology because they are facing difficulties in use of the systems.

It should be emphasized that the institutional set-up and technical capacity of TTK is very strong. The officials are very proud of their duties and aware of their essential function in the safety of the mine. The technical support should have supplemented with some basic information sharing activities. As it was stated that the seminars/trainings of the Japanese experts was requested with broad participation, it could only be realized with limited participants. This may lead the remaining staff to feel excluded from the project/activities.

A training plan should have been made covering the whole enterprises/collieries of TTK. The use of the prepared training materials is at the disposal of the officials of the collieries.