An Educational presentation on Enviromental Assessment
A short introduction over what is EIA, its objectives, its process advantages and challeges Kenya and the world.
Enviromental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process which ensures that allenviromental mattersare taken into account in the early stages of the project that is at planning process.
All aspects of the project are taken into consideration e.g technical,economical and traditional aspects , impact on local people and biodiversity
3. INTRODUCTION;
• Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a
process which can be used to improve decision-
making and ensure that development options under
consideration are environmentally, socially and
economically sound and sustainable (Mwalyosi, R.,
et al 1999)
• EIA can be defined as the study to predict the
effect of the proposed activity or project on the
environment(Prof Sandeep Hedge 2015)
4. Evolution
EIA evolved from land use planning, cost benefit analysis(CBA),
multiple objective analysis, modelling and simulation and was
established by the 1969 USA National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA)
The act required all the projects to be accompanied by a clear EIS
EIA process has be evolving since 1970s and to date over half of the
country in the world have EIA.
Initially the emphasis was in quantify physical factors for which there
were standard, but eventually EIA begun to include biological and
ecological factors although they were difficult to quantify
More recently social economic factors have been incorporative into
EIA process to find a compromise between
Socio-economic and environmental factors
5. Why EIA?
EIA is intended to prevent or minimize potentially adverse
environmental impacts and enhance the overall quality of a project. The
main benefits and advantages of EIA are:
Lower project costs in the long-term
Increase project acceptance
Improve project design
Inform decision making
Environmentally sensitive decisions
Increase accountability and transparency
Reduce environmental damage
Improve integration of projects into their environmental and social
settings
6. Objective of EIA
To foresee the potential environmental
problems that would arise out of a proposed
development and address them in the
planning and design stage of the Project.
The EIA process allows for the communication
of potential environmental problems to:
•the project proponent
•the regulatory agencies
•all stakeholders and interest groups
7. EIA in Africa and Tanzania
•Many countries in Africa adopted
EIA rather late – in the 1980s
•African countries with formal EIA
procedures include: Ghana, Zimbabwe,
Uganda, Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa
, Egypt, Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia.
8. Who is involved in EIA??????
Project proponents
Service providers
Reviewers
Decision makers
The public
9. Methodology
Steps involved in EIA as described by Mwalosi R et al.,
1999
Registration
Screening
Scoping
Compiling Terms of Reference (ToR)
Organizing the EIA Study
Undertaking the EIA study
Reviewing the EIA Report
Environmental management & monitoring
Environmental auditing
10. 1.Registration
Is a simple administrative procedure which requires project
proponents to officially register their intention to undertake
development activity.
In Tanzania registration is done by Environmental Regulatory
Body (ERB) and accomplished by National environment
management council (NEMC)
2.Screening
is the process to determine what level of environmental
assessment is necessary or appropriate for a specific project
or proposal.
After the screening of a project the decision will fall into
-Full EIA required
-Preliminary assessment required
-EIA not required
-Project proposal rejected
11. 3.Scoping
Is used to focus the EIA on the key issues for
decision making.
We go to this stage if the screening process
subjected the project into full EIA process
Provides the first, and most important,
opportunity to identify and involve stakeholders
Guidelines and structure of scoping report are
provided in the EIA and audit regulations of
2005
12. Roles of scoping;
Identifies assessment methods.
Identifies project alternatives.
Determines the boundaries (spatial,
temporal and institutional).
Helps define the ToR for the EIA
study.
13. 4.Compiling the terms of references
ToR- are special terms set by a registered
EIA consultant firm and the project proponent
for review. ToR must be approved by NEMC
Why ToR?
Provide formal guidance for practitioners on
issues that must be addressed in the EIA process
Clarify to the proponent “what is expected of
them”
Provide the reviewing agency with a tool for
compliance.
14. 5. Organizing the EIA study
Involves acquisation of relevant environmental
standards and guidelines, knowledge of
relevant policies, laws and institutional
arrangements.
Timing: EIA should commence before project
design details have been finalised and well
before project implementation commences
15. 6.Undertaking the full EIA study
-In this stage EIA predicts which impacts will
occur as a result of the project and their likely
significance.
They also identify measures to mitigate or avoid
these impacts, or optimise the benefits of the
project.
-The key components of a full EIA study are impact
identification, examination of alternatives,
evaluation and assessment of impacts, development
of mitigation options and information dissemination
and documentation
16. 7.Environmental Impact statement;
-Is the way to communicate the findings of the EIA
studies. This is the unique document that is different
from regular academic or consultancy work.
-It is made to influence and guide decision making.
Contrary to other reports it is more than just generating
knowledge.
-The report has to be non-technical, readily accessible to
the public and be made available in local languages
18. 8.EIA review
It provides an impartial mechanism for assessing
the quality of the EIA and its adequacy for
decision making.
The reviewer would be interested to see whether
some important questions have been addressed in
the report.
NEMC has a role of secretariat in this.
All the affected stakeholders should be provided
with the report copies by NEMC
19. Key issues to consider during EIA review
Sufficiency of information provided
Sufficient attention to EIA process
Reliability of analysis or interpretation
Utility for decision making
20. 9.ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT & MONITORING;
Monitoring assess the effect of the project on natural
and cultural environment. Environmental monitoring
provides feedback about the actual environmental
impacts of a project
Helps judge the success of mitigation measures in
protecting the environment
21. 10.EIA FINAL DECISION MAKING & AUDITING
Decision on the project is made by the planning
authority. Decision can be made into either of the
following categories.
Proposal approved
Proposal approved with conditions
Proposal on hold pending further study
Proposal returned for revision and resubmission
Proposal rejected
No decision taken until EIA report considered
22. Auditing
NEMC will undertake periodic and independent
re-assessment of any project, whereby the
negative and positive impacts of the undertaking
are identified at each stage of the project
operations. This allows for gaining lessons and
experience from the practices
23.
24. CASE STUDY
Environmental evaluation for ASWAN dam
(HAD)
Highest dam in the world with the biggest man
made reservoirs built in 1956 by the
EGYPTIAN government.
Aswan was a famous example of poorly
conceived civil engineering projects.
Claire sterling critiques in “the great
environmental catastrophe of mankind” &
“more damn than dam”
EIA was not conducted before the dam
construction.
25. Letter on sterling's prognostication were
coming true after construction as well as
other effects.
Several environmental impact studies have
been conducted to areas surrounding the
Aswan dam. Though EIA was conducted in a
scattered matter i.e.. There were no
integration of all impacts to produce
auditing for the project.
26. The EIA study revealed the following impacts:
Schistomiasis had became an endemic disease in Egypt.
Storage capacity of lake Nasser and Nubia would be
compromised due to rapid sediment fill.
There was a threat of reservoir induced seismicity
(Aswan was situated on a natural fault zone)
High ground water level was suspected to deteriorate
the ancient Egyptian monuments.
Water loss due to high evaporation leading to down
stream salinization in the dam. (10-16 bill cubic
meter/year)
Coastal erosion.
27. The budget for the EIA should be 1% of the entire project
budget but this is not the rule of thumb, it can change
depending on certain circumstances.
When EIA is skipped at early stage of the project, the
cost of conducting EIA later after the project
establishment would be greater than the required cost.
conclusion