Is there really any need for
an Environmental assessment at all? By the way, what is an Environmental Impact
Assessment (EIA for short)? It is an assessment conducted to ascertain the potential
effect of a project that is to be sited in a place.
The assessment is to appraise whether it will be harmful to the host community or otherwise and the international best practice to adopt.
The assessment is to appraise whether it will be harmful to the host community or otherwise and the international best practice to adopt.
Activities like mining,
quarrying, oil exploration, dredging, citing of power plants, nuclear plants
and factories, etc, all requires an EIA before taking off. In some cases, EIA
can also be carried out for an already existing project. It is sometimes called
Environmental Study, Environmental Impact Statement or Environmental Effect Study.
History has it that EIA was
first introduced in 1969 in the United States of America as an Act. Since then,
it has been adopted and fine tuned by increasing number of countries to suit
them.
It is a norm in most
countries of the world and it is usually required by law especially in
industrialized countries. There is no definite modus-operandi for this. But in
general, it is aimed to ensure that the air, water, land and wildlife (in fact
the ecosystem) will not be affected as a result of the project in that vicinity
and the environs.
Have you have of groundwater prospection using 2L rods?
An EIA involves a sequence of steps:
Have you have of groundwater prospection using 2L rods?
An EIA involves a sequence of steps:
- Screening to decide if a project requires assessment and to what level of detail;
- Preliminary assessment to identify key impacts, their magnitude, significance and importance;
- Scoping
to ensure that key issues are focused on;
- Implementation
of the Assessments.
Health Impact Assessments,
Strategic Environmental Assessments, Social Impact Assessments and Cumulative
Effects Assessments all sums up EIA. Economic and social consequences of the
project may be part of factors to be integrated into the EIA or one may decide
not to include them in the EIA.
However, the consent of the
host community MUST be sought during
the assessment and they MUST be
carried along in the course of this exercise and their suggestions and inputs
are factored in.
In cases where there will be
toxic emissions emanating from the project, it will be factored into the study
and also how the level of the emissions will be monitored periodically.
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