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What is EIA?

An Environmental Impact Assessment is a process of identifying, predicting, evaluating and mitigating the biophysical, socio-economic and other relevant effects of development proposals on the environment prior to major decisions being taken and commitments made.

Environmental Impact Assessment is a tool used in environmental management practice to reduce anthropogenic impacts on the environment.

It helps deal with all possible environmental effects of an activity so that the future generations do not have to deal with problems that they did not cause.

 

Stakeholders

 

  • Local people affected by the proposal;

  • The proponents and all beneficiaries of the project

  • Government agencies, e.g ZEMA

  • NGOs

  • Interest groups such as donors, the private sector, and academics

 

 

 Why Conduct an EIA?

 

EIA is an important technology that advances sustainable development because it helps the company, organization and Country at large to prepare for the ‘unexpected’.

Helps us to be aware of all possible consequences of the project, and figure out a way to avoid them

 

The Key Objectives of an EIA

 

  • To ensure that environmental considerations are explicitly addressed and incorporated into the development decision making process;

  • To anticipate and avoid, minimize or offset the adverse significant biophysical, social and other relevant effects of development proposals;

  • To protect the productivity and capacity of natural systems and the ecological processes which maintain their functions; and

  • To promote development that is sustainable and optimizes resource use and management opportunities.

Environmental
Impact Assessment 

 

 

 What are the benefits of an EIA?

 

An EIA beneficial to all its stakeholders in many ways;

 

  • Results in appropriate levels of environmental protection and community wellbeing

  • Results in information outputs that assist with problem solving

  • The process is conducted by experts who use appropriate techniques

  • The process provides appropriate opportunities to inform and involve the interested and affected public, and addresses their concerns.

  • An EIA is transparent; all stakeholders have access to information pertaining to the proposed project.

  • The process is done in full consideration of all relevant information on the affected environment,

  • The process considers all proposed alternatives and their impacts,

  • The process considers all the measures necessary to monitor and investigate all effects

  • The process focuses solely on significant environmental effects and key issues; i.e. the matters that need to be taken into account in decision making.
 
 

 How is an EIA Done?

 

The major components of EIA are Screening, Scoping, Environmental Impact Statement, Decision making, and Follow up.

Firstly, the proposed project is analysed to determine whether an EIA is necessary or not. This is the Screening stage.

Once it is established that an EIA is necessary, scoping follows, where the proposed project is critically studied to identify the issues and impacts as well as to predict, analyse and identify mitigation measures. At this stage, a public scoping meeting is held to inform the public of the proposal.

Also, all possible alternatives examined.

Preparation of Environmental Impact Statement; All findings are then clearly compiled into a document known as an Environmental Impact Statement. Copies of this document are distributed to all relevant authorities such as Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA), for review and decision making.

Once a decision is reached and the project allowed take off, follow up monitoring is done to monitor the impacts of development and the effectiveness of mitigation measures.

 

Consequences of not doing EIA

Failure to carry out environmental Impact assessment can be costly to the organization, the community, and to the nation at large, in the case of occurrence of a disaster due to the running of the particular project.

Environmental Impact Assessment is a very important process and therefore MUST be done

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