Performance of environmental impact assessment (EIA) regime in Tanzania
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Date
2014
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Abstract
Tanzania enacted the Environmental Management Act (EMA) in 2004 with Environmental
Impact Assessment (EIA) as one of its major tools for protecting environment from the impacts
of development projects. According to EMA, all new projects have to undertake EIA before they
are commissioned. This paper assesses to what extent this has been achieved. The study
involved 5 industries (as cases) which have Environmental Certificates, staff of the National
Environment Management Council (NEMC) which is responsible to enforce EMA, Municipal
Councils, Wards, Registered Environmental Consulting Firms and NGOs. The assessment focused
on institutional strength and weaknesses, awareness of industrial staff and resources allocation
for implementation of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) and Environmental
Monitoring Plan (MP). The assessment was done through reviewing Environmental Impact
Statement (EIS), site observation, interviews and questionnaires. Study findings show that to a
greater extent, EMPs and MPs as presented in EIS are not implemented due to existence of
institutional weaknesses, low awareness, poor allocation of resources for EMP implementation
and weak enforcement. It was thus concluded that; EIA process apart from identifying potential
impacts, it does not go all the way to ensure that they are mitigated. The paper proposes
recommendations to remedy the situation.
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Keywords
Performance, Industries, Environment, Impact, Certification, Tanzania