The Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) says the quality of Environmental Assessment ( EA ) documents being submitted for review is a source of concern.
The Agency says the poor quality of the EA documents is making its work more laborious and consequently delaying the efficiency of the review process.
ZANIS reports that ZEMA has further pointed out that the poor quality of EAs has further been echoed by complaints from developers, other authorizing agencies and the general public.
ZEMA Corporate Affairs Manager, Irene Chipili said in a statement that to address the concerns, the Agency has invited individuals and firms undertaking or intending to undertake EA consultancy to submit their profiles.
The profiles in question includes among other things Qualifications, areas of expertise, years of experience, previous EA consultancies undertaken, and certification from relevant professional bodies.
Environment Impact Assessment is a systematic investigation of conditions within the environment of the proposed development or project followed by an assessment of the impacts that the development or project will have on the environment in its totality.
The EA reports are produced by independent individuals or firms as consultants for the developer or proponent.
Nothing seems to work in this black country called Zambia. ZEMA does not know the reason they exist. they just rubber stump everything politicians dream of. There is a lot of destruction of our environment and zema just cant control it. shame zema shane politics
It great ZEMA itself acknowledges this fact, but to start with ZEMA inspectors themselves need proper specialized training. Secondly, ZEMA still approves those same poor quality documents anyway, because they have allowed quacks and non trained individuals to venture into that specialized area of expertise. So what the heck are they talking about. Stop approving poor quality material. period
On top of poor trained personnel at ZEMA, the so called Developers themselves also need to wake up…they love cheap…how can one charge 3 pin for an environmental planning process and you give them a contract?..what we see now are increased number of down-payment specialization, where once paid initial money, the consultant disappears for ever, and that becomes their business: collecting free down-payments and disappearing..khikikiki
I thought ZEMA itself is responsible for conducting EAs!
No they don’t. They assess the submitted documents before approval. ZEMA could do everybody a favour by coming up with standards and factors to be included in these assessments. If everything is “filaisova” then don’t be surprised by poor standards.
i have read a number of these EIA reports. Most of them are just copy and paste reports.
I thought ZEMA take the lead in conducting whatever rubbish they are talking about, why shift the blame this time? Problem you sit in Lusaka spend the whole day on facebook and expect reports to walk through to your office from chadiza, this is the result. Lets wake up as Zambians please, we need to develop the country.
So now we have an assessment of the applicant before we assess the environmental impact of the project. More paperwork longer process. Would betterr ZEMA guidelines improve the situation.
We are quick to point the finger at others without looking at ourselves
in actual fact globally, the trend has changed from calling these EIAs to HIA – health impact assessments because if you really think about it, its the health of the people you’re protecting not really the environment per se. the environment is a proxy through which our collective health is attained. remember health is the complete state of well being – mentally, socially, physically not just the absence of infirmity.
Zambians do not understand the need for EIA reports. However, the blame should also fall on ZEMA. All major projects need to have EIA reports before they can be given a go ahead. Take the example of Oriental Quarries in Makeni. How can you allow a quarry to be situated in an area that is demarcated for farmland. Mining an open pit (quarrying), means that the water will be flowing towards the opening created by the quarry and thereby reduce the water in the private boreholes used by the population in the area, resulting in water shortages. This goes to show that maybe ZEMA did not understand the impact of the quarry on the surrounding farms. Need I say more?
Good point @Ba General. ZEMA and their political masters get blinded by promises of job creation. Apart from disruption of water tables, the daily blasts must be damaging properties in that area.
The real problem is that those people that are supposed read the reports know EVEN LESS about the subject than those that write them!
So development and job creation in Zambia are put on HOLD while these ignorant people at ZEMA are educated. And paid for it!