An evaluation of the environmental impact assessment practice in Uganda: challenges and opportunities for achieving sustainable development

Abstract

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a broad process that emerged from the National Environment Policy Act, 1970 in the U.S. Its primary objective is to generate information on the likely impacts of a project on all aspects of the environment and used in agency decision making and in the long run protect the environment and achieve sustainable development. EIA practice in Uganda was formally established through the National Environment Act, 1995 and now in practice for over 25 years. However, there is increasing level of water pollution especially Lake Victoria, rivers, streams, aquifers and soils. This research reviewed the institutional, legal and regulatory framework for EIA, related literature and EIA documents especially EIA reports and conducted key EIA stakeholders survey using questionnaires to identify capacity and practice issues. The results revealed that, there was gap between law and practice arising from inadequate and ineffective public participation, weak follow-up, low key stakeholder's capacity, political interference, lack of SEA practice and not embracing EIA in a transboundary context. However, there is fairly good and comprehensive institutional, legislative and regulatory framework for EIA, good local governance structures, adequate staffing, robust national planning framework, active non-state actors and regional groupings. In order to maximize the potential of EIA as a means for achieving the SDGs, we recommended measures to address the challenges facing the EIA practice as well as utilize the existing opportunities within the context in which EIA is applied.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a national environmental and social impact assessment system: lessons from Uganda

“…To establish criteria by which to assess the ESIA system in Uganda, reviews of EIA in different countries around the world were considered (including Wood 2003 ;Ecaat 2004;Nadeem and Hameed 2008;Ahmadvand et al 2009;Dominik et al 2010;Kahangirwe 2011;Momtaz and Kabir 2013;Kamijo and Huang 2016;Aung 2017;George et al 2020). This revealed that a wide range of criteria has been used, varying according to the objectives of each research team.…”

“…Despite all this detail in the National Environment Act, the EIA Regulations and the Guidelines, there are many shortcomings in the ESIA process in Uganda (Ecaat 2004;Kahangirwe 2011;George et al 2020), hence the need to assess the Ugandan ESIA system and make recommendations to improve ESIA practice.…”

“…The main issues relating to the operation of the legal system that emerged from the interviews were: the lack of visibility of environmental lawyers; limited access to information; the need for a specific environmental court that has knowledge and experience in dealing with environmental law matters; the lack of training and expertise of the judiciary in terms of environmental law matters; judicial bias in favour of protecting company investments rather than the public interest; bribery and other forms of corruption; dissatisfaction with judicial review (appeal) processes; lack of public awareness of environmental rights or avenues for redress; the general lack of interest by the public in environmental law matters; the difficulties community groups have in finding the funding needed to take legal action and a fear of having to pay court costs and perhaps the costs of the defending party should they lose a legal challenge; and a general lack of public support for community groups in Uganda. Overall, the inadequacy of the legal system limited the effectiveness of the ESIA system (Twinomugisha 2007;George et al 2020). Clearly, there needs to be capacity building of the judiciary, especially in relation to environmental matters.…”

“…In developing countries, use of ESIA has typically been in response to the funding requirements of development finance institutions, although most developing countries do have EIA legislation (George et al 2020). Although the stated ESIA procedures are generally similar around the world, the quality of application of the process varies greatly (Kolhoff et al 2009;Suwanteep et al 2016).…”

Key enablers and barriers of solar paver technologies for the advancement of environmental sustainability

“…The focus on environmental sustainability has manifested in various ways, such as reducing energy consumption, recycling and/or reducing waste, reusing materials, adopting more sustainable building design and personal lifestyles [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. An important dimension of the global drive to be environmentally sustainable is developing technological solutions, particularly solutions that enable greener power generation (e.g., waste-to-power generation, solar technology, wind turbines) [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. This research focuses on the potential of a new technology – Solar Paver – to be successfully implemented to enable the sustainable generation of power.…”