In essence, environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the overall process or rather the entire procedure that is required by project developers to follow with an aim of being granted permission for a particular development. Apparently, EIA is considered an important planning mechanism that is often used for preventing various environmental hazards as a result of a particular action. Consequently, this body ensures that any potential problems are foreseen as well as addressed at a rather early stage in the overall project planning and design. Following this kind of procedure ensures that there are no costly mistakes in the implementation of various projects, either due to environmental damage that is likely to occur during the implementation stage of a project, or even because of modification that may be needed afterward (Epstein, 2018). The purposes of this Environmental Impact Assessment paper is to assess principal environmental concerns that are associated with the Samarco mine tailings dam failure and OK Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea project.
One reason why it is important to involve the EIA is the overall disaster of the Samarco mine tailings failure. Despite the company being alerted six months before regarding the danger that the dam had, the mining company ignored them all. In fact, the company that was operating the mines had initially predicted accurately the potential impact of such disaster in an assessment that they had undertaken earlier (Glasson, Therivel, &Chadwick, 2005). According to a federal prosecutor, a joint project that was between the Brazilian mining company vale and the multinational the BHP Billiton had failed in taking any particular action that could have instead prevented the disaster (Epstein & Yuthas, 2017). On the other hand, OK Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea project was a designed copper mining operation that was located close to headwaters of the OK Tedi River. The creation of the mining site was controversial and did not engage the local people of that place. Additionally, the project had proved a daunting effect despite the fact that it was still implemented.
Ideally, there are various benefits that particular development projects come with it especially the creation of mining sites such as that of the Samarco mine tailings dam failure and OK Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea project. In this light, a development project can no doubt create a tangible importance of the overall local people or even the regional economies as well as the real cost and revenue for the local governments (Joseph, Zeeg, Angus, Usborne, & Mutrie, 2017). One way of making people benefit from a development project or plan is set up a local content. Local content is considered as a philosophy regarding a shared value considering strategies a particular business organization can implement with an aim of increasing local content thus maximizing the overall benefits to a particular local community and the involved company alike. For instance, a particular firm can work closely with potential suppliers in a local community in considering how their capacity can be built especially in meeting its procurement needs while adjusting the set company’s requirements with an aim of including the local businesses.
Primarily, the overall growth in local content particularly policies, as well as practices, have led to the realization of various competing objectives in societal settings. In case there is a creation of a particular development project in an area, there is a likelihood that the involved company will involve the people from the local area in its daily activities. In this light, a development project often creates employment for the local people in an area. Creation of employment to the people has the tendency of improving the quality of life of people. For instance, the development of the Samarco mining site created huge employment opportunities to the people of Bento Rodrigues. Creation of employment opportunities means that local people could get income which means that there would be an increase an increase in the circulation of money in the local area. On the other hand, the implementation of a development plan can help boost the economy of a region given the fact that an increase in money circulation of employment may be caused by the output of that particular company in subsequent rounds or even re-spending that often arises through the overall purchase from the local supplier industries.
Whether the Benefits Brought To the Country by Development Projects Outweigh the Environmental and Social Costs
Even with various benefits that a country may realize due to the implementation of a particular project, there is a need to critically asses its impact on the environment. Apparently, most development projects are started with an aim of having benefits to the overall human well-being in the long run. However, the impact that is associated with a certain development project may lead to an unexpected negative impact on the health of people (Zamani, Sandin, Svanström, & Peters, 2018). There are various benefits of a development project such as rapid development in both local amenities and the creation of employment activities. Nonetheless, there are various negative impacts of the development project that more often targets the ecosystem.
Creation of a mining site involves the location of a favorable location that is in most cases located in a fertile land or even close to a waterway or river. As a result, there is a likelihood of the disturbance of the ecosystem that normally happens because of deforestation. For instance, the location of the OK Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea was located close to OK Tedi River while the Samarco mining site was situated in a forest or rather a fertile land (Zamani, Sandin, Svanström, & Peters, 2018). According to research, that various local people of these areas agree that the major impact of these development projects is the act of disturbance of the ecosystem. Additionally, the extensive use of water by various mining companies and industrial waste discharge especially into water sources is regarded as one of the leading causes of poisoning the water, diseases, as well as the economic problems of the concerned country.
Environmental degradation as well as have imperative consequence particularly for the concerned economy especially on the agriculture which is in most cases the main economic activity of various individuals. For instance, the implementation of the mining project on the OK Tedi river proved complicated and damaging especially to the people of Papua New Guinea (Zamani, Sandin, Svanström, & Peters, 2018). The mining site interfered with the water system as well as the fertility of soil due to the poisonous elements released in both water and air. Additionally, the disaster of the Samarco mining site was one that left most of the ecosystem destroyed. The muddy water that was released into the river was poisonous thus killing all kind of animals including fish.
Furthermore, there are various social impacts that are likely to be caused by development projects across various societal settings. For instance, people do not always benefit from the income that a company generated by a mining company especially from mining projects (Vanclay, Esteves, Aucamp, & Franks, 2015). The fact that minerals are considered to be non-renewable resources, the overall revenue that is obtained from the mining activities has to be invested back in other forms of a rather sustainable capital like particularly in human social, economic as well as physical activities that can boost the economy in case there is a shutdown of a mining site. Additionally, lack of social engagement of the local people has proven to be a disadvantage to the local economy. Despite the fact that mining sites can create employment, there is a need for companies such as Samarco mining site and the OK Tedi mine to involve the local people in raising suggestions to avoid disastrous acts as that of the Samarco mining site. This show that, although there are various benefits brought along with social development projects, a country cannot implement a project on the sake of environmental and social cost.
Who were the different stakeholder groups with interests in the project? Identify what the different values these groups would bring to the debate about the development
The development of the Samarco mining site and the OK Tedi mine projects involved various stakeholders such as the BHPBilliton Company and Vale, and the Brazilian government through the ministry of environment, the people of Papua New Guinea and the local authority (Sánchez & Mitchell, 2017). Additionally, the local people and the engineers are part of the stakeholders involved in the Shamarco despite the fact that they were not involved in an active decision-making process. Other stakeholders that were involved include the Environmental Impact assessment body (EIA) and the Social Impact Assessment (SIA).
The environmental disaster that was caused by Sammarco mining site failure and the environmental and negative social impact of OK Tedi mine projects is solely attributed to the lack of active engagement of key stakeholders in the implementation process (Mi et al., 2017). For instance, in case there was an active involvement of the EIA, then both the mining projects could have been environmentally friendly given the fact that it could have educated the companies involved to involve a preventative paradigm of management with an aim of protecting the environment in the whole process of developing a nation. Additionally, in case there was an active involvement of SIA, then the entire projects could have been sustainable and all inclusive to accommodate the local people such as the Aboriginal.
EIA is considered an important planning mechanism that is often used for preventing various environmental hazards as a result of a particular action. In this light, the work of the EIA is to foresee a problem in a particular project development and make sure that the problem has been fixed to avoid disaster in the long run (Vohra et al., 2018). Nonetheless, there were various constructions flaws that were involved during the construction of the Samarco mining site that was actually was predicted by the EIA and was ignored by the BHP Billiton and the Vale companies (Prokofieva, Lucas, Thorsen, & Carlsen, 2017). During the operation of the Samarco mining site, there was a fast extension of the dam that held the wastewater from the mine against the EIA principles of regulations. Despite the fact that the company was warned that the state of the dam was not good, it ignored that call thus resulting in a tragic failure.
Whether a Social Impact Assessment Could Have Been Undertaken
The overall effectiveness of SIA hugely depends on various underlying assumptions surrounding the purpose of SIA. The fact that SIA was created to put forward the various agenda as well as interests of people is a good reason why there should have been an assessment of the same to make sure that all the stakeholders were fairly engaged and involved in the two projects. In this light, the involvement of SIA would have made sure that there was time to time monitoring and management of the mining process as well as unintended social consequences in the society (Petti, Serreli, & Di Cesare, 2018). Additionally, SIA could have been involved to make sure that there were planned interventions or rather policies to safeguard the interest of the local people especially that of Papua New Guinea.
Positive and negative aspects of government regulations in mining and structures or processes that could be put in place to address the negative aspects
Government regulation is considered an important element in the implementation process of any development process in a particular country. In this light, there are various benefits that are associated with government regulations of mines. For instance, setting up mining regulation is likely to reduce environmental pollution or rather degradation as well as minimizing health risks people might go through in a mining site. On the other hand, government regulation has for long been associated with high cost of production as attaining the certificate of operation is way too much and takes a lot of time to be processed thus delaying development processes (Nunes, Pereira, & Morais-Almeida, 2017). To minimize the high cost of mining process caused by tiresome and expensive government approval process, there has to be a greater international body such as SIA and EIA that foresee the approval and implementations of various development projects. Notably, such companies will ensure that companies do not neglect environmental friendly practice.
Implications of minimal consultation with local communities who may be potentially affected by large-scale resource development projects
Every development projects require fair consultations of the overall community of concern. However, lack or minimum consultations can lead to various implications in the long run. In this light, a more informed as well as sophisticated societies require a transparent and effective process that allows community involvement in the overall decision makings. In case there is minimum community engagement, there is a chance that a particular development plan would not meet the community expectations (Esteves, Franks, & Vanclay, 2012). For instance, there was the minimum engagement of the Aboriginal in the implementation process of the OK Tedi project thus resulting in poor management of land and thus continued conflict from the local communities. Additionally, minimum community engagement is likely to build incredibility bank thus resulting to lack of dishonesty in the consultation process.
References
Epstein, M. J. (2018). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
Epstein, M. J., & Yuthas, K. (2017). Measuring and Improving Social Impacts: a guide for nonprofits, companies and Impact investors. Routledge.
Esteves, A. M., Franks, D., & Vanclay, F. (2012). Social impact assessment: the state of the art. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 30(1), 34-42.
Glasson, J., Therivel, R. &Chadwick, A. (2005), Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment, 3rd edition, UCL Press, London, pp16, 17.
Joseph, C., Zeeg, T., Angus, D., Usborne, A., & Mutrie, E. (2017). Use of significance thresholds to integrate cumulative effects into project-level socio-economic impact assessment in Canada. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 67, 1-9.
Mi, Z., Wei, Y. M., Wang, B., Meng, J., Liu, Z., Shan, Y., … & Guan, D. (2017). Socioeconomic impact assessment of China’s CO2 emissions peak prior to 2030. Journal of cleaner production, 142, 2227-2236.
Nunes, C., Pereira, A. M., & Morais-Almeida, M. (2017). Asthma costs and social impact. Asthma research and practice, 3(1), 1.
Petti, L., Serreli, M., & Di Cesare, S. (2018). Systematic literature review in social life cycle assessment. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 23(3), 422-431.
Prokofieva, I., Lucas, B., Thorsen, B. J., & Carlsen, K. (2017). Tools for Sustainability Impact Assessment Monetary values of environmental and social externalities for the purpose of cost-benefit analysis in the EFORWOOD project. EFI technical reports, 50: 1-130. Available vie EFI. https://www. EFI. int/files/attachments/publications/forward/efi_tr_50. pdf. Accessed 2 Jan.
Sánchez, L. E., & Mitchell, R. (2017). Conceptualizing impact assessment as a learning process. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 62, 195-204.
Vanclay, F., Esteves, A. M., Aucamp, I., & Franks, D. M. (2015). Social Impact Assessment: Guidance for assessing and managing the social impacts of projects.
Vohra, S., Orenstein, M., Viliani, F., Cave, B., Harris-Roxas, B., & Silva, F. (2018). Environmental assessment and health impact assessment.
Zamani, B., Sandin, G., Svanström, M., & Peters, G. M. (2018). Hotspot identification in the clothing industry using social life cycle assessment—opportunities and challenges of input-output modeling. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 23(3), 536-546.
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