Mitigation Measures for Water Quality in Lebanon - Essay Example

?Environmental Impact Assessment Report on Mitigation Measures for Water Quality in Lebanon: Solid Waste Treatment Center Jbeil-Hbaline Union of Municipalities of Jbeil Caza of Jbeil Executive Summary Globally, there have been improved efforts in sustaining the human population, efforts that are hampered by continued pollution caused by industrialization and urbanization. This does not only affect developed nations, but it also affects developing countries like Lebanon, which are struggling to keep up with sustainable development policies (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2001). The proposed project named “Solid Waste Treatment Center Jbeil-Hbaline Union of Municipalities of Jbeil Caza of Jbeil” is expected to provide the required means and tools to ensure that the management of the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in the Caza of Jbeil is maintained at high standards. The project is expected to cover an estimated 85 villages and towns with an expected total population of 105,000 people. In addition, the project will provide environmental awareness to the public on how to minimize waste solid materials, the importance of minimizing the same, sorting of the waste materials, and the re-use of the solid waste materials as strategies intended for the long-term management of the waste solid materials. As years come and go, development increases; urbanization has become an obvious undertaking which leads to the environment being continuously degraded and polluted. Water has been known to be the notorious victim of rapid development (World Bank, 1998). The use of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been employed in Lebanon as a method to control this problem (Ecodit, 2003). Despite these efforts, the EIA practice has encountered obstacles particularly in mitigation measures implementation. The purpose of this research is to find out the standards of the EIA practice in Lebanon through the evaluation of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) particularly on water quality mitigation measures. The method of review employed in this report is an adoption from Lee and Colley Review Package and Oxford Brookes Review Package, however, an improvement is needed in terms of the EIA quality (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2001). The Project The proposed project aims at implementing an aerobic compost plant intended to account for 85 villages and towns within the Jbeil municipality. The proposed project is expected to take in close to 80 tons of solid waste in a day. The center will also hold both sorted and unsorted waste materials, equipped with a waste unit charged with the responsibility of sorting the waste further while maintaining a stable organic fraction so as to manufacture waste compost that is good quality in the market. The project will: solve several environmental and social issues; reduce the volume of waste to be dumped; with the project’s activities resulting in production of compost products. Environmental issues are the leading threats facing the global arena as a way of ensuring sustainable development is being sought (Ecodit, 2003). Around the globe, improved efforts have been realized in terms of sustaining the human population, yet they are hampered by continued pollution caused by industrialization and urbanization. This is evident in both developed and developing countries of the world like Lebanon, which are struggling to keep up with sustainable development policies (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2001). The project is expected to have a landfill located next to the composting facility to hold the inorganic and inert materials that cannot be recycled. The project expects to improve in the waste separation process thus facilitating the plant operations which eventually enhances the compost quality that is being produced. The 1967 and 1970 Malaysia floods played a major role in the World Bank producing a report that put emphasis on the recommendations that each and every project globally must have an EIA, which resulted in its implementation in Lebanon and other developing countries (Ecodit, 2003). Many questions have been raised regarding the quality of various EIAs and their effectiveness in better decision-making. To tackle this challenge, a suitable evaluation of an EIS is vital (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2001). This research sums up the mitigation measures produced for different projects in the Lebanese EISs so as to compare the quality of those prepared few years back and the most recent ones with mitigation measures as the major element of the process and water quality receiving the higher hand as a component so as the effectiveness of the implementation of the EIA is measured. Environmental Impact Assessment Report on Mitigation Measures for Water Quality in Lebanon: Solid Waste Treatment Center “Jbeil-Hbaline” Union of Municipalities of Jbeil Caza of Jbeil In the recent past, the environmental problem has been raised as a key issue faced by the global arena as it fights to abide by the concept of sustainable building being addressed globally. In Lebanon, the major chronic problem has been considered to be management of solid waste. Many efforts have been put in place so as to maintain a healthy human population, although those efforts have been hampered by the significant growth in industrialization and urbanization in the dawn of the 1980s that have increased pollution rates (World Bank, 1998). Not only are the world’s leading countries struggling with the achievement of the desired positive moves towards development, but also the developing countries too. World Bank (1998) continues with the discussion and affirms that in most developing countries, the major disposal method of solid waste is via uncontrolled dumping of the waste and complete burning of the same. The proposed project is geared towards eliminating the uncontrolled dumping and burning of solid waste within the municipality as well as setting a suitable example to the other municipalities in the country with respect to improper management of solid waste. According to El-Fadel, Zeinati, and Jamali, (2000), these methods have been banned since the undesirable impacts it had on the environment have been identified, although they are still being used in numerous rural areas and a few urban areas of the country with insufficient law enforcers, awareness and financial means being identified as the causal agents. The project is expected to produce a number of positive impacts and reduce negative impacts that are caused by the current poor habit of disposing solid waste and the general management of solid waste disposal; this is because the project will be based on elementary principles of Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM). This makes the quality of water in the region a critical issue as water is a habitat to many living organisms. The level of the mitigation standards of this Environmental Impact Assessment was questioned by World Bank (1998) in a study on how to make EIA more adaptive rendering it ineffective. To this effect, the essentiality of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) rises, as a way in which the effectiveness of the EIA can be measured (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2001). The major aim of this research is to weigh Lebanese EIA in the past against those of the recent years with reference to mitigation measures as a constituent of the process with major focus on the water component as a measure of effectiveness of the implementation of the EIA. Literature Review Recently, Lebanon has moved significantly towards ensuring a sustainable development culture is established in the country with placement of heavy attention on environmental matters and the importance of reducing the burden on it. The Ministry of Environment (MoE) has been working tirelessly over the past ten years to ensure that its capabilities to improve on the role it play in protecting the environment from the available environmental pollutants. In Lebanon, a revision and further development has been made on the Decree for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) which states that any proposed project with suspected environmental impacts should have an EIA prepared for it to anticipate the impacts of the project and provide for the mitigation measures to be put in place so as to minimize or eradicate the impacts in question. In addition, if any project is suspected to have environmental impacts, it is mandatory that it undergoes an impact assessment initially before commencing the project. Lebanon, just like other developing nations, begun transformation and the result was industrialization, development etc. Although this was a huge step, it really affected the environment as domestic discharges from households and businesses increased as well as those from urban transportation, causing air and water pollution. In most developing countries, many activities carried out cause environmental degradation, especially those involving development projects. In Lebanon, major government initiatives have only but covered urban areas while neglecting rural areas. According to the Ministry of Environment, discharges of solid waste in rural areas is estimated to be around 700,000 tons and 100 cubic millimeter of municipal solid waste (MSW) and raw municipal sewage respectively every year causing mass pollution to the environment (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2001). Many industrialized areas have the water pollution problem as the major issue being addressed as the activities carried out have become a burden to them. El-Fadel and Khoury (2001) report that above 90% of water resources that are 600 meters below altitude are contaminated. In addition, they affirm that surface water streams in Lebanon have greatly been affected by untreated water that is directly discharged into the streams. El-Fadel and Khoury (2001) propose that another major cause of environmental degradation may come as a result of excessive use of the available environmental resources. The cutting down of trees results in loss of fauna and soil erosion caused by water runoff; and community displacement for those dependent on the river water. According to Ecodit (2003), the use of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) to measure organic pollution levels reduced in 1980s but expanded in 1990s due to the increase in manufacturing industries. According to El-Fadel, Zeinati, and Jamali (2000), the report showed that three quarters of the water pollutions in monitoring stations was caused by manufacturing while agro-chemical industries resulted in the contamination of the river/stream water with heavy metal, oil, grease, etc. Previous research showed that between 50% and 90% of the coastal water was contaminated with bacteria derived from recreational purposes. Implementation of the EIA by the Lebanese government was to overcome these environmental impacts after the occurrence of the floods in a number of cities. Due to its variance in different countries, the significance of EIA is less effective with its implementation and development in developing countries becoming a major concern since the developing countries hold the largest percentage of the world’s population and land. Regardless of these, slightly over 75% of the developing nations have implemented the EIA legislation (Ecodit, 2003). History shows that developing countries have produced poor EISs that are not: clearly written, user friendly, and weak, on mitigation measures. In relation to presentation of the EIA report, a number of obstacles exist in developing countries: i. Lack of qualified personnel and financial resources that result in production of inappropriate EIA reports. ii. The environmental assumptions, standards, and models made regarding environmental conditions in tropical or semi-tropical areas are usually inappropriate. iii. The incorrectness of socio-economic and environmental data makes it hard to make a suitable EIA. The difficulty or in some cases non-existent data causes a lot of inconveniences in preparation of the EIA. Response to the Problems EIA is considered to be among the best solution to this as its cyclical and systematic process reviews the consequences of the proposed development on the environment so as to aid in decision making, formulation of development actions and to act as an instrument for continued development (Ecodit, 2003). This has led to its recognition as a planning and development tool. Following the US’s formulation of the National Environment Policy Act in 1969, many other developed and developing nations followed suit and formed their own EIA processes with their own mode of implementation. Each nation employs different procedures and practices regarding implementation of EIA depending on climatic, environmental, political, social, cultural, and the economical status of the country. It has been made vital for one to understand the environmental policies in conjunction with sustaining development, global environmental issues like ozone depletion etc. These policies were designed so as to reduce pollution of water resulting from industrial developments and projects. The Lebanese government established amended environmental decree that saw the wake of the adoption of the policy instrument for water pollution and the EIA mechanism that determines the cost required to conduct mitigation measures of the environmental. Purposes of the EIA Since it is viewed as a process that examines, assesses and analyzes activities that have been planned, and that it is a useful tool of management (Ecodit, 2003), it is believed that EIA plays a major role in ensuring a sustainable environmental condition and continued development. This makes it essential for the responsible bodies in the development activities to be informed of the EIA requirements before they take a step in the decision-making process. Despite all this and other human activities that have heavily caused contamination of most water sources, Lebanon has been practicing EIA for more than 10 years. In Lebanon, three steps are involved in the EIA process: i. Preliminary assessment – initiated at the pre-feasibility stage of the study to identify the project options and any environmental impacts of the development activities. ii. Those developments with massive environmental impacts as of the preliminary assessment are assessed in detail, with the process continuing for the rest of the feasibility stage. The final report is handed to the Director General of Environmental Quality for approval before further approval from the government for the project to be implemented. An ad hoc Review Panel formed and chaired by the Director General is assigned with the task of reviewing the EIA report. iii. After the ad hoc Review Panel is through with the reviewing of the report, the recommendations from the review are transmitted to the relevant authorities for the approval of the project and efficient decision-making. Quality of EIA According to Ecodit (2003), the use of the EIS is the best way to judge the quality of an EIA process. The quality or efficiency of the proposed project is associated with the critical evaluation of the impact prediction practices with special emphasis placed on mitigation measures. If an EIS is of the highest quality, then decision-making process becomes even much easier and better as its evaluation is essential in determining the effectiveness of the EIA process. For quality EIA, consider the following: provide quality information to decision makers, allow for public involvement, and minimize the costs and the use of suitable methods in analysis of the impacts of the project. Methodology In order to find out the state of the EIA in Lebanon, a detailed research has to be conducted in terms of the quality of the EIS mitigations on water quality. For this to be achieved, two steps were developed so as to determine the best evaluation of the EIA. i. Concept Identification and Information Gathering – questions asked in this stage are about the purpose of the research so as to reveal the research theme before the literature review about the study is collected as evidence. In addition, a review package criterion is also created during this first stage (Ecodit, 2003). ii. Application of the gathered Information – this stage involves the use of the evaluated reports as an ingredient to the research while the adapted review packages are used as a tool (Ecodit, 2003). The figure below shows a work flow dissertation. Step 1: Concept Identification and Information Gathering The information review and gathering was based on a number of questions raised with reference to the project objectives and aims: i. To discover the global and regional environmental issues and problems. ii. To evaluate the world’s response to the issues. iii. To determine EIA’s practice in Lebanon. iv. To assess the quality of Lebanese EIS specifically on mitigation measures for the quality of water in the country. Based on the project objectives, the research questions were formulated to produce a criterion for EIS evaluation by reviewing the available literature. A justification of why the research is being conducted was established and enough information gathered specifically on mitigation. In addition, examination of a few EIS Review Packages was done so as to create the adapted EIS review package suitable for this research. According to Ecodit (2003), Packages reviewed include Lee and Colley Review Package and the Oxford Brookes Review Package among others. Aggregated and disaggregated studies were implemented based on the review packages, where aggregation involves the combination of several impact values to generate composite scores to facilitate project alternative comparison so as to arrive at a suitable preference rank. A disaggregated study focuses on individual EIS on a specific topic and its quality, its performance, either wholly, some of its components (mitigation measures) or its presentation (Ecodit, 2003). The disaggregated study was applied here to aid in the process of evaluation. Step 2: Information Gathering and Creation of Review Package for EIS Here, a special reference was made to two packages (Lee and Colley, and Oxford Brookes Review Packages) due to their reliability as opposed to other packages. Lee and Colley has widely been used in the UK as a review method in EIA and a direct application of its criteria has been implemented in some areas with others modifying the same in the review of most EISs. To evaluate the mitigation measures, a structure comprising three sections was formulated (World Bank, 1998): Section 1: addressing of all details about mitigation measures as stated in the EIA with less detailed outcomes. Section 2: contains a detailed evaluation of the measures. It involves; Describing of the measures of mitigation. A dedication to the measures of mitigation is established. The effects the mitigation measures have on the environment. Section 3: Involves the mode in which the measures of mitigation on quality of water are presented. Data Collection The EIA was selected randomly and evaluated regarding the proposed development project in Lebanon, with a close link on water quality emphasized on the choice of the EIA. This process took into account projects between 1990 and 2008 in order to apply the required specifications to the study as it was focused on quality of water (Ecodit, 2003). Evaluation of the EIA Rating Process Common methods like the matrix system were overlooked and instead used a review package or a checklist to evaluate the quality of the EIA (Ecodit, 2003). Each criterion had its relevance highlighted depending on the type of the development project since some other criterion were irrelevant to some projects, thus preferred so as to reduce biased judgments. A rating system, with symbol A to represent adequate, B for insufficient information while C for inadequate, was used for each EIA in order to group the adequacy of information. The information covered included the description of the measures of mitigation, the dedication to the mitigation measures, and the effects the mitigation measures have on the environment. Process Analysis After successful recording of the scores and comments, analysis of the results was conducted so as to determine the performance of measures of mitigation on the quality of water of each EIS (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2001). A comparison of the data was made so as to find out which criteria meets the minimum requirements and a detailed discussion followed in order to compare the different EIS and determine any notable changes since 1990. Research Closing Finally, a summary of the collected information was made so as to answer the questions and objectives raised at the beginning of the study with a number of recommendations accompanying it regarding improvements to be commissioned. Limitation During the research, it was established that a number of reviewers (at least two) have to review and evaluate the EIA so as to determine its quality. This quality review may help arrive at suitable evaluations and ideas and reduce or avoid bias perceptions (World Bank, 1998). Another limitation associated with this process is the access to the review of the EIA, with major developing countries inclusive of Lebanon, being excluded from decision-making and project planning in the EIA system, mostly caused by cultural differences. In addition, World Bank (1998) says that another reason for limited access to the review process is time; since involvement of the public in the process may take quite some time before completion. Recommendations The major objective of this study was to evaluate the measures of mitigation on Lebanese Environmental Impact Management practice on the quality of water via a review of various EISs. The research shows that implementation of the EIA is essential in sustaining the world although not much has been done in Lebanon to implement it. During the initial stages, several criteria can be put in place to list out the measures of mitigation in the EIA process. However, several steps can be followed to improve the EIA system in Lebanon; put in place suitable legal regulations, make rational and solid decisions, call for public participation, production of high quality EIA programs and reports with the use of quality expertise (World Bank, 1998). Regulation has been identified as a major key to improving the EIA by putting non-technical summary measures of mitigation as a basic requirement in the EIS while availing the summary to the public via the media. The availing of the summary to the public is aimed at getting more information, opinions of the public and concerns regarding a given project proposal. The identification of impacts and proposing the measures of mitigation to be implemented during the design or planning phase of a project can be integrated with feasible studies to help manage the project cost and plan monitoring which in turn aids in decision-making (World Bank, 1998). In order to arrive at a suitable EIS, the developer of the EIA needs to have access to good consultations regarding the process of EIA and the criteria involved thus the need for filtration to become an environmental consultant. In order to surmount this issue, the Lebanese government introduced a Registration of Environmental Consultant Scheme to register all environmental consultants in the country. The EIS should be presented in simple language that is readable and easy to understand to the general public. Last but not least, more studies need to be conducted so as to realize a substantial improvement in the EIA with specific emphasis on measures of mitigation (El-Fadel and Khoury, 2000). Conclusion Globally, environmental issues and related problems are being addressed, and with increased levels of development and industrialization, especially in developing countries, the specific governments have to establish standard procedures that are to be adhered to in order to sustain the environment in the wake of development projects. For the developed countries, mostly associated with enormous gas and chemical discharges, the industries in question should device suitable means to curb the problem before it grows out of control and ensure that an environment that is pollution free is maintained even with industrialization and development projects in place. To achieve this, production of quality EIA is needed and the protocols set by the EIA Act should strictly be followed with close monitoring from the government and other concerned bodies. References Ecodit. (2003). Feasibility study of solid waste management in the Caza of Byblos. US Trade and Development Agency. El-Fadel, M. and Khoury R. (2001). Status of the solid waste sector in Lebanon: Need for an integrated approach. Technical Report submitted to the United States Agency for International Development. El-Fadel, M., Zeinati. M., Jamali, D. (2000). EIA procedure framework for environment impact assessment in Lebanon. Environ Impact Assess Rev 2000; 20:579-604. World Bank. (1998). Environmental assessment sourcebook. Volume I. Policies, Procedures, and Cross-Sectoral Issues. Technical paper number 139. Environmental Department. The World Bank, Washigton, D.C. Read More