Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Introduction

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts of a proposed project or development, taking into account inter-related socio-economic, cultural and human-health impacts, both beneficial and adverse. There are several problems associated with the current Impact Assessment processes in Hong Kong, and they include such things as lack of sufficient experience, in the availability of expertise in the ministry of Environmental Forestry, lack of experience at the level of Environmental Board because of unavailability of managerial and technical experts. Another reason is that there is no sufficient support from the authorizing body.

Possible Problems

For the whole process to be complete and successful, there is a need for experience in that the implementation should have started at least early. This is because if the entire process had started as early as possible, the managers of the process would know how to handle things because the negativities would have manifested early. They would have known how to manage them that early and thus by now there would be no much of those negativities or difficulties. Compared to the United States of America, whereby the process started a long time ago, about 1969, they have experienced the challenges, and now the whole thing is working over there because they have known how to handle situations out of the experience, they have had over years. Always it becomes so easy to manage a program like Environment Impact Assessment if you have experience than if you do not have experience with it. In Hong Kong, the whole process started in the 1990s and in as much as they are trying to copy almost everything from countries where the program is established like the United States of America, they have found things on the ground is different from the theoretical imaginations that they had.

Another current problem being experienced in Hong Kong as per now is the lack of very qualified personnel in the city and also in mainland China. The government has hired some professionals and experts from other countries, especially from the United States of America, to come and make the whole thing work in Hong Kong. These hired professionals have no much experience with what is happening in Hong Kong and also have no much experience with the economy of Hong Kong and thus in as much as they are trying to apply the principles from their countries they find that some of the things that they are using are not fully compatible with whatever is in Hong Kong and this at the end of the day posses a great challenge to Hong Kong as a city and China as country. Also, the natives that are the Hongkongers who are involved in the whole process of Environment Impact Assessment have been trained outside the country because the entire system is an adopted system. They have learned most of the things from countries like the United States of America and also form the United Kingdom (UK). Things over these countries are different, and one of the problem or challenge that they have had is that the trainers or the people from which they obtained the knowledge did not have enough experience from the ground, that is from Hong Kong and thus they did not try as much to make the curriculum and the training to be compatible with things in Hong Kong. This eventually has brought a lot of challenges currently during the implementation stage.

Another possible problem is that there has been no enough support from the authorizing body in Hong Kong. For any program to run smoothly, there must be full support from the authorizing agency. It is the organizing body that gives a head start for every move that the system undertakes. The support comes in different dimensions, that is financial support, advice, support in terms of helping the people to get trained, acquiring the best and compatible training curriculum, the building of training institutions to specifically train the people who are going to be involved in implementing the program and the processes involved in the program. Since the introduction of the system, there are no many institutions that have been expressly set apart to be involved in the training of leaders who are going to manage the Environmental Impact Assessment program effectively.

Another possible problem being experienced in the current Impact Assessment process is poor water quality. The main aims of EIA include to identify, predict and evaluate the economic, environmental and social impact of development activities, to provide information on the environmental consequences for decision making and to promote environmentally sound and sustainable development through the identification of possible problems such as water pollution or poor water quality and coming up with ways and means to solve the issues. Water pollution or poor water quality has made the whole process challenging to implement in the land. In as much as the government is trying their best, there are still other traces of pollution, especially water pollution that has not been appropriately handled, and that is why there are a lot of complications currently. The water pollution comes from things such as bacteria, excessive nutrients, especially in areas where farming takes place, toxic chemicals and other pollutants, especially from industries whereby the toxic pollutants mix with rainwater. As it rains, it sometimes makes swimmers sick. This, in turn, has given the government a burden to spend heavily on treating these people. Sometimes the water pollution is too intensive to a point. It provides a lousy odor, which destroys the beauty of Hong Kong to an extent, sometimes it affects the tourism industry.

Air pollution is also another problem. There has been a lot of air pollution in Hong Kong and this mostly comes from the industries. There are a lot of manufacturing industries in Hong Kong. Examples of such sectors are steel industries. These industries emit a lot of toxic gases in the air. In as much as the government is trying to combat this problem by controlling the pollution, there is some pollution still going on that is making the goals of the Environmental Impact Assessment processes to manage the environment and to have an eco-friendly environment. Air pollution has come along with different problems like health problems. Through the air pollution experienced in Hong Kong people have developed respiratory diseases and other airborne diseases and this has generally affected the performance of the people economically because most of them spend a lot of money on drugs to treat these diseases and also most of them have found it difficult to continue working due to the effects of the diseases in their lives. Noise pollution has also brought in a lot of challenges in the country and has made the whole process of the Impact Assessment difficult. Most of the people working in industries in Hong Kong have ear problems and this is as a result of noises emitted from the industries.

Possible Solutions

There are several solutions that much help Hong Kong to implement an Environmental Impact Assessment program with ease quickly. One of the reasons is to come up with plans or a curriculum that is compatible with environmental situations in China and that the government of China to take the initiative to train its people. When people are well trained, there will be enough expertise and enough personnel to handle the environmental situations in the land. The government and the authorizing should also provide maximum support to the programs. The government needs to set up institutions in Hong Kong that only handle students who deal with Environmental Impact Assessment Program and this is what will make it possible for Hong Kong and China as a nation to have quality expertise in this field. Lastly, there should be an improvement in how to handle pollution and that is water pollution, air pollution and noise pollution. The government has tried, but there is a need to up the game. Workers in industries should always be given ear muffs to protect them from sharp noise, and also machines should be fixed with silencers. Water pollution should be minimized through means such as providing enough sewers, treating water at the source, collecting and treating sewage and lastly having regional quality water management cooperation in the land

Question B. Comparison of Processes of EIA in Hong Kong and the Sea of China

The process of Environmental Impact Assessment in Hong Kong and the sea of China is the same in that they both represent a systematic process that examines the environmental consequences of the development actions in advance. In both places, the steps involved in the methods are the same, and they include submission of preliminary reports, environmental screening, environmental scoping, consideration of alternatives, description of environmental baseline, impact prediction and assessment, mitigation measures, public participation auditing and finally decision making. Before submission of any project, whether in the sea of China or Hong Kong, the proponent should submit information regarding the nature and the location of the proposed project that requires Environmental Impact Assessment and this is done immediately after the decision of the location of the project is decided. The screening would involve the assessment of the effects of the program on the environment while scoping requires identification of critical environmental issues that should be addressed in the evaluation. In consideration of alternatives, whether the application or the project is being carried out in Hong Kong or on the Sea of China, there should be consideration of other feasible approaches that would be more suitable than the one being considered at that moment. In both Hong Kong and the Sea of China, a description of the environmental baseline is based on the experience concerning ecological aspects of the project and in both technical expertise are needed to make the whole process work effectively. Impact prediction and Impact assessment are also carried out in the same way in both places. The decisions to reject or approve the project both in Hong Kong and in the sea of China are based on the final impact assessment and also in both experts or experienced auditors are involved in approving of the projects.

Contrast

The processes of EIA in the sea of China and Hong Kong are different to some extent. In the Sea of China, the main problems encountered in terms of pollution are water pollution, while in Hong Kong, the main difficulties encountered are air and noise pollution. This is because, in Hong Kong, there are a lot of industries like steel industries that have been established there. They emit a lot of toxic gases that have a negative effect on the environment. At the same time, in the Sea of China, rivers feeding the sea contain contaminated water, which in turn affects the sea creatures like the fish in there.

The EIA projects or programs being carried out in the Sea of China are somehow different from those being carried out in Hong Kong. The projects in Sea of China include things such as the construction of ports and water treatment programs to help conserve the marine environment. Mostly it deals with port authorities and shipping companies. In Hong Kong, the concentration shifts to industries where the government is trying as much as possible to reduce noise and air pollution.