ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE PROJECTS UNDER THE WATER AND SANITATION, MICROENTERPRISE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY PROGRAMMES
[EXCERPTS]
REPORT FROM THE ENVIRONMENTAL UNIT
Prepared by Alejandra Orozco
Tamale, Northern Region, July 2003.
LIST OF ANNEXES iii
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. v
I. INTRODUCTION.. 1
II. OVERVIEW OF NEWENERGY. 2
III. NEWENERGY PROGRAMMES DESCRIPTION.. 2
3.1 Installations and Operations in Existence. 2
3.2 Plan of Investments – Cross-Cutting Issues 33.3 Plan of Investments –
Main Programmes 33.4 Manual Labour. 5
3.5 Implementation and Expenditure schedules 5
IV. INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL ENVIRONMENT. 5
4.1 Institutional Background. 5
4.2 Legal Environment 6
4.3 Monitoring and Evaluation. 6
V. ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS 7
5.1 Environmental Conditions 7
5.2 Socio-economic Conditions 8
VI. SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: WATER & SANITATION PROGRAMME 8
6.1 Potential Impacts of the Water and Sanitation Facilities 8
6.2 Existing Impacts 9
6.3 Positive/Beneficial Impacts 11
VII. SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: RENEWABLE ENERGY SERVICES 12
7.1 Existing Impacts 12
7.2 Positive/Beneficial Impacts 13
7.3 Negative Impacts 13
VIII. SOCIAL IMPACT: MICRO-ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT. 13
8.1 Potential Impacts of Micro-Enterprise Development 13
8.2 Existing Impacts: Positives and Negatives 14
IX. HEALTH AND SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 15
9.1 Health and Safety Policy. 15
9.2 Systems of Environmental Management 15
X. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 15
XI. APPENDIXES 18
11.1 Methodology. 18
11.2 Environmental Conditions Of Ghana. 18
11.3 Socio Economic Conditions In Ghana. 20
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 22
An environmental assessment of the projects in NewEnergy’s Water and
Sanitation and Micro-Enterprise Development Programmes and Renewable Energy
Services has been carried out in order to assist with plans for implementing
these activities in a sustainable way – that is to say, in a way that is both
environmentally sustainable and socially sustainable.
Over the years, with donor support, the
non-governmental organisation NewEnergy has established integrated programmes to
help communities in northern Ghana to obtain water and to improve their
sanitation, their physical environment and their economy.
NewEnergy’s programmes are directed towards rural and peri-urban areas in
Northern Region, where lack of basic infrastructure and public services is a
critical problem. Its programmes, which are focussed on very basic needs,
potentially have a profound impact on the social, economic and health conditions
of poor communities.
The negative impacts of the Water and Sanitation Programme include emission of greenhouse gases, some degree of environmental degradation especially in the groundwater quality, and reduction of overall groundwater yield. Most significantly, there are no direct activities or policies within the organization aimed at protecting and replenishing groundwater sources and paths. In other words, NewEnergy is supporting the use of an environmental resource – groundwater – while doing little to support the protection and renewal of that resource. The positive impacts identified are very significant because of the changes in rural lives. In particular, communities that have been deprived are now receiving easier access to basic resources such as drinking water, and are able to improve their hygiene conditions, and consequently the general health of the population.
The installation of photovoltaic systems is providing light for schools, households and clinics, and power for such simple facilities as vaccine refrigerators. The Renewable Energy Services are therefore bringing basic help to remote areas and impacting many aspects of the life of rural people. No negative impacts were identified.
The Micro-enterprise Development Programme has a very clear impact on household economies, but is also directly affecting health and education. It is helping parents to pay school fees (in a part of the country with the lowest education and literacy levels) and is assisting women to pay for basic medical treatment (in a part of the country with the highest rate of infant mortality). Moreover deforestation and other forms of unsustainable use of natural resources are reduced, because rural women and men have the opportunity to generate income from other sources that do not rely solely on natural resources.
Activities for building capacity in community members and for creating local structures for maintenance of the facilities provided are critical to the search for sustainability and clearly are a fundamental part of the NewEnergy’s programmes. This is reinforced by a well-organised administrative structure, and the interest to improve the organisation’s interventions through the development of an environmental strategy.
In a world in constant change where more and more
organisations at all levels are becoming extremely competitive, the natural
environmental, which supports any kind of real development, cannot be overlooked
if sustainability is desired. During its implementation of project activities,
NewEnergy has identified different components that need to be reconsidered,
evaluated and documented in order to achieve greater results and to meet people’s
real needs in the beneficiary communities of its programmes.
Considering the social and environmental implications of rural development, New
Energy has carried out an environmental assessment of its programmes of Water
and Sanitation, Renewable Energy and Micro Enterprise Development. This document
will establish the foundation for developing an Environmental Strategy that will
aim to improve the positive impacts of the programmes and reduce the negative
impacts.
Firstly, the organisation and its activities are described, after which the
environmental characteristics of the organisation’s areas of operation are
mentioned. Then specific descriptions are given about the potential and
identified impacts of each of the three programmes. Lastly, some recommendations
are presented.
2.1 NewEnergy, an NGO legally constituted in 1993,
is an organization that works in sanitation, environment, micro-credit and
renewable energy in the Northern Region of Ghana. It began to receive support
from institutional donors in 1994.
The Executive Council, directed by Mr. Amadu Mahama, is the head of the
organization.
The principal activities of the organization are the provision of water and
sanitation facilities, promotion of hygiene, provision of photovoltaic systems,
micro-credit and environmental rehabilitation and conservation activities. From
the beginning, the organization has received funds from different organization
such as WaterAid, Pumping is Life, GEF/UNDP, the British High Commission,
DANIDA, Action Aid, DFID, Oxfam and UNICEF, among others, to carry out the
projects in the different areas.
2.2 The facilities and training provided are principally focused in rural areas,
but work is also being carried out in peri-urban and urban zones, especially in
Tamale Municipality.
2.3 The projects evaluated for this report fall under the Water and Sanitation
Programme, Renewable Energy Services and the Micro Enterprise Development
Programme.
2.4 The timing of projects depends on the writing of proposals to donors and the
approval and availability of funds. To see details of projects in each area see
Annexes 1, 2 and 3.
...
6.2 Existing Impacts
The following environmental problems were noted in the communities (see Appendix
4 for a description of the methodology):
6.2.1 Wells
· The possibility of the lowering of the water table. There is a considerable
risk of changes in the water table level. Even though the number of well
facilities per community is not large, the lack of policies in the organization
about stopping bad cultural and agricultural practices where they construct
facilities, such as burning the grass to clean plots after harvesting and
unsustainable deforestation, affect the soil microbiology, availability of
organic contents, structure and permeability and have other effects. These
contribute to the lowering of the water table, impacting also river flow and
availability of water for plants and animals and, as a consequence, availability
of the resource for shallow wells in the medium and long term[4]. With the
construction of wells, NE is promoting the use of a resource, but it is not
promoting the replenishment of that resource.
...
Sustainable development is development that
harmonises environmental priorities with social, cultural and economic
priorities, and it entails environmental protection. NewEnergy has made
significant advances in establishing activities that are strongly supported by
community members and are based on their ideas and real needs, which will help
the organisation to continue as it works toward sustainable development.
However, the assessment presented above has demonstrated that some measures must
be taken to achieve environmental sustainability and to ensure very positive
impacts.
Most on-site sanitation facilities depend upon the capacity of the soil in the
unsaturated zone to accept and purify effluents. These functions relate,
directly or indirectly, to the regime of groundwater movement. Groundwater
itself is largely controlled by the hydraulic characteristics of the soil. These
hydraulic characteristics determine the moisture content, flow, path and
residence time of pollutants[10]. The soil conditions at many of the sites where
NewEnergy constructs its sanitation systems indicate the risk of groundwater
contamination. Measures to achieve the main goal of providing potable water to
rural communities are needed. On the other hand, the great impact that these
sanitation systems have in the reduction of disease vectors and environmental
cleanness is evident.
...
11.1 Methodology
The evaluation was carried out through interaction with community members,
visits to the project areas and analysis of data collected and tests already
made by the organization. Also, previous studies done by NewEnergy have given
support to the environmental assessment.
It should be noted that the environmental assessment of the Micro-Enterprise
Development Programme was very cursory. Since the programme assists
beneficiaries to carry out a wide variety of income-earning activities, in order
to do a proper environmental assessment, it would be necessary to trace the
environmental impacts of all the economic activities carried out by the loan
beneficiaries. To do so was beyond the scope of this study.
...