Ineke Steinhauer
Technical secretary
The Facility for Infrastructure Development (ORIO) requested the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) to perform a quick scan of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) report on the construction of a 41 km main pipeline, four distribution centers and related distribution network, and 20.000 household connections, which will distribute water to the peri-urban population in the Northern part of Maputo. The aim of this quick review was quality assurance.
Significant details
The NCEA checked whether the ESIA was in line with the national regulations and verified whether the ESIA report contained adequate, accurate and sufficient information needed for decision making. The NCEA observed that some crucial elements were still lacking, such as the Environmental Management Plan, indicating responsibilities for specific mitigation measures and budget implications. Although the baseline descriptions, the identification and assessment of impacts and definition of mitigation measures seemed to be well elaborated, the project description, aims and justification merit much more attention. This is particularly relevant for the elaboration and comparision of alternative options, which sofar have been described to a limited extent only.