Graduate

2008

This study evaluates the effectiveness of public participation in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process in Zambia. The international community recognizes EIA as an essential cog for sustainable development. While the importance of EIA as a tool for sustainable development is beyond debate, many scholars, however, believe that its success is dependent to a large extent on the integration of effective public participation into the process, hence this study of evaluating the effectiveness of public participation in the EIA process in Zambia. Zambia is one of the countries in Sub Saharan Africa that has implemented a full EIA along with its full range of attributes, among them public participation. This study evaluates the performance of public participation using eight different environmental impact statement (EIS) documents. Based on the EIA regulations in Zambia, the this study selected ten important performance criteria attributes for evaluation, which are: adherence to the process, holding of scoping meeting, use of local language during public consultation, appropriateness of the venue used during the public consultation, inclusiveness of participation process, attendance, credibility of process, publicity of public consultation, decision tracking the public views, and criteria for approval decisions. The results of this evaluation show that EIA process in Zambia has some strengths and weaknesses. The strengths include a fully functioning legal and institutional framework, while weaknesses include lack of inclusiveness of all stakeholders in the process, incomplete data in the final EIS, and lack of credibility of the public participation process. In the conclusion section, this study identifies five areas requiring strengthening and recommends five actions required to improve the identified weaknesses.

2008

The Yaqui valley is an irrigated agricultural region in northwestern Mexico and home to the Green Revolution. Pesticides and fertilizers are increasingly used on crops where indigenous people work and live without regard to the well being of the inhabitants living within close proximity. Additionally, the community relies on a potable water supply that lacks filtration or chlorination processes and operates on a very limited timetable each day. Households must rely on storage water supplies throughout the day and during periods of water scarcities residents make use of alternative water sources. Two of the most prevalent water substitutes consist of the irrigation canals and hand-dug shallow wells. This paper draws from fieldwork in the Yaqui village of Potam based on household interviews with women on the cycle of water and health. The findings indicate biological and chemical contaminants are ubiquitous, involving several potential routes of exposure via public and domestic domains and the probability for diminished health affects all residents.