KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY

DHULIKHEL, KAVRE
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

A Report
On
Environmental Impact Assessment

Submitted By:- Submitted To:-

Santosh Nepal (21) Shalu Sharma
Bikash Neupane (22) Department of Environmental Science
Amod Panthee (23) and Environmental Engineering
Amol Pokharel (24)

Kapil Pokhrel (25)

Vindhya Raj Pokharel (26)
Introduction
Environmental assessment is a procedure that ensures that the environmental implications of
decisions are taken into account before the decisions are made. The EIA Directive (EU
legislation) on Environmental Impact Assessment of the effects of projects on the environment
was introduced in 1985 and was amended in 1997.
The EIA procedure ensures that environmental consequences of projects are identified and
assessed before authorization is given. The process involves an analysis of the likely effects on
the environment, recording those effects in a report, undertaking a public consultation exercise
on the report, taking into account the comments and the report when making the final decision
and informing the public about that decision afterwards. In principle, it can be undertaken for
individual projects such as a dam, motorway, airport or factory (Environmental Impact
Assessment) or for plans, programmes and policies (Strategic Environmental Assessment).

EIA in Nepal
In early 1980s, the need for EIA was realised in Nepal for integrating environmental aspects in
development programmes and projects. In the beginning, the donor agencies and/or development
partners encouraged and provided fund to carry out projects specific EAs. This prompted the
government to include EA requirements in their policies. In mid-1980s, the environmental
assessments of some infrastructure projects were done by ‘learning by doing approach’,
i.e.,through limited knowledge and skills. This enhanced public awareness on the importance and
benefits of the tool. This also contributed to formulate policies and environmental laws.

Policies and Strategies

Although planned development was started in 1957 (2013B.S.), Nepal realized the imortance of
environment conservation in the mid-1970, and included policies since the Fifth Plan (1975-’80).
This plan included land use related policies and policies on natural resource management

The Sixth Plan (1980-’85) emphasised on the integration of environmental aspects while
constructing large-scale development projects. During this period, establishment of
Environmental Impact Study Project (EISP) in 1982 carried out environmental assessment of the
completed projects to record adverse effects on the environment.

The Seventh Plan (1986-’90) stated a policy of implementation of developmental programmes

only after EIA study. The Plan showed the need to carry out EIA of industrial, tourism,
transportation water resources, urbanisation, agriculture, forests and other development
programmes to identify adverse impacts on the enironment.
The Eight Plan (1992-’97) emphasised the need for carrying out EIA of both central and local
level projects before their implementation. The Plan included programmes for the formulation of
EIA guidelines for different sectors, conduct EIA study of large-scale development projects in
road, hydropower, industry, irrigation, settlement, drinking water and sewerage. It also included
programmes for environmental monitoring.

The Ninth Plan (1997-2002) introduced policies to promote participatory EIA system, carry out
EIA study to ensure biodiversity conservation while implementing remote area development
projects, and make necessary procedures for stakeholders participation in EA process.

The Tenth Plan (2002-’07) re-emphasized to monitor the implementation status of the projects,
which carried out EIA study. The Plan for the first time recognized the need for carrying out
SEA (Strategic Environmental Assessment) to any policy before adoption.

The Industrial Policy 1992 has emphasized on adopting measures to minimise adverse impacts
on the environment during the establishment, expansion and diversification of industries. The
policy opens avenues to formulate guidelines and standards in order to check and minimize
adverse effects of pollution.

The Tourism Policy 1995 emphasises on implementing environmental protection programmes in

an effective and integrated manner to promote sustainable tourism development. The need for
developing tourism environmental guidelines, and a local code of conduct concerning the
environmental is also realised (MOTCA, 1996).

The National Solid Waste Management Policy, 1996 highlights the importance of carrying out
EIA prior to the selection of the final waste disposal site.

The Hydropower Policy 1992 incorporated the concept of EIA. The Hydropower Development
Policy 2001 has a policy to make necessary arrangement in order to minimise the environmental
impacts of hydropower projects and rehabilitation of displaced families.

The Irrigation Policy 1993 (revision 1997) made specific provision and urge to design and
implement irrigation and program based on the recommendations of EIA and IEE study. The
new Irrigation Policy 2003 has a working policy to identify and select irrigation projects taking
into account.

The National Wetland Policy 2003 has also included the need for carrying out EIA in accordance
with the existing laws for the development projects and actions, planned for implementation
nearyby the wetlands.
Lists of projects for EIA in Nepal
A number of government, semi-government, NGOs and private sector institutions are involved in
the implementation of EIA. Their roles and responsibilities are given below, however with
reference to Nepal.
1. Parliament
Parliament is the highest legislative body. In relation to EIA implementation it has power
and responsibility to discuss environmental policy in general, and EIA in particular,
to discuss reject or approve legislation concerning EIA mandates, and
to pass resolution for making national policy commitment to implement EIA of
development projects.
2. Parliamentary Committee on Environmental Management (PCEM)
PCEM is a multi-party committee, chaired by the senior member of the Parliament of ruling
party and it has following functions:
settling the environmental disputes at the political level,
has the power and responsibility for review, and monitoring
discuss and suggest necessary changes in the environment related bills to be tabled in the
House of Representatives,
also acts as the watch dog on the activities and performance of the Environmental related
ministries
PCEM can investigate and evaluate the policies programme of environment related
activities and recommend to take necessary actions.
3. The Cabinet
The cabinet is the highest executive body in the country. The roles of the Cabinet in regards to
environmental matters are:
discuss and approve the legislation proposals related to environment to be submitted to
the Parliament,
approves the rules and regulation related to environment, submitted by sector-specific
ministries,
discuss the environmental issues of national importance and give necessary instruction to
the concerned ministries for implementation, and
leading Ministry with EIA responsibility (MOPE in case of Nepal) is answerable to the
cabinet for their performances.

4. National Planning Commission (NPC)

NPC is the principle Policy advisory body of the government. It has mandate to prepare overall
development plans and strategy for environmental protection. Further, it has following functions:
bring an inter-sectoral coordination (horizontal coordination)
integrate environmental concerns into development process,
acts as coordinator, mediator, arbitrator in competing issues of the line ministries
NPC is answerable to the Prime Minister and Environmental Protection Council.
5. Environmental Protection Council (EPC)
The EPC was founded by executive decision in 1992 and is under the chairmanship of the Prime
Minister. It is not a statutory body. Ten out of the total membership of 23 consists of ministers.
Only the Chief secretary of HMG/N is an ex-officio member.
The Minister of Population and Environment is the Vice-Chairman of the EPC and the Secretary
of the Ministry is also the ex-officio Member-Secretary. The EPC is ideally suited to achieve the
highest level multi-sectoral political commitment on environment policy and programs. It is a
good forum for policy review, political consensus and multi-sectoral commitment. However at
the moment, it is not active and functional in Nepal.
6. Ministry of Population and Environment (MOPE)
The establishment of the ministry of Population and Environment (M0PE) was announced on
September 22, 1995. MOPE's mandate to be primarily responsible for formulating and
implementing policies, plans and programs; preparing Acts, Regulations and Guidelines and
enforcing them, conducting surveys, studies and research; disseminating information and
carrying out publicity; monitoring and evaluating programs; developing human resources; and
acting as a national and international focal point in the domain of environment.
The Ministry as the lead agency for environment has the responsibility to formulate a legislative
framework for EIA enforcement in Nepal. It has the responsibility to work out policy,
legislation, administrative procedures and sector-specific technical guidelines in coordination
with concerned line ministries. MOPE has a very important role in promoting the EIA process by
helping the sectoral ministries to develop their own guidelines and training their manpower.
Ministry of Environment is answerable to cabinet, parliament and Parliamentary Committee, and
to the people at the large.
7. Final Approval of EIA by Ministry of Population and Environment
The concerned Ministry submits Scoping, TOR and IEE or EIA reports of the projects with the
comments to Ministry of Population and Environment for final approval. The Ministry of
Environment constitutes a review committee with the representation from concerned Ministries,
project proponent and EIA expertise. Upon the review of documents submitted, the Ministry
provides the decision on:
approved without conditions,
 approval with condition, and
disapproval and send back to concerned ministry with instruction for improvement.
8. NGOs/Private Sector
NGOs and private sector institutions have the roles of promoting EIA awareness, providing
consultancy services for preparing EIA documents, EIA monitoring and EIA audit. With the
introduction of privatization and the liberalization policy in Nepal, the role of government is
being minimized day by day. Many private companies and foreign investors are interested in
launching heavy industries, hydro-projects and road networks and so on. These developers would
require the services of competent and trained manpower in the private sector to prepare EIA,
documents and obtain permits or licenses for their projects. Development of trained human
resources to be used in private sector for effective EIA is another challenge.

Steps involved in EIA

The steps involved in EIA are listed below.
i. Conduct IEE (Initial Environmental assessment)
It is the preliminary evaluation to determine if full EIA is needed.
ii. Screening of project
The criterion involved for the screening of projects is as follows.
 Land area involved
 Whether areas beyond immediate project location are affected.
 Aesthetic impacts on natural beauty.
 Whether high capital investment or land cost are involved.
 Whether expensive equipments/facilities are required.
iii. Comparison of alternatives
iv. Scoping of EIA
 Identify issues of concern
 Determine the evaluation process
 Find out all relevant aspects of environmental impacts.
 Public involvement in determining factors of evaluation.
 Ways and means of saving time and money.
v. Preparation of TOR(Terms of Reference) for EIA
It involves the project proposal and alternatives.
 Environmental components requiring detailed study
 Likely significant impacts to be investigated
 Actions required to be minimized
 Economic evaluation of environmental impacts
 Monitoring program during project operation and beyond
 Mitigation measures if needed
 Whether to implement project or not
  Completion date for EIA
vi. Assessment of impacts
vii. Comparison of alternatives
viii. Determining mitigation measures
ix. Cost Budget Analysis

Conclusion
Thus we see that EIA is a very important step to undertaken before starting a project. The
importance of EIA can be summarized as follows.
 Increasing complexity and interrelated nature of project impacts
 Larger scale of development and other human activities
 Greater magnitude and extent of impact on the environment
 Long lasting impacts/temporal scale
 Serious potential effects on biodiversity, ecosystem