Abstract: This environmental assessment for the Ghana Water Sector Restructuring Project discusses potential negative environmental impacts and proposes measures to mitigate them. It identifies potentially major impacts as soil waste generation, risks to public safety, disturbance and interruption of commercial and social activities, land acquisition, and conflicting demands for water use. Moderate risks include water pollution, nuisances and public health risks resulting from incidental and structural/institutional operational failures of the distribution network, and increased sludge from water treatment. No major residual impact is envisaged. Most of the residual impacts can be classified as minor. Mitigation measures to offset likely moderate impacts are listed as follows: preparation of a solid waste management plan, designation of approved sites for waste disposal, leaving old pipes in the ground when decommissioned, giving timely notice to communities of the construction, limiting the length of trenches, avoiding relocation as much as possible, agreement on compensation for use of private land or other property, implementation of a health and safety plan, selection of a dredging method to ensure minimization of increased turbidity, determination of the safe yield of the boreholes by developing an adequate hydrogeological investigation, and adequate coordination with other water users. Aside from these mitigation measures, the report identifies the need for further investigation of project alternatives where it concerns the location of the dumpsite for dredge spoil fro the Brimsu reservoir, the location of the boreholes, the detailed alignment of pipelines, and the decommissioning of the pipelines.
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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