Effectiveness of the strategic environmental assessment process in Botswana

Abstract

There is a need for effective management of the natural resources and environment in developing countries because such countries have a high dependence on their natural resources and environment. Botswana is a developing country in southern Africa, with environmental problems arising from the pursuit for development. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is an emerging tool that can help towards the attainment of sustainable development. SEA has comparative advantages over its predecessor Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Although it is new and not well understood, SEA is well established in some developed countries. In Botswana, the SEA process has been borrowed from neighbouring South Africa and has twelve procedural steps. This research assessed the effectiveness of SEA in Botswana by examining sources of ineffectiveness in the process. Sand mining on Metsimotlhabe River on the outskirts of Gaborone, Botswana, was used as case study. Sand mining on Metsimotlhabe River has been a long standing source of environmental problems that is known to the environmental authorities in the country. The activity was put through all the SEA stages as implemented in Botswana. Long-term hydrological data analysis, Remote Sensing and GIS analysis, and impact identification tools helped identify negative environmental impacts upon which sustainability proposals that were subsequently made were based. Public participation in the process was achieved through interviews with government officials, focus group discussions and questionnaire administration at Metsimotlhabe village. There were indications from analysis of data that the extraction of sand from the river exceeded the Maximum Sustainable Yield. Major sources of ineffectiveness in the SEA process that were identified included limitations in the baseline environmental data stage upon which the rest of the SEA process relies. The result is errors that are passed on down the process. The assessments are also handled by consultants, with the possibility that the process would end up being result driven for financial gain instead of being objective about environmental considerations. Taking decisions on developmental activities in favour of socio-economic benefits at the expense of environmental well being was also identified as a source of ineffectiveness. The study determined that there is an adequate institutional framework for the SEA process in Botswana. However, a centralised agency to administer SEA and other environmental assessments is proposed, for purposes of streamlining and coordinating environmental assessment processes in the country given that the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is overstretched. This agency would also remove the role of consultants in environmental assessments in the country, to make the SEA process more effective.