final production (NEMA 1995). The documents are still NEMA clearly appreciates the importance of tracking fa-
extensively used by university-level students. In addition, cility emissions and pollution in achieving the authority’s
the documents have for some time now been recom- monitoring and compliance strategy. The authority there-
mended text for the A-level geography course (Paper 3 on fore developed an inspections and audits database to ver-
Regional Geography of Uganda). ify the information generated by the processing facilities.
The two databases are populated with data from EIAs, en-
Supporting environment monitoring and vironmental audits and compliance agreements. To date
compliance information from 1,822 EIAs, 159 audits, and 42 com-
Processing facilities engage in a range of activities that pliance agreements have been entered into the database
may have significant impacts on the environment, long- (Kutesakwe 2008). A code of conduct for Environmental
term sustainability and the health and well-being of peo- Inspectors that includes specifications for reporting and
ple. These negative impacts relate to poor disposal of guidelines for facility-level reporting has also been pro-
waste and pollution of the environment. Whereas Ugan- duced for use by the industries.
da’s industrial base is still small, there are already signs
of pollution and widespread degradation of the environ- The development of the monitoring and compliance da-
ment. Yet the country’s economic growth strategy is pri- tabase is a step in the right direction as it provides the
vate sector and industry led (NEMA 2004). opportunity to develop standardized data elements, to
integrate (its) data systems. It should also encourage col-
The Environment Act requires that all facilities under- laborative work with other regulatory institutions as co-
take Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) of their owners of the data systems, and promote new approaches
activities before they are commissioned. The Act further to better collection, use and dissemination of data. There
requires that any person or persons who carry out any ac- are also planned improvements to the datasets, includ-
tivity, which has, or is likely to have significant impact on the ing adding geo-coordinates information, ability for trend
environment, and any person carrying out any other activity analysis, and automatic updates.
prescribed by the Act shall keep records relating to the amount
of waste and by-products generated by the activity; the extent Whereas the effort expended in the above area is com-
of his activities indicating the economic value of the activ- mendable, the full benefits of the data infrastructure are
ity on the area covered expressed in monetary value of the yet to be demonstrated. There is little public disclosure of
product per year; the observable effects of the activity on the the information in the databases, and internal use of the
environment; and how far in the opinion of that person, the datasets even within NEMA is still limited. The promise to
provisions of the Act have been complied with’. The Act also make the databases fully interactive has yet to be achieved.
requires that the records kept under Section 78 be trans- The downside of this is that no moral pressure has been
mitted to the authority or its designated representative exerted on processing facilities to do their own disclosures.
annually and received not later than a month after the Many of the facilities only continue to generate the data
end of each calendar year. because it is a legal requirement but have no pro-active
policy or incentive to disseminate their facility informa-
The above mentioned information is important in sup- tion to the public. It has also been indicated, that although
porting NEMA’s audit and inspection functions. These the law requires that facilities provide information on their
data are also important in acting as powerful incentives operations on request, many industries including Uganda
for self monitoring by processing facilities. They allow in- Breweries Limited and Kasese Cobalt Company Limited
formal monitoring and self or voluntary audits by the so have in the past declined to release information on their
called regulated community. operations to the public (ACODE unpublished).
20 Best Practices in Environmental Information Management in Africa
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32