An impact assessment of alternative access roads to the Mohale Dam, Lesotho
Master Thesis
1993
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University of Cape Town
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Purpose of Impact Assessments The purpose of Impact Assessments (lAs) is to reconcile society's needs for development with its need to conserve the environment. lA aims to assist planners to devise solutions that are sustainable and equitable, but still efficient. lA falls short In practice, the influence of lA on the planning process has been called into question: its recommendations are not always implemented, and some of its mitigatory measures have been narrow and naive. The gap between lA principles and lA praxis needs to be bridged by more effective procedures. Faulty problem formulation In this dissertation it is mooted that conventional lA , procedures, including the 1992 Integrated Environmental Management procedure, pay inadequate attention to the formulation of problems. There is a danger that lAs may focus on the wrong problem, or may misconstrue the right problem. Weak problem conception may then give birth to less than optimal solutions. Flawed solutions Following the lA for Contract 1000 (access roads to the Mohale Dam), only two alternative solutions were presented to the decision-maker for consideration. Of these, the LCAR is likely to be rejected because it is associated with high risks to the integrity of the biophysical environment, and because it costs M47 million (Malotis) more to construct than does the WAR. By default, the WAR is likely to become the preferred alternative; however it is unable to address some of the fundamental problems in the project area. Selection of the WAR as the access route for transporting materials to the Mohale Dam site "creates" groups of winners and losers in the affected society. In addition, failure to build the LCAR is equivalent to a lost opportunity (ie it represents an opportunity cost) for certain other groups of "losers" [see Table Sl]. The WAR, the best solution that conventional lA could generate, is manifestly a less-than-optimal solution. A problem-solving approach Analyses of the actual procedure followed during the lA for Contract 1000, and of the conventional approach to lA (according to the literature) point to the failure of lA procedures to recognise certain crucial features of environmental problems. lA procedures are not adapted to the dynamism or the complexity of environmental problems, and are not adequately designed to take into account interrrelationships (linkages) among either affected environments or among particular problems. lA is also in danger of becoming divorced from its political ("real world") context. In an attempt to address these failings of lA, a problem-solving approach to lA is developed. The new approach to lA is based on the 1992 IEM procedure, but is supplemented by elements of the natural human problem-solving process [after Miller 1985], and is also informed by Hill and Fuggle's [1990] classification of types and levels of alternatives.
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Mackinnon, H. 1993. An impact assessment of alternative access roads to the Mohale Dam, Lesotho. University of Cape Town.