EIA follow up: a case study of Koga irrigation project, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, the importance of follow-up in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process is clearly recognized. Follow-up involves the implementation of measures taken to mitigate the adverse environmental impacts of a project and monitoring to determine their effectiveness. This paper reports on a study of the follow-up of EIA-recommended mitigation measures in the Koga irrigation and watershed management project. The study found that the monitoring of impacts and the implementation of mitigation measures are currently very poor. Public participation in the project is also very limited. Hence, unless improvements are made it is likely the sustainability of the project may be severely compromised.