Rural Energy Development Programme (REDP) has prepared a separate environmental management guideline as a standard manual for designing and implementing environmental management system in conjunction with the rural energy development schemes.

Environmental Assessment

National Environmental Guidelines 1993 and Environmental Protection Regulation 1997 do not make Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) mandatory for micro hydro projects. REDP undertakes EIA of all micro hydro projects that are proposed for implementation in its programme areas.

The objectives of the EA during development of Micro Hydro Village Electrification Programme are:

1. to collect information on the existing environment.
2. identify the protential micro level environmental impacts
3. analyze the significance of the potential impacts
4. recommend the preventive and mitigation measures
5. identify alternatives to the proposed project location and size , if needed and
6. comment on the viability of the schemes

Environmental Impacts

Environmental impact is defined broadly and includes all types of direct or indirect or cumulative effects and impacts on socio economic and cultural condition of communities, on biological setting of flora and fauna and physical resources like soil, water and air.

Impact Identification and Prediction

Methods like checklist, matrix, and network are used to identify all possible impacts MH scheme might incur. Magnitude, extent and duration of impacts are predicted based on baseline information collected.

Mitigation measures

Negative environmental impacts are avoided as far as possible by looking for all possible alternatives of the project location, scale, design, mitigation measures, economic factors and time schedules. If unavoidable, corrective and preventive mitigation measures are applied to minimize the adverse impacts to acceptable levels.

Public hearing

Public hearing about the environment impact of the project is generally carried out to make aware of all kinds of project impacts to the stakeholders of the project or programme.

EIA report

A EIA report with details on all possible environment impacts and mitigation measures is prepared.

Environment Programme Component

An integration of environment conservation activities with micro-hydro development scheme is very essential for sustainability of MH scheme. Under this component, community members are made aware on conservation of environment, environmental friendly technologies and soil conservation and erosion control activities.

The all over responsibility for the successful implementation of environmental activities is of the community organisation with technical support form DDC: REDS/REDP. The involvement of existing institutions such as relevant government and private agencies, local bodies, user groups, target groups, CBOs, etc are prioritized.

The major activities covered by this component are:

1. Forest Restoration and Management
2. Private Plantation
3. Hill Leasehold Forestry and Conservation of Natural Forest
4. Watershed Management / Conservation
5. Environment / Conservation Education Programme
6. Environmental Health and Sanitation
7. Promotion of Environmental friendly Technologies
8. Participatory Environmental Monitoring and Evaluation (PEME)