GAZETTE NOTICE NO. 9345

PURSUANT to regulation 21 of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Impact Assessment and Audit) Regulations, 2003, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has received an Environmental Impact Assessment Study Report for the above proposed project. The proponent, West Kenya Sugar Company Limited, is proposing to construct 66kv overhead transmission line from West Kenya Sugar Factory in Kakamega to Pan Paper Mills in Webuye. The proposed project involves the construction of the proposed 66KV 30km long Overhead Transmission Line and associated sub-stations from West Kenya Sugar Factory to Pan Paper Mills in Webuye to dispatch 14MW of excess power generated from bagasse so as to promote manufacturing at Pan Paper Mills. The following are the anticipated impacts and proposed mitigation measures: Impact Mitigation Measures Air quality • Watering of all construction sites with appreciable dust should be mandatory. • Workers in dusty areas on the site should be issued with appropriate PPE, according to their nature of work and working area. • Use of well serviced machinery and company vehicles to reduce exhaust smoke levels. Impact Mitigation Measures Liquid waste • Ensuring there is no grey water runoff or management uncontrolled discharges from the site/working areas. • Prevent runoff loaded with sediment and other suspended materials from the site/working areas. • Construct impervious wash areas to reduce pollution on the environment. Solid waste • Contract a licensed garbage collecting company management to manage waste. • Properly collect, store, recycle or reuse construction waste to ensure that materials that would otherwise be disposed of as waste are diverted for productive uses. Noise, • Equip workers operating noisy equipment with vibration noise protection gear including ear muffs and disturbances plugs. • Observance of strict working hours (preferably 8 a.m.— 5 p.m.) during construction. • Ensure that noise levels emanating from machinery, vehicles and noisy construction activities (e.g. excavation, blasting) are kept at a minimum for the safety, health and protection of workers within the vicinity of site and nearby communities. • Install signs prohibiting unnecessary hooting and revving by project vehicles. Oil spill • Install oil trapping equipment in areas where hazards there is a likelihood of oil spillage. • Collect the used oils and re-use, re-sell, or dispose of appropriately. • Immediately institute clean up measures in case of an oil spill. Public safety • Cordon off the construction sites and only allow access to authorized personnel. • Place warning signs on strategic places. • Conduct education and awareness campaigns to dispel fear among community on the effects of electrostatic and magnetic forces. Soils • Apply soil erosion control measures such as levelling of the project site to reduce run-off velocity and increase infiltration of storm water into the soil. • Overburden removed during excavation to be used to fill or landscape the project area or in other areas. • Compact soils to reduce susceptibility to erosion. • Immediate re-vegetation and landscaping works to be carried out after the works to protect soils that have been exposed. Occupational • Ensure strict adherence to the safety designs health and established. safety • Ensure that access to the live sections of the project should only be by authorization and trained personnel. • Comply with all standard and legally required health and safety regulations as promulgated by Factories and Other Places of Work Act, OSHA, 2007 and its subsidiary legislation and also the ILO Guidelines on Safety and Public Health in, the construction activities. • Set up a standard first aid station on site. • Employ a Safety Officer on site with relevant training and knowledge of safety procedures. Impact Mitigation Measures • Provide the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment for staff. • Provide an insurance cover for the workmen. Vegetation • Conduct selective clearing of vegetation on the way-leave corridor. • Avoid unnecessary vegetation clearing. • With assistance from community, KeNHA, KFS and KW S, initiate a tree planting exercise. Wildlife • Ensure no worker engage in acts of poaching. • Restrict construction to day time. • Observe applicable Forest Reserve regulations. • Undertake wire marking to alert birds of the presence of power lines. Changes in • Undertake extensive public consultation during landscape the planning of the project. • Design structures at the site in such a way as to improve the beauty of the surroundings. • Restore site areas through backfilling, landscaping and planting of trees, shrubs and grass on the open spaces to re-introduce visual barriers. • Design and implement an appropriate landscaping programme. Land take and • Conduct a detailed and elaborate RAP where resettlement necessary. • Conduct consultation meetings with Project Affected Persons. • Ensure timely compensation for loss of property and land use. • Ensure adherence to country legal legislations and World Bank Safeguard Policy 4.12 on Involuntary Resettlement. Hiring of • Employs the locals in liaison with local leaders labourers and administration in unskilled and semi-skilled duties. • Make deliberate efforts to include at least 33% of women as employees within the project. • Put in place a code of conduct to prevent sexual harassment / exploitation of female employees. Social vices • Conduct periodic sensitization forums for employees on ethics, morals, general good behaviour and the need for the project to co- exist with the neighbours. • Offer guidance, counselling and support on HIV/AIDS and other STDs to employees. (a) Principal Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, NHIF Building, 12th Floor, Ragati Road, Upper Hill, P.O. Box 30126-00100, Nairobi. (b) Director-General, NEMA, Popo Road, off Mombasa Road, P.O. Box 67839-00200, Nairobi. (c) County Director of Environment, Kakamega and Bungoma counties. The National Environment Management Authority invites members of the public to submit oral or written comments within thirty (30) days from the date of publication of this notice to the Director-General, NEMA, to assist the Authority in the decision making process regarding this plan. MAMO B. MAMO, Director-General, MR/1443407 National Environment Management Authority. combustion products ) • Limiting the ash content of the waste feed via source control or selection. • Optimize voltage and other electric conditions of an ESP (to maximize capture of particles) • Having well-trained and certified employees that ensure that the combustor is operated to maximize combustion efficiency and that the emission control devices are operated to optimize conditions for pollutant capture or neutralization • Installation of well-designed and well- operated fine-particle of Air pollution Control device (APCD) such as filtration collectors, including primary fabric filters (baghouses); electrostatic collectors, including dry and wet electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and ionizing wet scrubbers; and wet inertial-impaction collectors, including enture scrubbers and advanced • designs that use flux-force condensation-enhancement techniques. • Optimize furnace operation, including temperature, oxygen concentration, and carbon monoxide concentration by optimizing grate speeds; under-fire and over-fire air-injection rates, locations, and directions; and operating auxiliary burners. • Maintain a maximum gas flow-rate limit to ensure adequate residence time in the combustion chamber and proper operation of the air pollution control equipment. • Installation acid gas scrubbers such as packed-bed absorber. The scrubbing liquid can be water or an alkaline solution, which reacts with the acid-gas constituents to form neutral salts. • Optimize flue-gas temperature in control devices (to minimize dioxin fonnation and to maximize condensation and capture of pollutants while avoiding gas dewpoint problems. • Installation of stack-gas monitors • Combustion-furnace designs, combustion- process modifications, or add-on controls such as ammonia or urea injection through selective or nonselective catalytic reduction. • Injecting activated carbon into the flue gas, or by passing the flue gas through a carbon sorbent bed, which adsorbs the trace gaseous constituents and mercury. • Limiting the Pb content of the waste feed via source control (Highly recommended) • Carbon removal through of finely divided activated carbon particles into the flue gas stream ahead of the particulate APCD. • Systematic injection of granular or powdered activated carbon upstream in the incinerator to remove dioxins and furans. Hazardous/infectious • Use of hazardous bags/ liners in handling solid wastes the waste. • Hazardous waste to be handled managed and disposed according to the Environmental Management and Co- ordination (Waste Management) Regulations, 2006. • Use of NEMA licensed waste dealer to be the collecting all waste from the points of generation the incinerator site. 13th November, 2020 THE KENYA GAZETTE 4509