Dodoma City Ring Road project gets EIA certificate for environmental impact assessment

The EIA study results show that although there are some limited negative environmental implications of the project, the local roads will have high socio-economic benefits to the people of Dodoma City and Dodoma in totality.

In accordance with the laws and environmental guidelines in force, as well as with AfDB’s ISS policy and Environmental and Social assessment procedures, the Dodoma City Outer Ring Road project is classified as Category 1.

The justification for this categorization relates to:

(i) the scope of the project (above 50 km)

(ii) the presence of environmental sensitive receptors in the Project area

(iii) and the number of Project Affected Persons (PAPs) which is above 200

As a category 1 Project, a full environmental and social impact assessment has to be undertaken to effectively inform the project's design and leverage the project's compliance with both national and international requirements.

The Environmental Impact Assessment has been conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Environment Management Act No. 20 of 2004 and the Environmental Impact Assessment and Audit Regulations (2005).

The Regulations give a mandate to NEMC to oversee the EIA 4 process, which culminates with an award of the EIA Certificate by the Ministry responsible for Environment.

The EIA Certificate is among the prerequisite approvals required before the project takes off.

The EIA study results show that although there are some limited negative environmental implications of the project, the local roads will have high socio-economic benefits to the people of Dodoma City and Dodoma in totality.

EIA study shows that associated negative impacts, to a large extent, have been minimized through good engineering design and envisaged construction practices.

Specific mitigation measures have been suggested in this report to offset some of the inherent adverse impacts. Implementing these mitigation measures would increase environmental soundness of the project road. It is, therefore, concluded that implementation of the proposed project will entail no detrimental impacts provided that the recommended mitigation measures are adequately and timely put in place.

The identified adverse impacts shall be managed through the proposed mitigation measures and implementation regime laid down in this EIS. TANROADS is committed to implementing all the recommendations given in the EIS and further carrying out the environmental auditing and monitoring schedules.