Windhoek
About 260 environmental impact assessments (EIAs) were processed during the 2014/15 financial year while inspections have been conducted to ensure companies adhere to the law.
In line with the provisions of the Environmental Management Act of 2007, the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, has undertaken to ensure development takes place with the least possible impact on the environment.
So far over 50 sites have been inspected countrywide including mines, quarries, sand mining operations and illegal tourism operations.
He however noted that the effect on the environment is becoming more challenging with increasing volumes and types of waste being generated across the country.
“We are highly concerned with the untidy state of many of Namibia’s towns, villages, informal settlements and roadsides. We will strengthen measures to arrest this situation during the 2015/16 financial year,” he pledged.
Shifeta also singled out the incidences of the Namib Customs Smelter (NCS) in Tsumeb, where industrial processes highly affected human health and its pollutants had an adverse effect on the surrounding environment.
Against this background, he said, the ministry during the year under review spearheaded the implementation of the cabinet resolution on the smelter.
This, he said, included a medical assessment of over 3 000 staff, upgrades to the smelter facility to minimize harmful emissions and the exposure to staff, as well as the component of the process to establish a Namibian institute for the occupational safety and health of employees.
Another critical issue facing Namibia is climate change, which he says has been caused by developed countries but one to which developing nations such as Namibia are especially vulnerable.
‘We are now experiencing severe and more frequent droughts, which cripples both the communal and commercial farming sectors. Water shortages are now also a critical concern for the economy and we need to come up with innovative solutions so that we can counter these threats,” he said, while elaborating that this calls for increased budgetary provision across all sectors.