Environmental impact assessment for the proposed 10-storey building at H. Sandhaleege

Abstract

This report discusses the findings of an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) carried out for the proposed 10-store building at Sandhaleege, Henveyru, Burevi Magu, Malé. This project requires EIA as the building has a basement and the foundation of the building goes below 6 feet, under EIA regulations 2012 such buildings require EIA clearance from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The main objective of the EIA is to identify potential impacts of excavation, construction of foundation and dewatering and consider mitigation measures that can be adopted. In addition, the EIA would also consider other construction phase and operational phase activities such as waste management, energy and water supply although they are not directly related to the scope of the EIA. The main aim of the project is to provide a residence to the proponent and family. In addition the proponent aims to rent out floors in the apartment building for residential and commercial purposes. Looking at the existing environment of the site, the site is devoid of any significant flora or fauna. There is only one Moringa tree belonging to the proponent, the proponent will give this tree to whoever wants it. The traffic is at Burevi Magu is quiet low, this is mainly because it is not a main street. In this regard, it was found that mainly motor bikes used this road. However the noise level at the site is high, like in other parts of Malé, mostly due to construction activities undertaken nearby. The groundwater quality even though saline, is not very saline when compared to some other parts of Malé. Almost all of the negative impacts envisioned for the project occurs during construction phase and as highlighted previously most of these impacts are associated with substructure works. However, almost all these impacts are minor and can be reduced to negligible levels with the mitigation measures proposed in this report. In this regard, the potential negative impacts associated with this project can be summarised as impacts related to groundwater quality and quantity, impacts on nearby buildings in terms of structural damage, impacts on air quality, impact on ambient noise, impacts on utility services, impacts on traffic and impacts on health and safety. Mitigation measures proposed for the project like minimizing dewatering to the shortest possible time, ensuring proper storage and transport of construction material and waste, restricting noisy activities to day time, undertaking works by experienced operators and supervisors, avoiding closure of roads during peak rush hours and implementing international best practice health and safety standards will help to reduce the influence of most of the envisioned impacts to negligible levels. The EIA report proposes a monitoring program that will help to identify the actual impacts and to identify the effectiveness of the implemented mitigation measures. In this regard monitoring will include, monitoring of groundwater quality, monitoring of dust and noise, visual assessment of nearby buildings and monitoring of traffic condition. The monitoring reports will be submitted to EPA every two months during construction phase and once thereafter to meet the requirements of the EIA regulations. The reports will be submitted in the format specified in the EIA regulations. Overall, this project is a positive project for the proponent and the negative impacts envisioned are only for the construction phase and all these impacts can be easily mitigated.