Director Of Environmental Pollution

What is Climate Change Prevention & Strategy Implementation

Climate change is a burgeoning public health concern, with implications for chronic health conditions; nutrition and food security; food-, water-, and vector-borne diseases; and social disruption, injuries, displacement, and death associated with extreme weather.1 Climate change is contributing to health disparities in the United States by having a disproportionate impact on low-income individuals, some communities of color, and those with higher vulnerability to chronic health conditions.1 Moreover, these vulnerabilities can co-occur.
A central principle of public health is to provide individuals with sufficient knowledge to take action to prevent disease and promote health. In a 2014 national survey, we found that Americans have little ability to identify specific health problems that are caused or affected by climate change, or who is most at risk, despite expressing a general opinion that health can be harmed by climate change.2 A survey of Maryland residents found that geographic vulnerability, race/ethnicity, having a chronic medical condition, and being low-income are associated with perceiving greater health risk from climate change.3 These studies provide evidence that members of the public, particularly those groups most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, express apprehension about climate change, but are lacking information about how it affects their health, safety, and well-being, and therefore are limited in their ability to take action to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.

1/ Environmental Laboratory
Generate information and technologies that will help to solve societal problems in the areas of environment, forest and climate change. It is known that one of the problems in the country is lack of reliable analytical data on the status of pollution of mainly water, soil, and air which is needed for proper decision making by the regulatory bodies. Therefore, it is highly important to have an environmental testing laboratory equipped with the state-of-the-art analytical facilities and trained manpower to address the above mentioned issue.
To support the research carried out at the institute by generating reliable analytical data, To generate reliable and legally defensible analytical data needed for environmental compliance monitoring including implementation of the Stockholm Convention on POPs and the Cartagena protocol on Biosafety done by MEFCC, and To provide laboratory analysis service upon request to customers coming from other national and regional research institutes as well as higher learning institutions.
Focus areas of the Directorate
The Environmental Laboratory Directorate has two divisions, viz. the Physicochemical and the Biological Analysis division.
The Physicochemical Analysis Division
This division is established to work on the chemical analyses of environmental samples and generate reliable analytical data on inorganic and organic pollutants in water, soil, edible plants, air and other relevant environmental matrices. The major analytes of interest are major cations and anions, aggregate organic pollutants, heavy metals and trace organic pollutants. At present the physicochemical division consists of water quality testing and soil chemical analysis laboratories. There is one ongoing project entitled “Awash River monitoring”. The purpose of the project is to do trend analysis regarding the concentration of certain heavy metals in the river. The water samples are taken twice a year, i.e., during the dry and the wet season. The laboratory under this division is located at the Central Ethiopia Environment and Forest Research Center (CE-EFRC) here in Addis Ababa.

The Biological Analysis Division
This division is established to carry out analysis in the field of environmental microbiology with a special focus on soil and water microbiology issues. The data from such analyses can support research carried out to minimize the impact of environmental pollutants on water and soil. In addition, the division is also committed to generating analytical data on the status of GMOs in agricultural products. The data will be used by MEFCC for regulatory purposes in implementing the Cartagena protocol on Bio-safety which the country has already ratified. Therefore, it is highly expected that the biological analysis division generates information on the status of GMOs in agricultural products in Ethiopia. At present, the division is working hard on fulfilling the necessary laboratory chemicals and equipment’s to achieve its goals. The division also supports research carried out on transgenic plants found in confined areas to improve their productivity, adapt and grow them in drought and saline areas.
Laboratory Services
We provide water and waste water quality test:
Physical test
Chemical test
Microbiological test
One -time or continues sampling and quality testing
Laboratory or In-situ testing
Consultancy on issues related to quality and Treatment

2/ Environment And Community Impact Assessment
A process for predicting and assessing the potential environmental and social impacts of a proposed project, evaluating alternatives and designing appropriate mitigation, management and monitoring measures. Environmental impact assessment (EIA) was developed as a tool to minimize negative impact of human activities on the environment. The purpose of the environmental impact assessment is toassess the impact of a proposed activity on the environment before making the decision on whether to carry it out, anddevelop and assess measures to avoid or minimize those impacts if it is decided to carry out the activity.

EIA can be defined as a process of collecting information about environmental impacts of a proposed project and consequent relevant decision-making. EIAs also consider aspects such as project alternatives and mitigation measures which should be applied if the project is allowed. History of EIA is almost 50 years long. During this time EIA has developed as a complex tool, which helps in decision-making in the case of proposed projects and helps to identify variation of the projects which will have a minimal impact on the environment in case of acceptable cost. The process of EIA comprises a number of different stages such as screening, scoping, reviewing, and completion. These stages of EIA may be labeled differently in different parts of the world, but their goals are similar. In the EIA process, a range of organizations may be involved, including government agencies, developers, nongovernmental, and public organizations. The level of involvement may vary significantly depending on the type of project that is assessed.
Services
Environmental and social impact assessments (ESIAs)
Stakeholder consultations
Undertake and/or manage baseline studies (using appropriate in-house, local or international consultants)
Management (action) and monitoring plans and systems development
Closure planning and costing
Land acquisition, resettlement and compensation planning
Training of company staff on international trends and best practices such as those set by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and International Council of Mining and Metals (ICMM)
Our Approach
ESIA’s are conducted by SRK in a phased manner in close contact with the project development team
Multi-specialist technical knowledge is combined with project management to ensure appropriate level of study undertaken
Consideration is taken of host country regulations & guidelines, corporate standards and lender requirements
Management (action) and monitoring plans and systems development
Integral stakeholder consultations are used to understand and address interested and affected parties concerns
SRK holistically considers social, environmental, labour and community health and safety for the overall project, including any support infrastructure or services

3/ Director Of Environmental Pollution
Environmental pollution or simply pollution refers to undesirable changes occurring in the physical, chemical, and biological composition of natural environment consisting of air, water, and soil. Pollution also means the presence of harmful pollutants in an environment that makes this environment unhealthy to live in.
According to National Academy of Science, USA (1966), pollution is defined as, “An undesirable change in physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of water, air, and soil that may harmfully affect human, animal, and plant life, industrial progress, living conditions and cultural assets.
Pollution is also viewed as ‘an unfavorable alteration’ in the sustaining and carrying capacity of the natural environment wholly or largely by the byproducts of human activities. Natural environment has an inbuilt capacity to replenish the losses or reduction in its constituents to restore it as sustainable and healthy as required.
Ever expanding population and evolution of man into modern homo sapiens have led to rapid urbanization, industrialization and unprecedented rise in human habitations. All these human endeavors have, in turn, virtually perpetuated deforestation, loss of habitats for flora and fauna, depletion of natural resources at a large scale over the last couple of centuries, which have told upon the inherent resilience of the natural environment. As a result, natural environment continues to be undesirably polluted.
Pollutants
A pollutant is defined as any form of energy or matter or action that causes imbalance or disequilibrium in the required composition of natural objects such as air, water, etc. A pollutant creates damage by interfering directly or indirectly with the biogeochemical process of an organism.
Pollutants may be −
Natural Pollutants − Natural pollutants are caused by natural forces such as volcanic eruption and forest fire.
Man-made Pollutants − These refer to the release of excess amount of gases or matter by human activities. For instance, increase in the number of automobiles adds excess carbon monoxide to the atmosphere causing harmful effect on vegetation and human health.
Classification of Pollution
Different types of pollution are classified based on the part of the environment which they affect or result caused by a particular pollution. Each type of pollution has its own distinctive cause and consequences.
The major types of pollution are as follows:
Air pollution
Water pollution
Microbiological test
Noise pollution
Soil or land pollution

4/ Environmental Operations Audit And Awareness
Many initiatives have been taken with an environmental focus for the AFROSAI-E region. We have had several interventions on environmental auditing in the region and courses, audits, guidelines, working paper templates and training exercises focused on introducing environmental auditing within the region. These interventions are the course in Arusha, Tanzania in 1999, the workshop in Nelspruit, South Africa in 2002 and the course in Nairobi, Kenya in 2004.
Furthermore a guideline relating to compliance auditing of medical waste has been utilised since 2002 in various SAI’s within the region. SAI’s from Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa participated during 2005 in an audit looking at solid waste management. Technical update meetings in Durban, South Africa in 2007 and in George, South Africa in 2008 were held where guidelines on Environmental Auditing were developed and/or updated and presented to the participants. In 2009 a regularity audit workshop was held in Johannesburg and working paper templates, and a training exercise related to environmental matters were part of the regularity audit model file and the participant’s notes.
The 2009 guideline is concerned with government entities that may be categorised into three groups; Government entities with the power to make or influence environmental policy formulation and regulation – whether internationally, nationally or locally, Government entities which have the power to monitor and control the environmental actions of others, and Government entities whose operations impact/affect the environment (directly or indirectly), whether that is positive or negative – such as by rehabilitation or (conversely) pollution and utilisation. Specific working paper templates, as well as system description and reliance on control working paper templates have been compiled together with three examples of completed working papers. These examples cover a Provincial Hospital, a Military Air Force Base and a Government garage, whose operations directly or indirectly impact/affect the environment by pollution.
When planning its audit the SAI should consider the risks and materiality of the Government environmental programme or activity, taking account of the resources involved, the importance of the environmental problem to be addressed, and the magnitude of the intended effect.
The skills of the regularity auditors must be utilised and they must be prepared to look beyond auditing financial statement. The AFROSAI-E guidelines, supported by the international audit standards, provides an opportunity for the regularity auditors to move towards non-financial information in a systematic manner.More recently, public pressure over environmental issues has created a new set of constraints acting upon industrial production.
4/ Energy Technology Promotion
Energy technology is an interdisciplinary engineering science having to do with the efficient, safe, environmentally friendly and economical extraction, conversion, transportation, storage and use of energy, targeted towards yielding high efficiency whilst skirting side effects on humans, nature and the environment.
For people, energy is an overwhelming need and as a scarce resource it has been an underlying cause of political conflicts and wars. The gathering and use of energy resources can be harmful to local ecosystems and may have global outcomes.
Using renewable energy reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and air pollution associated with energy production and helps diversify the nation’s energy supply. EPA supports the growing green power market by purchasing and generating renewable energy in a variety of forms.
“Green power” is a subset of renewable energy and represents those renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit by reducing the emissions associated with traditional electricity sources.

Sources of renewable energy include:
Wind power, Solar power, Geothermal technologies, Landfill gas, Biomass power, Low-impact small hydropower
EPA acquires green power in one of three ways:
Onsite generation, Utility-supplied green power, Renewable energy certificates (RECs)
These purchases promote growth in the green power marketplace and help the Agency avoid greenhouse gas emissions associated with its energy consumption.