Representatives of different Stakeholder institutions met in a one day workshop to review and validate Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) guidelines for five specific sectors namely tannery, agro processing industries, mining oil and petrol stations, and slaughterhouses. The meeting brought together stakeholder institutions that have a role to play in the mentioned sectors with the aim of reviewing the work done by independent consultants and providing inputs and recommendations for the finalisation of the guidelines.

In her opening remark, Eng. Coletha RUHAMYA, the Deputy Director General of REMA, expressed the expected contribution of the upcoming sector specific guidelines in promoting the sustainable development of Rwanda.

“I confidently believe that concrete guidelines will be developed encompassing all the ideas generated from this meeting. REMA and the country in general expect to have results from these guidelines fostering our economic development in a sustainable way” the deputy DG mentioned.

The Deputy DG further challenged EIA practitioners to act more professionally and effectively since this is a challenging work.

“Conducting EIA is not an easy task unless it's substandard. It is a multidisciplinary exercise demanding diverse and relevant expertise” She pointed out. 

Following the establishment of Environmental Impact Assessment by the Organic Law N° 04/2005 of 08/04/2005 determining the modalities of protection, conservation and promotion of environment in Rwanda, REMA felt the necessity to develop Guidelines that set the requirements and procedures for Environmental Impact Assessment Studies. In 2006 general EIA guidelines were developed and became the overall guiding document to REMA, EIA Experts, Projects developers and any other stakeholder in the EIA studies.

As EIA evolved, guidelines that are specific to each sector of activities were thought of. One of the aims was to have a guiding document that go deeper into the specificities of each project to ensure that no specific issues are forgotten during the entire EIA study period. The first Sector Specific EIA guidelines were therefore developed for the sectors of Wetlands management, Housing constructions, Roads constructions, Water Resources Management, Hydropower Construction and Wastes Management.

It was later observed that there are other key sectors that have many projects being developed in Rwanda and which also need to have Sector Specific Guidelines for EIA Studies. These include Petrol and Oil Station Projects, Mining Activities Projects, Slaughter Houses Projects, Tannery Projects and Agro Processing Industries Projects.