Regulation and policy incentives for innovations in industrial effluents management in Ethiopia

Emmanuel Malifu, AAU

Bio-innovate Regional Experts Workshop on Industrial Effluents Management in East Africa

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 19-20 May 2014

Ethiopia Broad Brushed

• Ethiopia’s land area: 1,126,829 km2 (435,071 m2), 27th largest country• Population: 33.5 m (1983) -> 93.8 m (2013), from 9 m (19th Century)• Over 80% - rural-based, eking a living from backward agriculture• Addis Ababa: capital city, the only megacity - 3,041,002 (2012)• Agriculture: 41% of GDP; 80% of export; >80% of labor force; mainstay of the economy, occasioning other economic activities• Nominal GDP (2012): USD 41.9 billion; per capita: USD 513 • Gini and HDI indices (2011) - 33.6 (i.e. medium) and 0.396 (173rd or low), respectively• Land degradation rife <-> deforestation/erosion most conspicuous • Forest area = 420,000 km² or 35% of land area (beginning 20th Century)• Recent estimate = 11.9%• Pollution: glowing salient by the day in urban settlements

ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS IN ETHIOPIA

Hierarchy of Laws:• Constitution (Constituent assembly)• Proclamation (Parliament)• Regulations (Minister of Councils)• Directives (Regulatory body, e.g. ministries)

Constitutions

• Four constitutions since 1930• First two (1931 & 1955) had nothing on Environment• Constitution of 1985 (Art 10)• The state shall ensure:

• ecological balance through conservation and development of natural resources (sub-article 1) • human settlement patterns correspond to distribution of natural resources

• Present constitution (1995) - came out with a number of provisions informing environmental governance

FDRE’s Constitution (1)Article 43 - Rights to DevelopmentThe Peoples of Ethiopia …have the right to improved living standards and to sustainable development (Sub-article 1).

Article 44 - Environmental right All persons have the right to a clean and healthy environment (Sub-article 1).

Article 91 - Cultural Objectives Government and all Ethiopian citizens shall have the duty to protect the country’s natural endowment, historical sites and objects (Sub-article 2).

FDRE’s Constitution (2)Article 92 - Environmental Objectives

• Government shall endeavor to ensure that all Ethiopians live in a clean and healthy environment (Sub-article 1).

• The design and implementation of programs and projects of development shall not damage or destroy the environment (Sub-article 2).

• People have the right to full consultation and to the expression of views in the planning and implementation of environmental policies and projects that affect them directly (Sub-article 3).

• Government and citizens shall have the duty to protect the environment (Sub-article 4).

SUBSIDIARY LEGAL INSTRUMENTS (1)

• The Ethiopian legal system - characterized by hierarchy of laws

• The constitution as fundamental law of the land sires subsidiary legislations

• Subsidiary legislation, in turn, flesh constitutions

• The three classes of subsidiary instruments with decreasing sway: proclamations, regulations and directives

SUBSIDIARY LEGAL INSTRUMENTS (2)• Making of regulatory instruments in Ethiopia has

mostly been an exercise in the accretion of piecemeal promulgations.

• Proclamations usually spell out four major regulatory edifices:– Establishment of organizational structure;– Building of knowledge base;– Placement of preventive and corrective measures,

and;– Erection of compliance scheme.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ORGANS ESTABLISHMENT PROCLAMATION NO. 295/2002

• This proclamation has been bolstered and/or modified by Proclamation No. 803/2013 that upgraded EPA to MoEF.

• It has a welter of provisions promoting environmental protection with predilection to institutional structure, powers and duties.

• MoEF is to “Propose incentives or disincentives to discourage practices that may hamper …prevention of environmental degradation or pollution (Sub-article 12);

• “In accordance with the provisions of the relevant laws” MoEF is empowered to “enter any land, premise or any other place, …inspect anything and take samples” … to ascertain “compliance with environmental protection requirements (Sub-article 15)”;

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CONTROL PROCLAMATION NO. 300/2002 (1)

• This is a piece elaborating dos and don’ts that make sure constitutionally enshrined right “[A]ll persons have the right to a clean and healthy environment” is realized.

• Primarily, it is the Ministry (i.e. MoEF) and its regional environmental equivalents that are responsible for its enforcement.

• Provides ‘Environmental Standing’ (Article 17) empowering everyone to contest and intervene or environmental control practices.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CONTROL PROCLAMATION NO. 300/2002 (2)

The Preamble provides the underlying philosophy informing both the points of departure and arrival of the legislation.

• Some social and economic development endeavors may inflict environmental harm making endeavors counter-productive.

• Protection of the environment, in general, and safeguarding human health and well being, as well as maintaining biota and the aesthetic value of nature, in particular, are the duty and responsibility of all.

• It is appropriate to eliminate or …mitigate pollution as an undesirable consequence of social and economic activities.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CONTROL PROCLAMATION NO. 300/2002 (3)

Article 6 provides for Environmental Standards which could vary from case to case.

The Powers and Duties of Inspectors are spelled out in Article 8, Sub-article 1: (a) Ensure compliance with environmental standards …;(b) … enter any land or premises at any time …without prior notice or court order;(e) Take, free of charge, samples of any material as required and carry out … tests to determine …harm to the environment or to life;(g) Seize any equipment or any other object …believed to have been used in the commission of an offence ...

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION CONTROL PROCLAMATION NO. 300/2002 (4)

• Cardinal prohibition: “[N]o person shall pollute or cause any other person to pollute the environment by violating the relevant environmental standard (Article 3 Sub-article 1).”

• The Proclamation lists Punitive Measures to be meted in case of contravention. Generally, these consist of:– Fines, ranging from Birr 5,000 to Birr 20,000;– Incarceration, mostly between less than 1 year to 10 years; or – Both.

• Offences against polluters, for instance, consist of:– Natural person, between Birr 1,000 and 5,000 and/or imprisonment of

between 1 and ten years;– juridical person, between Birr 5,000 and 25,000, and the officer in charge,

between Birr 5,000 and 10,000 and/or imprisonment of between 5 to 10 years.

PUBLIC HEALTH PROCLAMATION NO. 200/2000

The Proclamation confers on MoH powers to regulate matters pertaining to public health.

• Article 8 provides for Food Quality Control prohibiting preparation, import, distribution, or making available to consumers any food which is unhygienic, contaminated, unwholesome or mislabeled.

• Prohibits such activities as polluting water bodies and the disposal of waste whether liquid or solid.

• Article 12 provides what may be required of those handling waste and its disposal: – No person shall dispose solid, liquid or any other waste in a manner which

contaminates the environment or affects the health of society (Sub-article 2).

• Article 20 lists penalties; Sub-article 2 punishes any person who disposes waste with simple imprisonment ranging from 3 months to 3 years and fine from Birr 1,000 to 9,000.

CRIMINAL CODE OF FDRE, PROCLAMATION NO. 414/2004

The purpose of Criminal Codes is to ensure order, peace and the security of the state, its peoples and inhabitants for the public good.

It achieves these by listing prohibitions of commissions or omissions, the infringement of which entails the wrath of the state.

Article 517 spells out wrongdoings and penalties they may entail in case of Contamination of Water: – Intentional contamination of drinking water, serving the needs of man or

animals, enlists fine or simple imprisonment for not less than one month, or, in more serious cases, with rigorous imprisonment not exceeding seven years (sub-article 1);

Article 519’s concern is Environmental Pollution. Its first sub-article punishes whoever, in breach of the relevant law, discharges pollutants into the environment, with fine not exceeding ten thousand Birr, or with rigorous imprisonment not exceeding five years.

As per Article 521, acts contrary to EIA involve, in the case of implementing a project without obtaining an EIA or when one makes false statements …, are punishable with simple imprisonment not exceeding one year.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL REGULATIONS, REGULATIONS NO. 159/2009 (1)• This is the only environmental regulations enacted by the executive. • It facilitates the implementation of the two major proclamations ministering

to environmental protection (ECPC & EIA). • Article 5 professes that a licensing agency can grant operational license to

industrial enterprises only when the latter can produce written consent from the relevant environmental agency testifying that the effluents they release into the ambient environment are not exceeding the limits set in the relevant environmental standard (Sub-article 1).

• Article 6 spells out the need and requirement to resort to best available techniques in the prevention, mitigation or disposal of pollutants.

• The need, amount and the circumstance in which incentives are to be granted is the concern of Article 10 of the Regulation.

• Incentives consist of increase in depreciation allowance (30% and 15% depending on pollution reduced) and a waiver of taxes when acquiring equipment or plant for treatment and spare parts thereof.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL REGULATIONS, REGULATIONS NO. 159/2009 (2)

• Article 15 arms competent environmental agencies with the power to slap administrative measures on miscreants contravening the proclamation.

• Article 19 grants waiver or exemption in enforcement of environmental laws for a duration of 5 years, a period that unwittingly expired only last November.

• All industrial enterprises, whether existing or new, to this day are basking in the self same environment where the enforcement of provisions on pollution control is on indefinite hold.

THE ETHIOPIAN POLLUTION SCENE (1)

• Present day Ethiopia can be said to be endowed with good and almost complete environmental laws.

• This, however, cannot be said when it comes to their implementation.

• It’s small wonder to find many enterprises spewing their waste, sometimes hazardous, into the ambient environment without any attempt to treat them.

• In fact, they do this with impunity, since, in actual fact, there are no liabilities (administrative, civil or criminal) attached to these actions of theirs, now or before.

THE ETHIOPIAN POLLUTION SCENE (2)

• On the other hand, there are industrial establishments that release their wastewaters after subjecting them to treatment.

• Of the nineteen textiles industries functional in the country, seventeen of them make use of treatment plants.

• There are also tanneries employing adequate treatment plants and incurring (unwarranted?) cost for doing so.

• Presently, a project is on the offing with the objective of forming a tannery cluster in Modjo town (i.e. Modjo Leather City (MLC)) out of the tanneries either already operational or under construction in Addis Ababa and its surrounding, as well as tanneries in Modjo.

MODJO LEATHER CITY• MLC’s land area of = 1,000,000 m2

• It is a project that is being implemented by the Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry in pursuit of the GTP.

• It is to be equipped with a common effluent treatment plant, complete with chrome recovery and an engineering landfill.

• MLC, in its first phase, is to accommodate a total of nineteen tanneries of which seven are from Addis Ababa and environs.

• MLC is also envisaged to lend the national leather industry with additional competiveness in the international market by providing the tanneries involved an economy of scale, besides the recovery and reuse of such important tannery but harmful inputs as chrome.

• The 17 operational tanneries to partake in the MLC between them consume daily approximately 10,000kg of chrome.

Modjo Modern Export Abattoir

There is in Modjo town, i.e. Modjo Modern Export Abattoir that has an effluent treatment plant that is producing biogas and bio-fertilizer from it’s wastewater.

Perhaps this is the only enterprise in the country at present making use of modern equipment in waste treatment that allows it to add value to its waste, enabling it to recover by-products.

RECOMMENDATION

• Enforce environmental laws and policies of the country strictly and commit sufficient budget, manpower (e.g. environmental inspectors), institutions, facilities and equipment along with due policy commitment to this end.

• Avoid overlaps, institutional turf protection (as against common purpose and camaraderie) and, above all, fill salient gaps.

• If the discharge standard is still on draft stage, finalize and apply it; if it is finalized, see to it that it is adequately implemented/adhered to.

• In the spirit of the green development strategy that Ethiopia has recently embarked upon, the relevant bodies have to consider emerging technologies and innovations that not only treat industrial effluent for safe disposal, but also convert them into useful by-products.

• Spawn research that promotes as well as facilitates the domestication or adoption of wastewater treatment technologies with focus on emerging technologies and innovations.

• Replace chemical fertilizers by bio-fertilizers as the former are mostly inaccessible, environmental unsound and economically exacting.

THANK YOU