Comprehensively assess long-term resources, roles, and responsibilities implicated for partner institutions as part of environmental sustainability planning during project design. The Environment and Natural Resources Management (ENRM) Project acquired dredging equipment on behalf of Malawi’s Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) that would enable it to remove large volumes of built-up sediment that had accumulated at its hydropower plants, and to implement a sediment management plan over the longer term. This strategy included plans for EGENCO to construct a sediment disposal area adjacent to its generating station, with detailed designs and studies to inform estimates of when the disposal area would reach capacity, which would trigger the need for new or alternative disposal strategies. However, when dredging volumes exceeded the original estimates, no viable prospects for new disposal areas had been identified. Further, plans for discharging sediment into the river during rainy seasons had been largely abandoned due to concern about downstream environmental impacts and objection to the plan from downstream communities. Dredging and disposal of sediment will become increasingly complex as EGENCO runs out of options for cost-effective disposal areas in close proximity to their dredging operations. As a result, the evaluation found that limited options for sediment removal and discharge present a significant risk to the sustainability of dredging operations. Despite the fact that construction and management of sediment disposal areas was expected to be EGENCO’s responsibility , the project would have benefited from a more comprehensive sediment management strategy at the time of inception; this could have included additional scoping of potential sites for sediment disposal, as well as pre-identified uses, and users, of generated sediment, such as for reforestation, repurposing for agricultural use, or other alternatives. For future projects involving infrastructure or equipment that would generate significant volumes of sediment discharge into the environment, a holistic approach should be initiated starting from the source of the sediment (such as the watersheds), through the operation, including full costing, through to disposal. This approach should cover the whole lifetime of the investment, and should be coupled with a detailed strategy identifying the expected volumes, time frames, land and resource needs, roles and responsibilities, and potential uses of generated material. Stakeholders with primary responsibility for managing environmental impacts should be identified early and equipped to perform critical tasks.
Lesson Learned