Interview: Caring into the future

12 September 2011

The ECZ was established in 1992, and mandated to protect Zambia’s environment and control pollution. Its semi-autonomous character, along with the involvement of a wide spectrum of stakeholders, ensures objective and unbiased decision making, based on government policy and principles. It enforces the provisions of the 1990 Environmental Protection and Pollution Control Act (EPPCA), and is unique in the region.

Capacity.org talked with ECZ director, Paul Banda, who began his career as an environmental inspector in the mining industry after graduating from the University of Zambia in 1984. He first joined the ECZ in 1992 as head of the waste management unit and later as a chief inspector. In 2000, he left to work at the newly formed National Water Supply and Sanitation Council in a similar capacity. He returned to the ECZ in 2007 as a consultant in pollution monitoring, and was appointed director in 2009.

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The Environmental Council of Zambia has been in existence for nearly 20 years now. Can you give a brief historical overview?

In the early 1980s, the Zambian government began to develop a national conservation strategy. Our first president, Kenneth Kaunda, was very keen to have a strategy for environmental issues. From the beginning, this was a multi-stakeholder process, coordinated by the National Council for Scientific Research. Representatives from across a number of sectors were involved, including the private sector, government institutions, research institutes, non-governmental organisations and even the president himself.

They started by gathering information about the environment here in Zambia. This resulted in the 1985 National Conservation Strategy. This policy document outlined the key environmental issues of that time – the depletion of forests, wildlife and fisheries, and pollution control. The strategy also addressed the fact that there was no institutional framework for environmental matters. The various issues were scattered among a number of departments and they were not well coordinated. So the strategy recommended the establishment of a comprehensive legal and institutional framework to look after environmental concerns.

This process resulted in the EPPCA and in the establishment of the ECZ as an institution to deal with environmental issues. While the ECZ has continued over the years to be semi-autonomous, it is still a government institution. We are funded by the government. We also implement government policy. But when it comes to implementation, we take decisions in an independent way in accordance with government policy and the EPPCA.

As the issues have changed over the years, so too has the ECZ. The emphasis has shifted from prevention and pollution control to environmental management. Climate change has become a major issue along with strategic assessments. We need to be involved in the mainstreaming of environmental issues at all stages of the planning cycle including the design, implementation and evaluation phases. Previously we were also involved in the planning stage when environmental impact assessments were done, but these were project related. Now we start at the strategic programme level. All government departments are now mainstreaming environmental concerns in their activities.

The enforcement of environmental regulations is at the top of your list of functions. What instruments do you have for this?

We have a number of tools. First we have the licences. No activity that impacts on the environment can take place without a licence. Everything has to be approved and have conditions attached. These conditions are inserted to ensure sustainability, and then we engage in inspections to monitor compliance. Where there is non-compliance, we take corrective action in terms of advising the person or organisation who is in breach. If that does not work, we can stop activities until the situation is rectified. Sometimes we have to prosecute.

But we never lose sight of the fact that environmental education and raising awareness are key elements of ensuring good environmental management and compliance with standards.

What do you consider to be the main achievements of the Council?

All new projects of a certain size – whether they are run by the government, the private sector or any other type of organisation – must be assessed to ensure that the activities they involve comply with environmental norms and standards. I think that is a big achievement.

Of course, it does not mean that there is no pollution any more. In the mining sector, there are many facilities that pre-date the EPPCA. They were not compliant and very polluting, so we started to bring them in line by, for example, obliging them to retro-fit smelters to capture emissions. We have been able to achieve significant improvements here, although we have not yet reached full compliance. Many of these plants are expected to be in full compliance in the next three to five years. Because we have reduced emission levels overall, it is now possible to build more plants, with much lower levels of emissions. This is good for the economy, for society and for the environment.

Our capacity to enforce has improved tremendously. Our staff has become much more professional over the years, the equipment we work with has improved and the regulations governing environmental issues have developed. The level of awareness has also increased. There is a lot of interest in and concern about environmental issues. Sometimes that backfires on us because people expect more now and are demanding better environmental performance.

Gathering and processing data is still a major capacity gap for us, especially at the local- government level. The information we have is not adequate for the decisions we have to make or the regulations we need to adopt. There is also a need for more research.

What external support did you get to bring ECZ to where it is today?

In the 1980s, when the National Conservation Strategy was being developed, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) became involved. At that time, conservation was fashionable and the government invited the IUCN to assist.

NORAD, the Norwegian development agency, was also involved at that stage, and gave support for data management. Later, they helped us to develop an ICT-based management tool that would give us easy access to updated pollution-relevant information. We used this for enforcement purposes. Their support was a mix of funding and technical assistance.

We also asked for capacity-building support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). NORAD and CIDA were the two key partners over the years. CIDA support consisted of technical assistance from two consultants who were based in our office and who gave us communications support. NORAD provided back-up on issues such as pollution prevention and protection by linking us with a similar institution in Norway.

The CIDA and NORAD approaches differed in the way funds were allocated. The CIDA support came through a private-sector organisation. We would sit together, draw up plans, agree on them and funds would be advanced for the implementation of that activity. With NORAD, the resources were managed and administered by us. We would make a plan with a budget for a specific period and funds would be released. We would report and account for how the funds were being spent. Every year, there was a review, which was sometimes conducted by a Norwegian expert and sometimes by a Zambian expert. Although both the CIDA and NORAD approaches were responsive to our needs, we preferred the NORAD approach in which we were entrusted with the management and administration of the resources. This helped us to develop technically, and taught us how to account for the resources we were given.

We also received support from the World Bank to help us to improve our environmental auditing skills – which are essential for effective compliance-monitoring of environmental management plans in the mining sector. We had had a weakness there in negotiating compliance tools. The problem with World Bank support was the time it took to get an answer from their headquarters in Washington. Sometimes the responses, which gave us the go-ahead for a project, were hugely delayed.

We also received study support grants for our staff from a variety of donors. About 50% or our staff who now have post-graduate degrees obtained them with donor support. The fact that they worked with ECZ made them eligible for scholarships. This opportunity for access to higher education makes ECZ attractive as an employer.

In order to get the support you need, you have to negotiate. People’s perceptions of what you are supposed to be doing vary considerably. Donors may see our capacity development needs from a completely different angle. So you have to talk in order to reach common ground. For example, the equipment that we have accumulated over the years enables us to do sampling and on-site testing. But we felt that in order to do our work well, we needed a full laboratory. We asked for support for this, but donors were of the opinion that this was too costly. They wanted us to concentrate on monitoring and inspection. We agreed to meet half way. An inventory was made of all the existing laboratories in the country and donors agreed to assist in developing the capacity of a selection of the laboratories we needed most. They were upgraded to do the work that meets our needs.

What are your main sources of income, and to what extent do you depend on donor support?

The EPPCA allows us to get funds from a number of sources including government, donors and statutory fees. Each of these sources constitutes about a third of our income. We report to parliament every year about our activities and about how we spend the finances allocated to us by them. On the basis of this report, a grant is allocated to us. Donor funds are channelled through the government, but we also report directly to the donors. Statutory fees refer to income we get from licensing; for example through environmental impact statements, review fees and pollution control licences.

What do you think are the main challenges lying ahead for ECZ?

Because we are a developing country, poverty and capacity pose particular impediments to achieving a healthy environment. You may have noticed that the people in the communities do not know where to dispose of their garbage. It is not collected on time, and sometimes it is not collected at all. We need to develop our capacity in that area. While there is an increase in the level of overall environmental awareness, there are also people and institutions who pass on the costs of environmental degradation to others. You will see that littering is still an issue in our community, and some industries still do not demonstrate the type of commitment to the environment that is expected of them.

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Interview conducted by Heinz Greijn, Editor-in-chief, Capacity.org

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