30 May 2012

Around the World in 80+ min with HIA in the Energy Sector - Session II, Presentation 5

Health in the extractive industries

Major environmental, social and institutional changes often accompany discovery of oil and gas
 

Social:


  • Rapid demographic change
  • Great expectations about wealth and economic opportunity
Environmental:
  • Land use changes
  • Environmental degradation


Institutional:
  • Strain on resource and operational capacity
 

Example: Luanda, Angola

  • Sodium bromide used to thicken muds in oil drilling
  • Outbreak of mass poisoning
  • Because someone same the sodium bromide and thought it was table salt and repackaged and sold it on as table salt.
  • This showed the need for institutional structures to deal with these kinds of wider and unforeseen impacts.
 

Need for Strategic HIA (sHIA)

  • Gives a birds eye view
  • Identify intervention packages and systems and capacities
  • Framework for monitoring and evaluation at high level
  • Sector or industry level health management system
  • Engagement of relevant stakeholders
 

WHO piloting this in Ghana and Mongolia

  • Regulatory capacity - EIA requirements for health considertaion; limited capacity for HIA; limited capacity to minotor occupational workplaces and OH systems development.
  • Risk management systems - public health capacity and systems to monitor and respond to chemical incidents, including emergencies; health information system no adaptable to the new industry; ...
 

New model for sHIA

  • Adding a systems diagnostic
 

Partnership between WHO, In country Government, Industry and Development Lenders to develop and implement these.

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