Health and safety issues in environmental and social IA - Session II Presentation 2

EH&S lessons learnt from the Southern African Context

 

Environmental Management Systems need to be flexible and adaptable to the local context.

South Africa water and other infrastructure and mining are the major developments.

Funded by NGOs, mining companies and Finance Organisations.

Variation between FUnder Standards and Authorising Authority Standards.

EMS needs to accommodate all these to be effective.

First World approaches don't work well in Third World contexts.

 

EH&S Challenges

• Safety first and foremost - gaining ground in SA, but emphasis on paperwork not practicality, commonsensical vs requirements e.g. PPE overheats people makes it difficult to work with so dilemmas for workers.
• Education - little formal education, shortcomings of 'toolbox' talks are not geared to level of education e.g. ned to get workers to think from workplace into the community.
• Infrastructure - worker sanitation and waste management on project sites e.g. need to work with municipality as well as onside activities; sanitation maintenance company for chemical toilet is 1,000s of miles away potentially.
• Contractual constraints - defined site and controlled access e.g. existing local community using existing activities on the defined project site.
• Road safety and signage - using other country standards from national.
• Dust suppression - availability of water may be an issue I n a locality.

 

Holistic system thinking needed to develop a safe and effective EMS.