Assessment of social impacts of water development projects : does the process work ?

A literature review was conducted of ecological impacts of twenty-five water development projects in North America and Africa. Social impacts included human displacement and resettlement, health, community services, economics, and natural resource utilization. The objective of this study was to evaluate how well environmental impact assessment (EIA) addresses interrelated social impacts of water development projects. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) Baseline information has been insufficient to adequately assess social impacts of water development projects; (2) There has been great disparity between predicted and observed social impacts of water development projects; and (3) Knowledge and experience gained in one project is seldom transferred to planning and implementation of subsequent projects. Only three of the twenty-five projects provided sufficient information for evaluation of results. Projects consistently lacked adequate baseline information to address social impacts. Predictions of positive impacts were consistently exaggerated. Seldom was information or experience transferred to subsequent projects. Because of limited information transfer mistakes were repeated. A modified model of the NEPA process is presented. Modifications are intended to improve assessment of social impacts. Current constraints include lack of strong and clear national policy, insufficient baseline information, lack of well defined protocols for social impact assessment, and lack of postproject monitoring sufficient to evaluate preproject predictions of impacts.