Inorder to predict environmental impacts of any development activity and to provide an opportunity to minimize the negative impacts and enhance positive impacts, the environmental impact assessment procedure was developed in 1970.

EIA is an activity designed to identify and predict the impact on the biogeophysicalenvironment and on mans health and well-being of legislative proposals, policies, programs, project and operational procedure and to inspect and communicate information about impacts.

An EIA may be defined as a formed process to predict the environmental consequences of human development activities and to plan appropriate measure to eliminate or reduce adverse effects and to argument positive effects.

The EIA process makes sure that environmental issues are raised when a project or plan is first discussed and that all concerns are addressed as a project, gains momentum through the implementation.

The various steps involved are:

• Scoping: Identify key issues and concerns of interested parties.

• Screening: Deciding whether an EIA is required based on information collected.

• Identifying and evaluating alternatives: Listing alternatives sites and techniques and the impacts of each.

• Mitigating measures dealing with uncertainty: Reviewing proposed action to prevent or minimize the potential adverse effects of the projects.

• Issuing environmental statements: Reporting the findings of the EIA.