THE PROPOSED EXPANSION OF THE EXISTING SACHANGWAN QUARRY AND CONTRACTOR’S CAMP.
- Category: NECSA Memoranda
- Date 22-09-2022
The Government of Kenya, through the Kenya National Highways Authority, identified the need for the rehabilitation and expansion of the Nairobi – Nakuru – Mau Summit (A8) highway which serves as an access and transportation link for approximately 6 million Kenyans. The project road is part of the Northern Corridor which is one of the busiest and most important transport corridors in East and Central Africa, providing a gateway through Kenya to the landlocked economies of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Southern Sudan and Eastern DR Congo. The main objective of the project is to expand the road capacity and improve the road quality between Nairobi and Mau Summit in order to accommodate the increasing traffic in a safe
and sustainable manner.
Construction of the road will require huge quantities of aggregates, stone chippings, sand and gravel. Sachangwan quarry is an existing quarry and has been identified as a potential source of quality aggregates and a suitable location for other support infrastructure. The Quarry shall however need to be expanded in order to keep up to the demand of the materials required to construct the road.
As required by the Kenyan law, a study was conducted to evaluate the potential and foreseeable impacts of the proposed development. The physical scope was limited to the proposed site and the immediate environment as may be affected or may affect the Quarry expansion and Camp. Any potential impacts (localized or delocalized) were also evaluated as guided by EMCA, 1999 (Amendment 2015) and the Environmental (Impact assessment and Audit) Regulations, 2003 (Amendment 2016).
The site is located in Sachangwan Ward, Molo Sub-County, approximately 190m on the RHS of the Mau – Summit Rironi Highway and approximately 680m South West of Sachangwan town. The total project area is estimated at 31.12 ha.
The Proponent proposes to expand the current stone quarrying by opencast mining. The quarrying process will involve drilling and blasting. Excavation of stone will basically involve removal of overburden. The proposed quarrying shall be carried out for a target production of 58,000 tonnes per month in 42 months (4 years).
The NECSA-K Alliance reviewed the ESIA document as prepared by the KeNHA and prepared comments that can be downloaded and read here.