Urban Development in our client countries is one of the major challenges of this century because of:
- the rapid and enormous influx into urban areas, and
- the dearth of urban management capacity resulting in very bad environmental conditions, especially for the poorest sections of the urban population.
The application of Environmental Assessment helps identify the major potential environmental impacts, mitigate them and monitor the residual ones. Involuntary resettlement can also be an issue, because the World Bank Operational Policy/Bank Procedures 4.12 policy is triggered for all projects which have land acquisition as part of their activities. Even 'environmentally-oriented' projects like urban waste management usually should go through Environmental Assessment because the location or the operation of a typical waste management facility can potentially impact the neighboring communities and contaminate the air or the water table.
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