GAZETTE NOTICE NO. 3790

PURSUANT to regulation 21 of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Impact Assessment and Audit) Regulations, 2003, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) has received an Environmental Impact Assessment Study Report for the above proposed project. The proposed project entails renovation of existing buildings to accommodate a nursing home and a morgue. One of the buildings will be converted into a nursing home with an; entrance lobby, waiting area, registration room, staff break room, female and male wards laboratory, operation theatre room, treatment room, 2No consultation rooms, pharmacy, washrooms and associated utilities. Three small sized buildings will be renovated to accommodate the following morgue features; report room, changing room, store, wheeled morgue tables, prayer room and medical disposal area. Other facilities include a hearse yard, parking bay, green spaces, septic tank and water points. The following are the anticipated impacts and proposed mitigation measures: Impacts Proposed Mitigation Measures Vegetation disturbances • Restrict construction vehicles to designated and most efficient routes. Plant a diversity of plants in the compound. Limit vegetation clearance on mandatory areas. Control earth works. Impacts Proposed Mitigation Measures anybody on-site. • Provide enough fully stocked first aid kit at the site and train adequate first aiders. • Contractor ensure all machines are used for the appropriate functions or purposes. • Ensure that all people involved understand the technical operations of various types of machinery, in addition to providing instruction manuals for the various equipment. • Have an incident/accident register. Noise and vibrations Dust generation Controlling soil erosion and subsequently siltation Risk of accidents and related occupational health and safety Construction machinery to be serviced to reduce noise generation. Provide workers wear ear muffs if working in noisy sections. Ensuring machines are switched off when not in use, and; Undertake loud noise activities during off-peak hours. Erection of dust screens. Sprinkling of water on dry/dusty surfaces regularly. Reuse of waste water to sprinkle at the site to suppress dust. Adherence to personal protective clothing such as dust masks. Ensuring strict enforcement of onsite speed limit regulations, and Planting grass during the operation stage. Planning all land clearance during the thy seasons. Leveling of the project site to reduce run-off velocity. • Restrict construction vehicles to existing graded roads. • Landscape open areas using appropriate trees and grasses. • Sensitization on health and safety issues. • Enforcement and adherence to safety procedures. • Provide emergency signage at the site, adequate lighting and barriers where need be. • Put in place a fire safety system. • Put in place an elaborate fire escape system/route. • Comply with fire safety laws. • Have regular inspection and fire safety audit. • Clear exit paths and fire assembly point. Increased water • Installing water conserving automatic consumption taps and toilets. • Practicing roof catchment water harvesting. • Recycling wastewater where applicable. Debris and other solid • Contract a waste handler to collect wastes solid wastes regularly. • The proponent will provide waste collection bins. • Carry out solid waste separation before disposal. • Recycle solid waste where applicable. Exhaust emission • Machines and equipment to be properly and regularly maintained. • Discourage drivers from unnecessary engine idling. • Limit traffic movement to efficient and necessary activities. • Strict adherence to the building plans and building code. • Provision of adequate drinking water and onsite sanitation. • Sensitize drivers to switch off engines when not being used. • Upgrade machines, generator and vehicles from time to time. Increased energy consumption • Switch off lights, machines and equipment when not in use. • Use trained persons to operate construction equipment. • Use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) throughout the project. • Adapt effective emergency response plans. • Perform regular drills and emergence simulations. • Safety awareness through regular safety meetings, safety training. • Ensure machines, equipment and vehicles are regularly serviced. • Sensitize drivers to avoid unnecessary vehicle revving. • Engine idling time should be reduced to a critical minimum. • Where applicable, avoid use of charcoal in the nursing home kitchen. • Provide sufficient and appropriate PPEs and enforce their usage by Risk of Covid-19 • Strict adherence to temperatures checks infections and spread at the entry point. 1st April, 2022 THE KENYA GAZETTE 1783 Impacts Impacts Proposed Mitigation Measures • Provide adequate sanitizers/soaps at the hand washing points. • Ensure all persons at the facility wear face masks. Proposed Mitigation Measures • Take actions in case of exposure beyond permissible levels. • Proper storage and handling of in- house chemicals. Risk of exposure to respiratory contaminants Soil and water contamination by biomedical wastes Generation of medical • Where applicable, reduce sharps sharps generation at the source points. • Sharps to be strictly stored in sharp containers. • Carry out sharps segregation before disposal. • Use trained personnel to collect, store, transport and dispose sharps. • All sharps and sharp containers to be incinerated. Risk of injury by • Strictly ensure that two-handed medical sharps recapping of needles is avoided. • Strictly ensure needles are not clipped or bent before disposal. • Train employees regarding the safe handling and disposal of sharps. • Establish surveillance plan to identify and analyze needle-stick injuries. • Ensure sharps containers have a fill line. • Sharps containers should not be filled to more than three-quarters. • Strictly ensure that the use approved sharps containers. • Strictly use puncture-resistant containers. • Place sharps containers in convenient locations. • Strictly observe color-coding for sharps containers. • Use auto-claves for autoclaving sharps. Management of blood • Waste materials saturated must be and body fluids incinerated, autoclaved. • Develop and display exposure control plan. • Develop and review a written exposure plan for each employee. • Use engineering and work practice controls to minimize exposure. • In absence of hand washing facilities provide an appropriate antiseptic. • Ensure employees wash hands immediately after removal of PPE. • Wash hands following contact of such body areas with blood. • Contaminated needles and other sharps shall not be bent, recapped. • Ensure social distance is maintained at the facility. • Enforce full compliance of all government issued Covid-19 guidelines. • Proper storage and handling of in- house chemicals. • Ensuring liquid wastes are drained into septic tank. • Carrying out waste separation before disposal. • Putting up incinerator to dispose hazardous wastes. • Monitoring effluent discharge from the facility. • Monitoring level of toxic substances in the discharged effluent. • Monitoring the soil and water chemical properties. • Putting up a treatment plant to manage liquid waste. • Put up a written Exposure Control Plan. • Proper storage and handling of in- house chemicals. • Ensure proper segregation of chemicals. • Don't store acids with bases and oxidizers with reducing agents. • Provide adequate first aid kits and supplies. • Print Permissible Exposure Limit on SDS. • Ensuring all employees are protected from respiratory hazards. • Create individualized written respiratory protection program. • Program to be administered by trained administrator. • Identifying what airborne contaminants are present. • Conducting air monitoring to determine exposure levels. Exposure of workers to • Provide adequate first aid kits and formaldehyde and supplies. glutaraldehyde • Monitoring employee exposure. • Putting up a written Exposure Control Plan. • Print Permissible Exposure Limit on SDS. • Identifying all employees who potentially have an exposure. • Ensuring that each potentially exposed employee is monitored. • Monitoring to be done each time a change in personnel. • Sharps containers must be puncture resistant. • Sharps containers must be labeled or color-coded. • Sharps containers must be leak-proof on the sides and bottom. • Strictly prohibit mouth pipetting/suctioning of blood. Impacts Proposed Mitigation Measures • Ensure that specimens of blood are placed in approved containers. • Incinerator staff to be provided with the right PPEs. Risk of medical waste • Ensuring that a spill immediately spills reported and cleaned. • Put a documented policy for managing biomedical waste spills. • Train staff on how to manage biomedical waste spills. • Developing a method for containing and isolating each type of spill. • In case of spill, staff for cleanup should be notified promptly. • All incidents are documented for the purpose of record keeping. • Any employee exposed to a spill to be treated and monitored. • Strategically place fire extinguishers. • Identify and label a common fire assembly point. • Provide fire exit point. • Training in fire fighting and regular drills. • Provide sand buckets as additional fire precautionary measure. • Regular inspection of fire fighting equipment. • Provide emergency response plan. • Keep gas cylinders in a well ventilated section and avoid any leaks. • Post "NO SMOKING" signs within the facility. • Install an automatic fire alarm system for key areas. • Undertake engineering controls e.g put a perimeter wall. • Sensitize workers on the proposed decommissioning. • Give adequate notice to workers. s Ctiltivate saving culture amongst the workers. The full report of the proposed project is available for inspection during working hours at: (a) The principal Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Nl1W Building, 12th Floor, Ragati Road, Upper Hill, P.O. Box 30126-00100, Nairobi. Director-General, NEMA, Popo Road, off Mombasa goad, P.O. BOX 0839-00200, Nairobi. (c) County Director of Environment, Kitui County. A copy of the EIA report can be downloaded at www.nema.go.ke National Environmental Management Authority invites members Of the public to submit oral or written conurtents within thirty (30) days from the date of publication of this notice to the Director General, NEMA, to assist the Authority in the decision-making process for this project. MAMO B. MAMO, MR/3267214 Director-General.