There is a growing awareness that road development projects could have major environmental impacts, and the
Sarytash-Karamyk Road is no exception. Some of the major environmental impacts of road projects include damage to sensitive ecosystems, loss of productive agricultural lands, resettlement of affected communities, permanent disruption of local economic activities, demographic changes, accelerated urbanization and the introduction of disease.
Road projects are generally intended to improve the economic and social welfare of people. Increased road capacity and improved pavements can reduce travel times and lower the costs of vehicle use, while increasing access to markets, jobs, education and health services and reducing transport costs for both freight and passengers.
For all the positive aspects of road projects, they may also have significant negative impacts on nearby communities and the natural environment. People and properties may be in the direct path of road works and affected in a major way. People may also be indirectly affected by road projects, through the disruption of livelihood, loss of accustomed travel paths and community linkages, increases in respiratory problems due to air pollution, loss of access to resource products (medicinal plants, wild fruit trees, grazing areas for cattle etc.) and injury from road accidents.
Disturbance to the natural environment may include soil erosion, changes to streams and underground water, and interference with animal and plant life. Temporary impacts during construction are also common and require specific mitigation to minimize them, e.g. keeping dust levels down during road pavement preparation through the use of water browsers to minimize health and safety impacts to nearby communities.
Failure to identify potential impacts may result in delays and cost increases later in the project's development. Neglecting to account for impacts may also cause the road designers to adopt solutions that compromise the environment. Poor environmental management has been shown to produce negative public perception of road projects, creating additional for those projects still to come. The following are some measures undertaken to minimize/eliminate such negative impacts:
1.1 Environmental Assessment (EA)
An EA is not aimed solely at identifying the negative impacts of a project in the context of the area it is being planned in, but also optimizes the positive effects of the project. Just as good road project planning, management and execution requires well trained professional transportation engineers, technically credible and environmentally sensitive, road EA's require experienced environmental professionals supporting the engineering team. Such personnel should be brought into the project development process at a very early stage.
