ASSESSEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIO OF QUARRYING AND STONE CRUSHING: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIAN CONSTRUCTION WORKS CORPORATION

Abstract

Adequate and secure livelihoods have become a major concern for both rural and urban residents. Ethiopian Construction Works Corporation is a giant construction company working on construction of road, dam, airfield, bridge, building and maintenance of roads all over the country. Construction of such big infrastructure requires plenty of construction materials production. Aggregates are among the first construction materials that constitute major portion of civil engineering construction works. Quarrying and stone crushing are the major activities which are done in all projects and districts of the company to produce aggregates. The quarrying and stone crushing activities have considerable effects on the environment quality and human health. For these reasons, more attention should be devoted to understanding, researching, and ultimately reducing their environmental impacts. Hence, this research work attempts to addresses the environmental and socioeconomic effects of aggregate production and identified the possible strategies that help to reduce the effects. A total of 144 respondents were contacted for relevant information through structured questionnaire administration, interviews and field observation. In addition, documented data from published and unpublished articles and reports were used and analyzed. Quantitative methods such as Chi-square, Relative Importance Index, and descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data collected. As the research result indicated, quarrying has a significant importance on job creation and better income generation to stone workers and the surrounding community to reduce poverty. Regarding to the environment, the quarrying and stone crushing activities together with poor management of quarries resulted land degradation, loss of plantations, air pollution and noise pollution. Furthermore, the health of workers and residents is affected by the quarrying. In view of this, the study recommends effective collaboration among key stakeholders in the sector such as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The projects, Local governments bodies, and local communities is needed to enhance the utilization of resources and minimize the effects of quarrying on the natural environment through awareness creation, proper management and rehabilitation of abounded quarry pits for other functions and sustainable environment.