6.7 Environmental Inspection

Environmental inspection is another tool of enforcing environmental standards. In order to give the environmental inspectors enough powers to enforce their mandate, environmental statutes should give them powers to seize property, close facilities, and order arrests, as it is the case in Uganda (See Uganda National Environment Statute, 1994). In appointing inspectors, environmental authorities could also use the existing inspectors in other
ministries, for example, inspectors, at the Factories Inspectorate and the Department of Occupational Health within the Ministry of Labour who have experience in inspecting facilities to assess compliance with the worker
and health standards. In Tanzania, the personnel at the Dar es salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA) and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), may also be enlisted as National Environmental Management Council
Inspectors.

In order to facilitate the inspection process, environmental institutions will need to prepare an inspection check-list and have properly trained inspectors who will be able to sample industrial effluents, detect violation of pollution
licences, and identify activities likely to harm the environment. The inspectors, however, should judicially exercise their powers and should consult and issue adequate notice before inspection, seizure, closure or arrest.

Due to the limited resources available to environmental institutions in East Africa, these institutions could focus their initial inspection on large facilities most likely to cause environmental damage. Invariably, threat to inspection will trigger the facility's propensity to comply with environmental requirements and thus, reduce the work- load of these institutions in enforcing the standards.