Has Our Higher Learning Institutions Identified The Need to Lay Emphasis on Our Environmental Laws In Kenya, And How Has It Benefited the Kenyan Public? There are a number of acts of environmental statutes that make up environmental law. These are all aimed at the protection of various aspects of the environment, and that include: The Clean Air Act The Clean Water Act The Pollution Prevention Act The Toxic Substances Control Act The National Environmental Policy Act The Occupational Safety and Health Act The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act The Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-know Act There are many statutes and regulations that come under the umbrella of environmental law, and these are all targeted at the reduction of danger to the environment and an increase in public health and awareness. These laws are usually long and complicated for anyone not usually involved in the field of environmental law. There are laws and regulations in place to cover literally every environmental issue of potential problem. Environmental law is a combination of three things: the first is the statute that is passed through/ or by an ACT of Parliament. The second is the list of regulations imposed by the NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AUTHORITY (NEMA) in relation to that particular statute. And the third is the legal interpretation of these regulations by the High courts in the event of an environmental issue or problem. Prior to the 1970 Act, studies were carried out with regards to environmental issues but there were no mechanisms in place to actually do anything about these problems. However, as the environmental issues became worse and even the public realised the dangers of failure to protect the environment it became clear that something had to be done – and this came in the form of environmental laws. Although environmental law has made some headway towards protecting the environment against some dangers since it was introduced, there is still much room for improvement. As more complex pollutants threaten to heart our eco-system, it is likely that this law will have to be vastly improved and amended in order to continue to provide protection to the environment and to public health. Amos Ngongo CEO/Founder enronea
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 14:30:49 +0000