In Zambia, industrial and commercial development in Zambia, particularly large-scale mining, the growth in manufacturing activities, and a corresponding increase in population have brought about the risk of environmental damage by exerting unmitigated pressures on the environment. In an effort to ensure that environmental concerns are integrated into economic development and as a way of preventing, minimising, mitigating or compensating for adverse environmental impacts, the government introduced the EIA process and therefore promulgated and gazetted the EIA Regulations, Statutory Instrument No.28 of 1997 (SI 28, 1997).