Environmental and Social Issues Management

Environmental and social issues management covers the processes used to identify, avoid, minimise and mitigate negative impacts through the life of a hydropower project.

Good practice in this area includes the identification of the full range of relevant potential impacts during project preparation in the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and the steps taken at the preparation, implementation and operation stages to avoid, minimise and mitigate negative impacts with no significant gaps.

Understanding good practice

Adhering to good practice in environmental and social issues management can help a project developer, owner or operator ensure that risks that could have been avoided at the impact assessment stage do not later emerge, and that environmental and social commitments are fulfilled.

International industry good practice in environmental and social issues management for hydropower projects is defined in the Hydropower Sustainability Guidelines on Good International Industry Practice (HGIIP).

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Assessing project performance

Two assessment tools are available to measure hydropower project performance:

In Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP), Environmental and Social Issues Management is addressed in P-5 for the preparation stage, I-3 for the implementation stage and O-3 for the operation stage.
In Hydropower Sustainability ESG Gap Analysis Tool, Environmental and Social Issues Management is addressed in Section 1.