2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION
Millions of people across the world rely on tea. Tea originates from china as a medicinal crop and it has now grown to a multi-billion dollar global industry. In China for instance has over 80 million tea growers, in India it has an estimation of 2 million seasonal tea labourers and a million permanent tea workers while in our country Kenya it supports over three million people. As we depend on it to earn our living so it does to millions of workers around the world.
Besides tea being grown on large plantations, it is also grown in small scale by smallholder farmers who sell the freshly green leaves to tea factories or plantations for processing into black tea.
Tea Factories are involved in processing…show more content… In 1924, tea growing was due to commercial purposes.
The operation of tea industry is under the Agricultural Act (Cap 318) and Tea Act (Cap 343) of the laws of Kenya. While the latter is vested with regulatory services, the former is more managerial, overseeing the whole process of production.
Kenyan tea factories which have been registered by Tea Board of Kenya are close to 60. Some of them include Kebirigo Tea factory, Gianchore Tea Factory, Gatitu Tea Factory, Githambo Tea Factory just to mention a few.
Before any tea factory is put up, its significance to conduct environmental impact assessment and impact management. Its aim is to identify potential environmental impacts associated with tea factories and try to reduce or/and prevent the occurrence of such impacts.
2.2 POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL…show more content… The industrial effluents that are discharged into rivers cause an imbalance in the water making the survival of these species difficult. The most important freshwater resources for human beings in the spheres of economic, social and even political developments are rivers. Water catchment areas and even the rivers themselves are being polluted by various human activities. Land uses generally affect the water quality.
Polluting water does not only ham the aquatic life but also it contaminates the entire food chain by greatly affecting human dependence on these. It does pose skin related problems like rashes and skin irritations. In all developing countries about 1.8 million people majority, especially children, die every year as a result of water related diseases (WHO, 2004).
Streams and rivers being the main sources of fresh water that suffer large amounts of pollutant loads and wastewater due to the discharges before treatment across the world. Due to this, it has caused a lot of concern regarding the deterioration of river water quality. The untreated discharges into rivers cause a decrease in DO (Dissolved Oxygen) concentrations in particular and generally a decrease in water