Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
Trinidad
Express:
CECs
and EIAs for mega-projects
Editorial
First there was the application by the National
Energy Corporation for a Certificate of Environment
Clearance (CEC) to clear and grade some 800 acres
of lands near Union Village at Vessigny for an
industrial estate. The Environmental Management
Authority, quite correctly according to the Environmental
Management Act, determined that this required an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) with rigid
terms of reference, which was in due course conducted
by the Institute of Marine Affairs. The CEC was
granted and the lands clear-felled, graded and
filled, with the only breach of the terms of the
CEC being retention of an adequate roadside buffer
of vegetation.
Next came an application for a CEC for the establishment
of an aluminium smelter with the procedure being
repeated, the EMA determining that an EIA was necessary
followed by the study being completed satisfactorily
and the CEC granted. Construction has started.
Next there is an application for a CEC for the
establishment of an electricity generating plant
to provide power to the smelter and the process
is continued with an EIA being conducted. All these
involve mandatory public consultations that have
been routinely conducted. Presumably when the current
study is completed the CEC will be granted and
the electricity generating plant constructed. Will
it end there? No. A port will be necessary to receive
the raw materials for the smelter, including considerable
tonnage of alumina.
We have three main concerns here. First, while
it is true that public consultations form part
of the process these are for the most part conducted
in the immediate local areas of the particular
developments. But surely in such mega-projects
of national importance there is need for at least
some national consultation, and surely the Parliament
of the country must be brought into the picture.
Not many will find it practicable to travel from,
say, Sangre Grande to Point Fortin for a consultation
at 5.30 p.m. on a week day.
Second, is there any sound reason why a mega-project
and its individual components are not subjected
to a single and comprehensive CEC/EIA process involving
thorough local and national public consultations,
with these mega-projects being considered by Parliament?
Third, and the question is a what-if question
- what will be the consequence of the finding of
an EIA for a port at the smelter that oceanographic
conditions were unsatisfactory?
Readers will note that the EMA has recently focused
on the problem of accelerated erosion of coastal
areas, and many along that particular part of the
coast have had to face loss of their properties.
Surely the only intelligent approach to all mega-projects
is the single comprehensive approach including
regional and national public consultation.
Trinidad
Express is
one of thew main newspapers of Trinidad & Tobago.Petroleumworld
not necessarily share these views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in
Trinidad Express, Sunday, December 16th 2007.
Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest
of our readers.
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12/ 16/07
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