Ministry of Environment Energy and Water has revealed that under the Environment Act 4/93, an Environment Impact Assessment Report (EIA) is to be submitted to the ministry before the commencement of any development project that affects the environment.
In this regard, in year 2007, 64 reports from various agencies were forwarded to the ministry and that include 45 EIA reports, 12 Initial Environmental Examination reports (IEE) says Environment Ministry. The Ministry provided further details on the reports and said that the reports include 36 reports from tourism sector, 02 reports from fisheries sector, 06 reports on projects on electrification, 15 reports on sewerage systems and 4 other reports various other sectors. Ministry also noted that one report was rejected due to various reasons.
Environment Ministry says that implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment regulation commenced in 2007 and that assessment work was enhanced and strengthened during last year. In this regard many expeditions were made to the atolls to monitor many environmental issues. Ministry further revealed that this year monitoring work would be further strengthened and enhanced during this year.
The EIA reports submitted to the ministry since Environment Act was introduced in year May of year 2007 can be viewed on the ministry’s website says Environment Ministry. Ministry further said the opportunity to provide comment on such reports during the initial evaluation stage was opened to the general public. Ministry also noted that final decision on such reports subsequent to the evaluation can be viewed from the website.
Environment Ministry further revealed that under normal circumstances the ministry takes 14 working days to evaluate an EIA report and to issue necessary permits. Previously in 2006, 21 working days were taken up to evaluate and issue permits for a project says the Ministry.
According to the regulations, the ministry is required to issue a decision note within 28 working days.
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