ENVIRONMENT Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy has promised to launch an investigation into claims by Opposition MP Lenora Qereqeretabua in Parliament yesterday.
In her end-of-week statement in Parliament, Ms Qereqeretabua claimed that in some instances, terms of references (TORs) which guided the content required of the environmental impact assessment (EIA), have tended to be generic rather than specific to the proposed development.
“Case in point — building a jetty at Maui Bay had the same TOR as Magma Mines had for mining in the Sigatoka River,” she claimed.
Ms Qereqeretabua said the TOR must be developed to reflect not only the specific requirements of the law, but also to ensure that it was relevant to the type of development, so that risks that were specific to certain developments were properly assessed.
“Department of Environment staff don’t seem to be able to critically review EIA reports, often times the TORs are not fulfilled though the EIA was approved and the reports are largely desktop surveys rather than new data.” I
n his response, Dr Reddy told Ms Qereqeretabua that he wanted a copy of the TOR she referred to. “I want to see that particular terms of reference that were the same, cut to cut for a jetty and for a quarry,” Dr Reddy said.
“We want it. I want to see it. Who did that? I’ll investigate it so it doesn’t happen again,” he said.
