PERMANENT Secretary for Environment Sivendra Michael says a review of the Litter Act will focus on making fines stronger and more effective, after admitting the current penalties are “very insignificant” to deter offenders.
He said Cabinet had already approved the review of Fiji’s environmental legislation and one of the priorities would be restructuring the fines system.
Currently, the fine amount ranges from $40 to $5000 depending on the type of litter and by individual or corporate body.
“The litter fine is very insignificant right now,” Mr Michael told The Fiji Times.
“It’s not a deterrence factor — the fines.”
He said the severity of the fines should match the severity of the type of littering demonstrated.
“For example, you saw the fish heads in Nasese, right? That’s really a very detrimental effect to the marine environment.
“And again, commercial companies need to have different layers of fines.
“For e-waste, for wastewater. Right now, there’s the leakage here, (and) no one is taking ownership of whose sewer is leaking because of illegal connections.”
Mr Michael highlighted that under the current law, a person had to be caught in the act to be fined.
“Unless I have substantive evidence that you threw the litter, I cannot fine you.
“But we are now in the 21st century — photographic evidence should be sufficient.”
He said Cabinet had already approved a review of Fiji’s environmental laws, and one key step would be to restructure the Litter Act.
“When we are reviewing the Litter Act, we need to take the fines (provision) out of the Act, keep the Act on the maximum penalties, and the maximum amount of imprisonment.
“We need to focus on the fine and everything in a subsequent regulation.
“We need to develop our regulation, because this parent Act — Litter Act — does not have any regulation.”
Mr Michael said regulations would give the Act real force, similar to other laws like the Environment Management Act and the Endangered and Protected Species Act.