OPPOSITION MP Lenora Qereqeretabua says there is a dire need to strengthen the powers of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Unit of the Department of Environment, in light of the recent incidences of grave environmental degradation in Fiji, some of which have only come to light recently.
In her end of the week statement in Parliament, Ms Qereqeretabua said Fiji had now ratified all of the major global human rights treaties, including last year’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights.
But she added that environmental protection was essential to fulfil many of the rights recognised in those agreements.
Ms Qereqeretabua noted the report by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment, Dr. David Boyd, who was visiting Fiji with a colleague last December where he made a number of significant observations regarding the Environment Management Act, and in particular the EIA process.
She noted that in his report, Dr Boyd had stated that it was clear the Ministry of Environment was seriously under-resourced.
“For example, according to the Department of Environment website under the heading “challenges”, the website says, one of the major challenges is the lack of financial and technical resources,” Ms Qereqeretabua said.
“Currently, there are only five to six staff who handle waste and pollution-related matters Fiji wide as part of its waste management and pollution control unit.
“The report goes on to recognise Fiji as a regional leader in recognising the right to a healthy environment, having ratified multilateral environmental agreements as well as the human rights treaties I mentioned earlier. But, Sir, the report stressed that we must have a strong Ministry of Environment to fulfil those commitments.”
Ms Qereqeretabua said an issue Dr. Boyd said had been raised repeatedly with him were problems with EIA with members of the public expressing frustration with their inability to gain easily, timely and affordable access to important information, the lack of adequate consultation, constraints on the public’s ability to participate in assessment processes, the poor quality of some EIA Reports and the lack of access to remedies.
She also noted observations that the Department of Environment staff did not seem to be able to critically review EIA reports; often times the TORs (Terms of Reference) are not fulfilled though the EIA was approved and the reports are largely desktop surveys rather than new data.
“If we do not have suitably qualified people in Fiji, can we not ask our friends – Australia and New Zealand, in particular, to second us personnel with experience in their much more robust environmental regulation space,” Ms Qereqeretabua said.
“My consultations found issues with the way in which EIA consultants are hired, Sir. The roster of the DOE-approved EIA consultants continues to include some that have undertaken and have been allowed to undertake their EIA consultancies with disregard to the TORs contrary to the EIA procedures.
“The DOE must, in accordance with the Environmental Management Act, be equipped and be allowed to fully manage the whole EIA process which appears not to be the case at present.
“The extended manner in which the critical public consultations are to be conducted is ill-defined. The Environment Department fails to accompany and monitor the manner in which a consultant conducts an EIA, in particular, the extent and the integrity of the public consultations.
“Currently, the Environmental Department frequently appears limited in its ability to monitor environmental issues to take proactive measures to mitigate against the environmental degradation and also to respond when members of the environmentally-concerned public draw its attention to cases of environmental degradation and seek its intervention.”
Minister for Environment Dr Mahendra Reddy said to maintain control and the sustainable use of our natural resources, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was a tool.
“Being a regulator, Honourable Speaker, we do not do EIA. There is a misunderstanding that we do EIA, we are the regulator. There will be a conflict of interest if we are a regulator and at the same time, we are also undertaking EIA. No, we do not. We have a list of approved EIA consultants,” Dr Reddy said.
