Fiji’s leading environmental organisation says the country is “at least a generation away” from being capable of properly regulating the proposed $1.4 billion waste-to-energy incinerator planned for Naikorokoro Point in Vuda.
NatureFiji-MareqetiViti director Nunia Thomas-Moko said weak legislation, poor enforcement and long-standing regulatory failures raised serious concerns about Fiji’s ability to manage a project of such scale and complexity.
“Someone has to tell some hard truths about where we are as a country,” Ms Thomas-Moko said.
“Yes, we have a major household waste crisis in a number of parts of Fiji but if the Vuda-Saweni proposal is given the go-ahead there is no way that a $1.4 billion project can be properly regulated with what we have at the moment or in the short and medium term.”
The proposed development by TNG Fiji includes an 85-hectare industrial park, a deepwater port and a waste-to-energy incinerator capable of processing up to 900,000 tonnes of household waste annually by 2029.
NatureFiji warned that without stronger regulatory systems, Fiji risked creating a second crisis while attempting to solve its waste management problems.
“If we’re not honest about our capabilities all that will happen is that we will end up with two crises on our hands instead of one,” Ms Thomas-Moko said.
In its eight-page objection submitted to the Department of Environment, NatureFiji pointed to the controversial Nabou biomass plant as an example of previous regulatory failures.
“Nabou received a full Environmental Impact Assessment approval from the Government so opened in July 2017. Nabou was sold to everyone as a sustainable green energy project providing baseload power to the national grid, just like Naikorokoro Point,” Ms Thomas-Moko said.
“But the project never secured a sustainable source of biomass feedstock to keep the plant running throughout the year.”
NatureFiji’s submission claims the Nabou facility now operates below ten per cent capacity while sourcing wood without proper environmental oversight.
Ms Thomas-Moko argued that the failures were not solely the responsibility of investors.
“That was a failure of the investors, but it was also a failure of several Government agencies and the lack of recognition of such a critical issue in the EIA process. Someone should have said ‘No’ to the investors and local political connections,” she said.
NatureFiji also criticised TNG Fiji’s EIA submissions for lacking detail on waste supply agreements and the long-term management of toxic fly ash and bottom ash generated through incineration.
“The long-term management and costs of ash disposal, especially the fly ash, represents the creation of an ecological, intergenerational time bomb,” the submission warned.
The NGO further questioned the proposed environmental bond for rehabilitation, arguing that the estimated $143,750 bond was grossly inadequate for a project of this size.
“TNG Fiji had calculated an environment bond of $143,750… NFMV said a correctly calculated bond ‘would need to be in the order of tens of millions of dollars’,” the statement said.
Public consultations on the Environmental Impact Assessment closed on April 22, with more than 3000 signed petitions, over 900 emailed objections and almost 7000 online petitions opposing the development submitted to authorities.
“When projects come at you at this scale, with new technologies, presenting issues unfamiliar to anyone in Fiji and with investors risking billions, we say that the country simply cannot afford to get this wrong,” Ms Thomas-Moko said.
