Environment Ministry To Present EIA Act To FEC – Official

The Federal Ministry of En
vironment says it will present the revised Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for consideration before the year ends.
Mr John Alonge, a Director, Environmental Assessment Department in the ministry, disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Alonge said that stakeholders in the sector had on June 2 validated the Draft Revised EIA Act No. 86 of 1992.
According to him, EIA are laws meant to prevent, reduce or mitigate the negative effects of projects or activities on the environment before such projects/ activities commence.
The official said that the ministry had started integrating stakeholders’ input in the document, adding that a group of experts would still ratify it before sending it to FEC.
“We should have a sort of an aggressive road map, Act by the last quarters of the year and FEC will send it to the National Assembly for deliberations.
Whatever we are sending to FEC must pass through the EIA process.’’
Alonge, however, said that Nigeria started the process of reviewing the Act before Ghana and other West Africa Countries to ensure that it was reviewed in a holistic manner.
“We are trying to review it in line with global best practices so that the EIA that will come from Nigeria will be acceptable elsewhere.
“That Act was enacted over two decades ago and there are a lot of emerging issues, global trends that are coming up that we need to integrate in it.
“The way we were operating in the last 20 years would have been different so we are looking at new trends.
“We believe that there is no project you do that will not have footprint and it is advisable you write and the ministry will now come and screen the project to know how to categorise it,’’ he said.
According to him, EIA entails major development and there are a lot of criteria the ministry will consider before granting EIA.
The director, however, expressed satisfaction over the level of compliance with EIA in the country, saying “we are happy with the level of compliance so far especially in the private sector.
“Even the Federal Government is complying; the Federal Ministry of Power now complies and the ministry has registered some of its recent small hydro power projects for EIA.
“Government ministries and agencies are also trying because Federal Government has made it compulsory for them to do so,” he said.
According to him the ministry was working hard to address some of the challenges facing her to re-position the ministry for effective service delivery.
He said that quacks are now coming on board, while people that are not experienced now call themselves environmental consultants.