BY GEORGINA KEKEA
THE Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) system in Solomon Islands is said to be not effective.
Speaking during a training for stakeholders on the EIA processes, Under Secretary Technical of the Ministry of Climate Change Disaster Management (MCDM) Chanel Iroi says a purpose of this training is to address these challenges and setbacks.
Iroi says there are some issues that hinders the effectiveness of the implementation of the EIA. He says these issues act as roadblocks.
“Lack of technical and managerial capacity, weak law enforcement, ineffective monitoring and auditing, lack of public participation, limited institutional and infrastructure support, lack of alternatives consideration, limited resources in terms of human and budgetary support and political influence in decision making.”
However Iroi says that this training is to train participants and raise awareness on the EIA process as a tool for sustainable development and to strengthen the partnership among line ministries.
He said this also include development proponents and EIA practitioners to all work together in building Solomon Islands for a sustainable and resilient society.
For Solomon Islands, EIA is said to be a new concept and continues to face a lot of challenges. EIA became legally binding in 1998 when the Environment Act was enacted in parliament.
Before becoming a legal requirement, EIA was said to be adopted as an administrative procedural system with the help of an EIA guideline developed in 1996.
