Secretary of the environmental lobby group, Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, Gary Aboud is claiming six government agencies and the Environmental Management Authority had opposed the granting of a certificate of environmental clearance for the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension to Point Fortin.
He said he found the information while researching the process leading up to the granting of the certificate of environmental clearance in April 2010. He made the statements during a press conference yesterday on the pavement outside the D’Abadie home of leader of the Highway Re-Route Movement (HRM) Dr Wayne Kublalsingh. “Many people in the media and many in the public are saying things that will question the integrity of Dr Kublalsingh and his intelligence, neither of which we can accept. “So we decided to dig. We searched the EMA files at great length. We read everything that has been published and has been said by the JCC and we have read the entire Armstrong report,” Aboud added.
He said according to his information, which he claimed he got via the public registrar, six government agencies and the EMA were opposed to issuing a CEC for that segment in the late 2009.
Some of the agencies, Aboud added, included the Forestry Division, Ministry of Energy and the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA). He claimed information from the public registrar stated the EMA said communities affected by the highway were not consulted with in a meaningful way. “In 2009 the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs said quarrying sites and transport routes for materials should be considered in the study area and impacts and mitigation of the aggregate requirement aspects of the project should have been included,” Aboud said.
He claimed the Forestry Division said there was “unsatisfactory mapping and the need to mitigate against scouring and erosion of embankments while the Meteorological Office warned of “incomplete mapping of flood- prone and land-slip areas.” He added: “Without explanation, one month before national election in April 2010 the EMA approved the application by the Ministry of Works to construct the highway between Debe and Mon Desir. “In the Armstrong Report, commissioned by the Prime Minister in March 2013, it noted that the most of the issues flagged by the EMA were not adequately redressed. The report added that many of the most significant impacts remain improperly assessed.”
He said the National Infrastructure Development Company (Nidco) had responded to the Armstrong Report by either disagreeing or finding fault with everything. “They made no mention of the comments of the EMA and the six other government agencies,” Aboud added. Calls to the cellphone of Nidco’s president Dr Carson Charles went unanswered yesterday.