Barry Streek
The involvement of ordinary people in environmental impact assessments (EIAs) is being hampered by developers and the authorities, says environmental lobby group Earthlife. It says there seems to be a general drive to ensure that all developments are approved and “that no developments are rejected”. Earthlife’s Muna Lakhani says the organisation is drawing up a document on the problems faced by civil society during EIAs to influence EIA processes and to ensure grassroots involvement.
Lakhani says the EIA advertisements meant to solicit broad community participation in these processes are usually too small, tucked away in the classified section of newspapers and communicated in one language only. “In a country where the illiteracy rate is about 50% this must be revisited. Multiple communications media need to be used. Media releases as a rule are inadequate and cannot replace paid advertisements on community radio, for example.”
Lakhani says there is also a problem with the identification of the parties involved.
“Often the most obvious people are left out, for example, the National Union of Mineworkers, an Eskom union, was not informed about the pebble-bed modular reactor process. Background information documents are generally only a page or two, saying nothing about potential or possible impacts of the proposed development.” Lakhani says environmental consultants were often not independent and Earthlife proposed they should be registered, perhaps with provincial authorities, and they should be put out to normal tender.