Clearing it up

Reform the environmental clearance process

 
Published: Thursday 15 September 2005

Clearing it up

-- It begins at the very root, with the authorities that handle the entire process. mo font class='UCASE'>ef can continue to be the apex body for the entire exercise, but most procedural functions need to be delegated to a state-level environment impact assessment authority (seiaa). seiaa could be an independent body, or part of the state pollution control board. Such a body requires proper capacity building, for it will tackle highly technical issues; this must be provided (see flowchart: The way to do it).

A project proponent should submit a proposal to both moef and seiaa. The proposal should not only justify the project but also detail out alternatives as well as a 'no-project scenario'; the environmental impact assessment (eia) manual moef has prepared suggests these, but nowadays it is never done. 'Alternatives' means the proposal should look at alternatives to the selected site and explain why the selected site is the best; it should provide alternatives to the project and also to the process technology used. For instance, many micro-hydel schemes in a river basin is a better alternative than a big dam. In scenarios where alternatives are a better option, they must be preferred over the proposed project.

After vetting the proposal and the alternatives, the seiaa must tackle the question of site clearance. It should be made clear that site clearance should only be limited for eia study and cannot imply clearance to the project. If required, seiaa members can also visit the proposed site.

Restricting site clearance for a few site-specific projects defeats the purpose of impact assessment. Site clearance has to be made mandatory for all projects, irrespective of size, that are likely to have environmental and social impacts in the areas where they come up. The definition of environmental impact should not be restricted to 'pollution load' or 'submergence area'. It has to include the impact borne out of resource use (for example, groundwater extraction), overall impact on natural resources in the region and the impact of project ancillary activities.

Scoping & awarding
seiaa should carry out the scoping and awarding exercise for the eia. The proponent should be asked to deposit a fee, specified as per the scale or type of the project, to conduct the eia. The seiaa should then appoint any agency it finds suitable to conduct a completely independent eia. This still leaves scope for manipulation, but note that the eia agency is directly accountable to the regulator. If an agency is found to submit an eia of poor quality, or a fraudulent report, it should be immediately blacklisted and given no work in future.

A standard format should be prepared to conduct the eia and the kind of data that ought to be collected. All important environmental and social indicators must be a part of this format. Currently, agencies omit social impact assessment of proposed projects. A large number of projects displace people, completely transforming their socio-cultural settings. Whether such people can adapt to a new socio-cultural environment is questionable. Therefore, a social impact assessment should compulsorily be made a part of the eia process.

The seiaa should ensure some local people who will be affected by a project are informed about it; they must be part of the eia process. The eia agency must regularly interact with them while doing the eia. Once the eia is submitted and vetted by the regulator, it should immediately be made available to the public. Copies of the eia report -- translated into the local language -- should also be made available at appropriate places in the project area, including the gram panchayat office.

Ensure people participate
The seiaa should ensure the notice of a public hearing is published in two top-most circulated newspapers in the region, including one in the vernacular. A notice should also be sent to each gram panchayat in the affected area, at least 30 days in advance. The venue of the public hearing should ideally be in a village the project is sure to affect.

Often, a single public hearing is not enough. So, the public hearing process can be held in phases, enabling all from the affected area to have their say.

The public hearing panel should be headed by the sarpanch of the panchayat; an seiaa official should oversee the entire proceedings. At least half the representatives in the panel should be from the local area, including ngos and prominent citizens. It must be ensured that all comments and concerns are collected and collated in the report of the public hearing. This report, after preparation by seiaa, should be immediately made public.

Based on these inputs, the seiaa should then prepare a report that provisionally clears a project or rejects it. seiaa should invite a few representatives, including ngos, from affected areas during its decision-making meetings. The final report should then be forwarded to the moef.

Reconstitute
All the current expert groups at moef should be reconstituted, and should be sector-specific. Such groups must have experts from all technical areas the eia process covers. Civil society groups that engage with the issue of environmental clearance must be a part of such committees. These expert committees should review the report and decisions the seiaa has taken. If there is a dispute, the moef team can do a site visit and re-examine the entire issue. Again, it must be ensured local people are involved at this juncture.

Proceedings of all such meetings should be made publicly available. As soon as clearance is issued, the seiaa must be intimated of it immediately; such intimations must also appear in newspapers and in letters to the gram panchayat s and ngos that participated in the project clearance process.

seiaa should make public the conditions for clearance and the Environment Management Plan (emp); these must also be sent to panchayat offices in the affected area.

Redress
The 30-day deadline for filing appeals in the National Environment Appellate Authority (neaa) should be increased to at least 60 days. Also, the regulator has to ensure all vacancies in neaa are filled, especially those of technical experts.

For post-clearance, monitoring teams can be formed with representation from the seiaa and a few members from the affected area. This team can inspect the project site once every six months to ensure the project proponent is implementing all the conditions and the emp. If the conditions are not met and emp not implemented, clearance for the project should be immediately suspended, till all conditions are met.

Exempting certain activities from the clearance process based on their size and investment should be completely done away with. The cumulative impacts of such small projects will be the same as of one big one. The kind of project, and impacts, should be the only criteria for inclusion in the clearance process; not the size of the project.

Currently the cumulative impacts of projects in a specific area are not considered. For example, several hydroelectric projects have come up in the Sutlej and other river basins in Himachal Pradesh. What the cumulative impacts of all these schemes will be on the river basin is never studied. Such studies should become a mandatory part of the entire eia exercise.

Transparency at each step must be ensured. The basic premise of the entire clearance process cannot be 'time-bound clearance'. It must be whether a project is worth it, on environmental and social grounds, or not. Only then will the clearance process attain its objectives. 12jav.net12jav.net

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