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Environmental Enforcement in
Lesotho will fail if new Environment Bill 2006 is passed by
Parliament. |
The Government’s new
Environment Bill, 2006 signals a turn against efficient and fair
environmental law enforcement in Lesotho. The Bill, that has not
been consulted on with civil society, changes a key element in the
Environment Act 2001 that stated that the setting up of a Lesotho
Environment Authority (LEA) should occur that would have the powers
to enforce the new law. In it’s place in the Environment Bill 2006,
a department will be set up within the Government that is said to
have similar enforcement powers to the LEA. Civil society
organisations, through Lesotho Council of NGO’s, are raising
concerns about the changes. Currently the situation in the country
is that the Government itself contravenes some of the national
environmental guidelines and that a government department will not
have the power to enforce the Law on the Government itself. Lesotho
Council of NGO’s argue that unless a semi-autonomous environmental
enforcement agency is set up then the Environmental Laws of the
Country become meaningless if the highest authority will not be
required to adhere to it’s own laws, leaving the potential for
Government corruption rife.
Many of the contraventions of the Environmental Guidelines are
directly initiated by the Government itself. LCN have evidence that
building works and clearance works have started on a number of high
profile government projects, without adhering to Environmental
Impact Assessment Guidelines or having EIA Licenses issued that
allow developers to start work on building or infrastructure
projects. The new tourism infrastructure development at Sehlabathebe
National Park and the new Parliament itself have both begun to clear
sites or begin building work without the mandatory EIA License.
After a civil society mission to Sehlabathebe, the mission concluded
that building work had begun illegally. The mission was also
concerned that after talking directly to people living outside the
park, that although they were aware of the Maluti Drakensburg
Transfrontier Project initiative some felt that public consultations
had not been open to all. The mission also concluded that local
people did not understand how they could benefit from the so called
‘private/public partnership” at the National Park. Thus full social
impact assessment, that is a part of the EIA process, had not been
completed. Indeed the EIA Report had only one record of a half day
meeting at Sehlabathebe and the developers refused to give any
records of further consultations they had conducted.
Lesotho Council of NGO’s, who also sit on the EIA National Review
Panel, were disgusted to be asked to an EIA Review on the
Sehlabathebe initiative when building work had already begun as that
goes against the due process of the law. LCN were concerned by
reports that the consultants used by the developer, MDTP, had also
been part of the advisory team on the project and thus were not
unbiased to the project, a condition of the consultancy contracts
under Environmental Impact Assessment. Tracy Irvine, Environmental/
Communication Advisor for LCN said ‘Non-Governmental Organisations
will not be used to rubber stamp developments that go against the
due process of the law in Lesotho. Our role is to protect the rights
of local people and the environment and although we are not against
infrastructural developments in the country, we wish to ensure that
developments are conducive and beneficial to local communities and
also reduce environmental impacts. As the highest authority in the
land the Government itself should take an exemplary role in adhering
to it’s own laws’. LCN wrote a letter back in June asking for an
audience with the Principle Secretary of the National Environment
Secretariat to air their concerns over the government contraventions
of the Environment Act 2001, however they have not received a reply.
Tracy Irvine – Environmental/ Communication Advisor, Lesotho
Council of NGO’s – Telephone: (0266) 22317205
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