Call for tougher penalties for EIA violations

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Call for tougher penalties for EIA violations
Pratch Rujivanarom
The Nation



Experts say assessment process has major problems; project owners often cheat and audits are not done

BANGKOK: -- EXPERTS have identified two major weaknesses in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process - monitoring and auditing, and the need for wider public participation when EIA reports are done.

The experts said there should be heavier penalties for project owners who did not comply with environmental measures.

Suggestions for reform of those issues were discussed by experts in Bangkok last week to boost the quality and reduce conflict when decisions are made that could affect the environment.

The purpose of an EIA is to ensure that decision-makers - like governments - consider environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a plan, project, policy or programme.]

The forum on reform of EIAs by the Royal Society Office, the Council of Science and Technology Professionals and an Independent Commission on Environment and Health (ICEH) showed that there are problems in EIAs currently, and the process needs reform on three main issues.

Environmental consultant Duangkamol Promsuwan said some people doing monitoring reports on projects still did not understand the process and their work was irrelevant to environmental reform.

Duangkamol revealed that project owners often say they have complied with measures in environmental reports but don't actually do what they claim.

"Measures should be imposed to punish project owners who did not adhere to EIA measures," she said.

Dr Piamsak Maenasawet, president of ICEH, pointed out that problems in the EIA monitoring process were often caused by a lack of human resources and budget. Also, officials do not require owners to perform audits on projects.

Suparath Chotisakulrat, a Senior Council of Science and Technology Professionals Committee member, stressed that if project owners ignore the monitoring process after a project is approved, problems would surely follow.

"If there is an EIA reform plan it should be registered to make sure that project owners comply strictly with the EIA procedures," she said.

All-party participation in EIA report making is also essential. ICEH Thanomsak Boonpakdi said that much conflict in the EIA process was caused by insufficient participation by all parties.

"Community participation is [often seen as] just a ceremony in many EIA studies and the results from public hearings are not really implemented," Thanomsak said. "I [often] doubt the project owners' sincerity in solving the project's problems."

He said project owners had to present EIA reports before their local community - but he pointed out that the reports were often too difficult for people to understand.

"I suggested that simplified versions of reports should be presented to the public - as I myself still find many reports hard to understand," he said.

Duangkamol said participation by all parties was also important as she said owners often had no chance to defend their projects and ICEH could not offer comment. This stifled ideas and opinions from all players.

Other suggestions in the EIA report included the establishing of EIA professionals to regulate the ethics and qualification of people who do reports and reform of the EIA approval process.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Call-for-tougher-penalties-for-EIA-violations-30259265.html


-- The Nation 2015-05-04

[seajae]

they need to come down on those doing the reports as well when they make it easier for the companies involved for cover for them. Then you have the govt officials that approve these projects too, the graft is rife in any project that the govt is required to approve as they all want their cut.

[ChrisY1]

EIAs will continue along the same path....all meant to assist the developers.....there's little or no input from local authorities and the rubber stamp keeps on stamping.......fines mean nothing to these people as they're never imposed.......

If there are environmental problems that arise later......it's simply a "mai pen rai" response........and any remedial work is done at the tax payers expense.

[Suffinator]

EIA's mean SFA when officials are happy to turn a blind eye after enrichment from the usual back-hander.

When I was in Phuket last the environment had effectively been raped by greed and corruption and I hear from friends they are now planning on building Fly-overs Bangkok style. Yes there's nothing quite like taking a tropical paradise and turning it into a complete shit bucket just like BKK.

They don't give a damn about the environment providing the money keeps on flowing. As regards to Phuket ... if it wasn't a whore house I doubt any foreigner would bother visiting; unless you like swimming in other people's piss and shit that it.