Transcript EKO ATLANTIC CITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT: ANALYSIS OF …

Paper Presented By
Professor Olanrewaju .A. Fagbohun, Ph.D
Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies & Executive Director, Environmental Law Research
Institute (ELRI)
@
The Pre Summit Dialogue on Climate Change in Lagos State
Organized by
Policy Advocacy Partnership Project on Climate Change (PAPPCC) in
Conjunction with
State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI)
on 6th March, 2013
E-mail: [email protected]
 Regulated by Environmental Impact Assessment Act, 1992 (Decree
No. 86 of 1992)
The EIA Procedural Guideline and Sectoral Guidelines

Goals and Objectives:
(a)
to establish before a decision is taken by any person, authority,
corporate body or unincorporated body, including the
Government of the Federation, State or Local government intending
to undertake or authorise the undertaking of any activity, those
matters that may likely or to a significant extent affect the
environment or have any environmental effect on those activities and
which shall first be taken into account;
(b)
promote implementation of appropriate policy;
(b)
Encourage the development of procedures for information
exchange, notification, and consultation…
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
Put together relevant baseline information;

Provide requisite answers to the concerns and questions of
stakeholders;

Identify relevant socioeconomic and environmental aspects of
a project;

Suggest mitigation measures and re-design alternatives;

Develop plans and procedures for effective proactive
environmental management;
Identify the legal, regulatory and policy framework, in the
context of which, the EIA will be carried out for the proposed
project.

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


Covers both … “public or private sector projects”.
“Project” is defined as the “physical work that a
proponent proposes to construct operate, modify,
decommission, abandon, or otherwise carryout, or a
physical activity that a proponent proposes to
undertake or otherwise carry out”
Extent , nature or location of a proposed project
activity must be likely to significantly affect the
environment
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a)
A description of the proposed activities;
b)
A description of the potential affected environment, including specific information
necessary to identify and assess the environmental effect of the proposed
activities;
c)
A description of the practical activities as appropriate;
d)
An assessment of the likely or potential environmental impacts of the proposed
activity and the alternatives including the direct or indirect cumulative , short term
and long-term effects;
e)
An identification and description of measures available to mitigate adverse
environmental impacts of proposed activity and assessment of those measures;
f)
An indication of gaps in knowledge and uncertainty which may be encountered in
computing the required information;
g)
An indication of whether the environment of any State or local government area or
areas outside Nigeria is likely to be affected by the proposed activity or its
alternatives;
h)
A brief and non-technical summary of the information provided under paragraphs
(a) to (g) of this section.
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
EIA is not required in the case of
(a)
Projects with non or minimal environmental effect;
(b)
Projects to be carried out during national
emergency for temporary measures have been
taken by the Government;
(c)
Projects to be carried out in response to
circumstances that in the opinion of the Agency, the
project is in the interest of public health or safety
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
List covers:
Drainage
&
Irrigation
Airport
Agricultur
e
Industry
Forestry
Housing
Mining
Fisheries
Mandatory
List
Land
Reclamation
Infrastructur
e
Ports
Railways
Quarries
Petroleum
Waste Treatment
& Disposal
Power
Generation
&
Transmission
Transportatio
n
Water Supply
Resort &
Recreational
Development
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
EIA Procedural Guideline
–
Steps to follow in the EIA process (Annex I of the Procedural
Guideline)

Sectoral Guidelines
–
Oil & Gas, including petroleum refining, petrochemical industry
pipelines, on-shore, offshore exploration and drilling etc;
–
Infrastructures – including airports, construction, harbours,
construction and expansion, railways, highways etc;
–
Industries – including all other manufacturing industries, besides
those in the oil and gas sector;
–
Agriculture – all agricultural practices including land clearing,
aforestation projects etc;
–
Mining – including solid minerals prospecting and exploration.
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
Category 1 – full and mandatory EIA;

Category 2 – full EIA is not necessary
unless the activity is within the
Environmentally Sensitive Area;

Category 3 – activities having
beneficial impacts on the environment;

Extent of EIA are thus determined
either through listing or an initial
environmental evaluation (IEE).
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 EACP plans to develop the shoreline of Victoria Island in
Lagos State by dredging approximately 90 million cubic
metres of sand from marine shelf waters to reclaim 900
hectares of land for the development of a modern city;

South Energyx Nigeria Ltd (SENL) is the company created
to undertake the development;

Royal Haskoning completed the EIA

In the EIA, SENL indicates that it was only in respect of the
dredging and land reclamation activities and promises to
submit a further study/report on construction over the
reclaimed land.
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
A package of integrated coastal zone
management to check the impacts of sea level
rise resulting from global warming;

Absorb an escalating population of megacity;

Create employment opportunities;

Protect valued land on Victoria Island from
further erosion;

Raising of profile of Lagos; and

Reduce traffic and better public amenities.
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 Environmental
alterations will occasion
changes (either positive or negative in
the quality of the natural system)
-
Impact on living aquatic and terrestrial
resources;
Population at risk: Maroko, Okun Alfa,
Langbasa among several others.
Impact on current life and livelihood
patterns (socio-economic impacts)
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 EACP
is classified under
Category 1 as per the EIA Act,
being an “infrastructure”
project, and therefore
considered to be
environmentally sensitive.
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 Dredging commenced in EACP site in 2009;

The EACP’s EIA Report was completed in April 2011, and
displayed for public comments from 13th July to 12th
August, 2011;

The main reclaimed area is projected to be about 6km long,
with a width of 1.5km on the western end, tapering to
0.5km on the eastern end;

Public hearing was held on the 21st of January 2011 at Eko
Hotel & Suites in Lagos;

The study team consist of 25 individuals ranging from
ecologist to survey specialist, social experts, engineers, air
quality and noise experts, groundwater specialist, hydrobiologist and other environmental experts
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
Since dredging started long before the EIA, the project clearly failed to
connect with key stakeholders (public participation) to consider the preproject concerns between environment, resources and development.
This is a major flaw;
−
A submission after the project and not before is not in line with EIA
Act.

In a project of this nature, the phases will be interwoven, yet, the period
of subsequent phases (aside of phase 1) are not indicated.
Consequently, their uncertainties and risks are not considered;

Conclusions on likely impacts of the project on adjacent coastal areas
and likely snowball effect along the shoreline of the eastern Gulf of
Guinea are at best conjectural and not based on solid scientific evidence
from the study or existing literature;

The EIA neither discussed nor reacted to the latest scientific findings
and predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC). This would have further helped in developing adaptation and
mitigation responses;
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SAN FRANCISCO
MEXICO

Built substantially on sand •
filled land;
Mexico City grew from an Island
in the middle of Lake Texcoco;

Earthquake, April 18, 1906 •
ignited fire (waterpipe broke,
so no water to fight the fire);
Marshes were filed in the 16th
century and that formed basis of
modern Mexico;

City burnt for 3 days;
Earthquake occurred in 1985;

25,000 buildings damaged; •
250,000
people
rendered
homeless; economic damage
estimates
was
over •
US$350,000,000.
•
More than 10,000 people died
(40,000);
412 buildings collapsed; another
3,124
seriously
damaged;
economic loss of between three
and four billion US$.
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
It is never too late to engage;

There is a need for a thorough and sincere
review of the EACP’s EIA with key
stakeholders, experts and NGOs who have
been working in this area;

Opinions may differ, but it is always
beneficial;

After all of us here present today might have
gone, what will be the lot of Eko Atlantic City
Project?
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Thank you all for listening
Acknowledgement:
Special thanks to my colleague, Ako Amadi, CEO of CCDI for allowing me
the use of some of his materials
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