Nigeria: FG Urges Mandatory EIA on Development Projects

The Nigerian Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Ibrahim Mailafia, has urged all Federal and State Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is mandatorily included in the contractual agreements of all major development projects

.

Mailafia also said the federal government was also collaborating with the United Nations Development programme (UNDP), under the 2013 Annual Work Plan for Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) on the development of Technical Guidance Manual for the implementation of oil Spill Prevention, Control and Counter measures Plan.

 

She expressed concern over the non inclusion of EIA in implementation of many projects in the country. This is a deviation from  the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act No. 86 of 1992 and Principles 17 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Sustainable Development.  This appeal was made at  the just concluded ninth National Council on Environment in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.

The Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations at the Ministry, Mr. Lawrence Ojabo, said the minister had also charged commissioners of Environment in various states on the need to ensure strict compliance to environmental impact assessment by companies executing projects.

He said the minister said the EIA Act No. 96 of 1992 gave the ministry the mandate to ensure that EIA was conducted on major development projects with a view to identifying likely environmental impacts, and appropriate mitigation measures provided, before project implementation.

She stated that compliance with EIA would ameliorate a lot of the environmental situations in the country.

Mailafia stated that the federal government was collaborating with the UNDP under the 2013 Annual Work Plan for Country Programme Action Plan (CPAP) on the development of Technical Guidance Manual for the preparation and implementation of oil Spill Prevention, Control and Counter measures Plan (SPCCP).

She explained that the initiative was designed to protect Public Health, Welfare and the environment from potential harmful effects associated with oil spillages.

The minister referred to the outbreak of lead poisoning in Zamfara State, which claimed many lives last year, as a result of unsafe practices in the artisanal ore processing for gold. She said the federal government was currently undertaking the remediation of lead impacted compounds in Bagega, adding that 300 compounds representing 75 per cent of the lead contaminated compounds had been remediated and rendered safer for habitation.