Centre tasks Nigerian parliament on 26-year old environment law

The National Assembly especially the House of Representatives has been asked to be comprehensive and diverse in the ongoing amendment of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law which has been operating for the past 26 years. The Project Coordinator of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) Mr Monday Osasah gave the […]

The National Assembly especially the House of Representatives has been asked to be comprehensive and diverse in the ongoing amendment of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Law which has been operating for the past 26 years.

The Project Coordinator of the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) Mr Monday Osasah gave the advice Thursday in Abuja at a roundtable on “Achieving a Health and Sustainable Environment in the Niger Delta- Inclusion of Environmental Social Health Human Rights and Gender Impact Assessment Component into the Current Review of the 1992 EIA Act by the House of Representatives Committee on Environment and Habitat”.

The discussion held in conjunction with the Catholic Organization for Relief and Development Aid (CORDAID) said that though lots of studies were conducted to assess the impact of the hazards generated by the oil industry on the physical and social environment and on human health, most of the studies were said to be conducted without significant contributions from health professionals and without highlighting the immediate and long-term implications of the identified hazards on the health of members of the impacted communities.

“As a result, members of the impacted communities in the Niger Delta region, being sustenance farmers and fisher-folks, continued to ply their trade in the polluted environment, without any protective gadgets. The situation in the local communities thus puts some question marks on the adequacy of the current (EIA) 1992, in Nigeria given the latest condition of local communities and global best practice,” Osasah said.

According to him the title of the Act is not reflective of the holistic landscape it is expected to cover and fuse together and that the title of the Act should be re-phrased to read “The environmental, social, and human rights impact assessment Act” to make it more encompassing and indicative of the diverse areas that are normally impacted when carrying out development projects of the scope covered by the act.

“Also to be inserted should be a new clause 1(1) input from a public forum convened in the community where the project is to be located with participation cutting across the population groups and gender representation,” he said.

He also call for inter-agency collaboration between NESREA and NOSDRA in the enforcement of the EIA standards in the case of oil and gas related operations from the building facilities to laying of pipelines as prescribed by the Oil Pipeline Act among others.