The NCEA issued an advice on Terms of Reference (ToR) for an EIA for a sea port in the Gaza Strip. Following execution of the EIA, the NCEA was asked to review the EIA report and subsequently a supplement to the EIA report.
Significant details
The Declaration of Principles (DOP), the agreement between Israel and the PA signed on 13 September 1994, provides for the establishment of a Gaza Port Authority (Article VII DOP). A decision had been taken on the site of the port before the EIA procedure was set in motion. The EIS will provide information about the environmental impacts associated with the choice of the exact location, the port’s capacity and design, and the impacts of construction, maintenance, and activities generated by the port.
The Commission’s advice on Terms of Reference included recommending that the design of the port and the EIS be drawn up in tandem, with adequate coordination between the two. The Dutch minister for development cooperation gave the go-ahead for drawing up the design in June 1995. During the review it became clear that the fishing harbour and marina were no longer part of the proposal. The Commission also observed that delays in research meant that essential information on the risk of salt intrusion caused by boring through impermeable sedimentary layers and on sites for the extraction of building materials was not available in the EIS. The Commission advised that a supplement to the EIS be prepared containing this information before decisions were made on the design of the port and the extraction of building materials. In his request for an advisory review of the supplements the minister asked the Commission to review additional information on environmental impacts on a step-by-step basis, in a process of planning through incremental environmental evaluation. In its second advisory review the Commission noted that the information contained in the EIS and its supplements was sufficient for decision making. The Commission formulated recommendations on the registration of ship wastes, sand bypassing, on transport of building materials, on chemical analysis of dredged material, on resettlement and on monitoring and evaluation. In 1998 a supplement to the EIS was published addressing the environmental impacts of the pier under construction at the fishing harbour. A review of this supplement has not been requested.