Ineke Steinhauer
Technical secretary
The NCEA issued advice on Terms of Reference (ToR) for an EIA for a land reclamation and drainage project in Guayaquil. Later, it issued an advisory review on the EIA report and subsequently an advisory review of supplemented information. It concluded that some essential aspects were not covered in the EIA report and neither in its supplement.
Significant details
The Commission observed that the EIS contained too little information to support the proposed elevation of the reclaimed land, that some geotechnical data were missing, that there was no information about possible chemical pollution of the new land, and that there was insufficient detail on evaluation and monitoring. During the site visit it appeared that the success of the project partly depends upon follow-up activities not included in the project. The Terms of Reference therefore contain the remark that a certain level of commitment from those organizations responsible for carrying out these follow-up activities is essential. A supplement to the EIS was submitted for review. In both the EIS and the supplement there was no mention of commitment, and the significance of this was underlined again in the advisory review. Both the geotechnical data and adequate evidence to support the proposed height of the reclaimed land were missing in both the EIS and the supplement. The advisory review recommends that this information be provided. The DGIS project committee has approved the project, which, however, is not yet under way pending agreement on the costs and the approval of the Ecuadorian Government.