The NCEA issued an advisory review of the EIA for a land reclamation project in Sri Lanka. It concluded that essential information was missing, which made it impossible to assess the proposed mitigation measures or to suggest additional ones. Additional research was recommended to obtain the missing information.
Significant details
The decision for funding had already been taken before the EIS was reviewed, and the contracts with the engineering company signed. The Commission was asked to evaluate the EIS against international EIS standards, assess the mitigating measures included in the EIS, and make recommendations concerning additional mitigating measures. The Commission concluded that public participation procedures had been used well during the preparation of the EIS, but also remarked that the proposal had not been placed within a broader planning context, and that consequently the possible impacts on (natural) functions allocated to adjacent areas had not been examined by EIS. The Commission further concluded that the EIS contained insufficient quantative information on the environmental impacts of the proposal, making an evaluation of the mitigating measures impossible. For the same reason, the Commission is unable to make any recommendations on additional mitigating measures. The Commission advised that if this missing information is not available, research should be undertaken to obtain it.