Stephen Teeuwen
Technical secretary
The NCEA reviewed the EIA for the Lake Kivu transport project. This project aims to develop several ports along Lake Kivu to facility transport of humans and goods, and financing is considered by the RVO's DRIVE facility. In May 2019, the NCEA conducted a field visit to the various proposed port sites and met with stakeholders.
Significant details
In April 2019, the NCEA received a request from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), through the Development Related Infrastructure Investment Vehicle (DRIVE) facility, to carry out an independent quality review of an Environmental lmpact Assessment (EIA) for the Lake Kivu transport project in Rwanda. In order to gain a better understanding of the environmental and social circumstances of the project, the NCEA composed a working group of experts who travelled to Rwanda to visit the project ports along Lake Kivu.
Amongst others, the NCEA noted that the EIA did not contain a thorough analysis of the Social impacts of the project. In addition, other impacts were insufficiently described or insufficiently included in the Environmental and Social Management Plan. One example is the amount of dredging required for the project and how much impact this will have on the environment.
The NCEA's recommendations have been incorporated in an update of the Impact Assessment, which has also been reviewed by the NCEA.