State grapples with EIA backlog
August 24, 2007
By SLINDILE KHANYILE
Durban - The national department of environment and tourism is sitting with a backlog of 1 075 applications awaiting environmental impact assessment (EIA) decisions.
The department said this week that it did not know how far the backlogs dated to and that there was a national shortage of EIA officers.
Mava Scott, the acting head of communications at the department, said it had spent more than R5 million in the past year outsourcing to consultants to deal with pending applications.
Another R11 million would be allocated to the provinces to address the backlogs.
"The total number of pending applications in terms of the 1997 EIA Regulations was 2 150 on June 30 2007 as opposed to 5 859 applications that were pending at the end of June 2006.
"It must, however, be noted that only 50 percent of the 1997 regulation-related applications is considered as backlog as the majority of the applications are still within due process," said Scott.
Last year, the department introduced the 2006 EIA regulations aimed at expediting the application process.
The regulations identify the categories and time frames for the applications that did not exist in the 1997 regulations.
The 2006 rules give the government 60 to 105 days to review and make decisions on EIAs for large infrastructure projects such as major dams and roads, and 45 days to decide on minor projects such as small stadiums.
The department was not sure of how many EIA officers it had on its books nor could it give a figure indicating what the ideal staff number was, Scott said.
He said up to date, figures of how many EIA officers they had were not available because a capacity audit and needs analysis were being conducted and would be concluded next year.
Last year, the provinces catered for 250 officers to deal with EIA, but 30 percent of these positions stood vacant, Scott said. KwaZulu-Natal was the province with the highest vacancies that needed to be filled.
Mbulelo Baloyi, a spokesperson for the provincial department of agriculture and environment affairs, said of the 41 posts that had to be filled, 34 had been advertised.
"Under the current staffing levels, the assessment component is struggling to meet [the 2006 EIA regulations time frames] as reflected in the fourth-quarter service delivery for 2006/07 where a target of 70 percent was set but only 32 percent was achieved," said Baloyi.
Baloyi said in November when the new MEC, Mtholephi Mthimkhulu, took over, there were about 1 700 cases backlogged, but that number had been reduced to below 300.
According to a report in The Mercury, Business Report's sister paper, this week Limpopo had 23 vacancies, Northern Cape had 17, Eastern Cape had 10 and two in Mpumalanga. Figures for Gauteng, Western Cape, Free State and North West provinces were not provided.
Mike Deighton, a director at Moreland Development's Commercial and Industrial Development, said it was encouraging to see that the government had realised the problem.
"It's absolutely a massive problem at the moment. It is not because the process is fundamentally flawed, but rather because of lack of capacity. We've got a number of projects that are still awaiting decisions dating back to many, many years," said Deighton.
The shortage of EIA officers was caused by the high rate of developments, which resulted in great demand for qualified EIA officers, and because tertiary qualifications were not aimed at compiling environmental assessments but rather focused on the administration side.
"Government salary is not competitive in terms of that offered by parastatals and industry. Budget allocations to environmental functions, especially at provincial level, are generally not on par with the growth rate and level rate of infrastructure development," said Scott.
He said accredited training in EIA administration was being developed and the first course would take place in February and various sector guidelines were being developed.
The department of environment and tourism is developing decision-support instruments such as environmental management frameworks and the national environmental authorisations systems.
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