NEC under question
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11 May, 2009 – With a spate of environmental violations being unearthed in Bjemina quarry, S D Eastern coalmines, Samtse talc mines and others, concerns are raised over what the national environment commission (NEC), the regulatory authority for the issuance of environment clearance certificate, is doing.
NEC is the sole autonomous agency to monitor and take action against all environmental violations and to give environmental clearances for developmental work, including mines and roads.
However, three ACC cases on the mines, one inter-ministerial report on Bjemina, and one royal audit authority (RAA) report on mines in general show weak or non-existent monitoring by NEC.
Even the widening of the Phuentsholing-Thimphu highway, supposed to be a ‘environment friendly road construction’ (EFRC), is under a grey cloud with huge amounts of soil and boulders being dumped along the highway, destroying acres of forests and scarring the landscape below the road, say observers. The widening work is being done by Dantak.
Both ACC and RAA pointed out large magnitude of environmental damage in the Samtse talc mines. Despite being just about 20 km away from NEC’s head office in Thimphu, Bjemina quarry received its first proper NEC inspection only on cabinet directives when, in fact, the agency is supposed to make inspections on its own. The inter-ministerial team found high levels of dust, high incidence of TB and dust settling on plants affecting plant growth. The lease from the forest department was for surface collection, but half the mountain was being brought down.
In case of S D Eastern coalmines, RAA pointed out several environmental lapses, later investigated by NEC, which gave a clean chit to the coalmines. But recently ACC found that the company had not obtained an environmental clearance certificate from NEC.
ACC also said that subsequent environmental mine clearances were dubiously issued by the department of geology and mines, by splitting the main mine into smaller mines on paper to avoid going to NEC. It was also found that there was no environment management plan, which is a pre-requisite before starting a mine. NEC came across none of the above in its earlier investigation.
An audit study found that nearly all 39 mines and 27 stone quarries it studied were environmentally unfriendly, breaking multiple rules and affecting local communities. While some did not have environmental clearance, others were dumping mine waste into rivers and streams.
NEC is supposed to have an annual monitoring of various mines and industries to check all these violation, say observers. NEC though fined some Pasakha industries for pollution recently.
NEC deputy minister, Dasho Nado Rinchen, said, “Yes, we’re the overall monitoring agency but government departments like DGM have inspectors and people in the field.” He said that NEC was not able to monitor efficiently as it was faced with manpower shortage. He said that when NEC was strict, the private sector complained of not being allowed to grow. “From now on, we’re going to be very strict and mining will be reviewed.”
Source: Kuenselonline