AN EIA IS ALSO NEEDED FOR THE ROAD CONSTRUCTION

May 09, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The PNCR must be commended for its intention to raise the proposed hydroelectric facility in the National Assembly.
Hopefully out of this will emerge disclosure of the initial Memorandum of Understanding which was signed between the government of Guyana and Synergy Holdings Inc., and to determine what rights that company had towards the proposed project.
The main opposition must however be cautious in making claims about the need for clean and renewable sources of energy, lest this be construed as them being seen as supportive of this project having the potential to provide such energy.
This in fact has been the only defence which the government has offered in relation to the project.
It continues to say that the project will meet all the future energy needs of Guyana and that it will provide a clean and renewable source of energy.
There is no doubt that Guyana needs such sources of energy. The world is moving increasingly in the direction of clean energy development.
After the energy crisis of a few years ago which saw oil prices soar, not as a result of a reduction in supply, but because of the practices of vulture capitalists investing in oil stocks.
The response of the Obama administration to the crisis has been to invest in energy efficient technologies.
The Americans believe that if they can put a man on the moon, it is within their expertise to develop cheaper and renewable sources of energy and they are presently developing cutting edge technology which if successful, and if commercialized, will not only safeguard them against future shocks in the energy sector, but will assure them a significant competitive advantage in terms of the price of energy.
In Guyana, the price of energy is a critical variable in deciding whether to pursue renewable sources of energy, because while there may be savings in foreign exchange earnings as a result of meeting all our future energy needs from hydroelectric power, these benefits can be offset if the resulting power is not cheap.
A fifty per cent reduction in energy costs may seem significant, but it must be borne in mind that at present, line losses and other inefficiencies result in a tariff that is bloated by as much as forty per cent. Thus the same halving of energy costs can result if these inefficiencies and line losses can be eradicated and production costs reduced.
Energy is critical to the future development of Guyana. Cheap and reliable sources of energy are needed and Guyana has the potential to tap into new and alternative sources of energy. Hydropower is just one of these.
But while hydropower is a considered a form of clean energy, it is not necessarily an environmentally friendly form of development. The energy produced may be clean, but producing this energy has serious environmental consequences which must be mitigated.
To produce hydroelectric power, a dam has to be built to trap water from a river or fall. The dam is like a massive wall which stops the flow of the water and raises the level.
The water trapped is then moved through tunnels in the dam and the pressure that is produced spins turbines that produce energy.
But in damming the river, there is a risk of massive destruction of ecosystems, and a dam not properly built can also collapse and cause untold flooding and destruction.
A few years ago, a small hydroelectric facility at Moco Moco in Region 9 suffered some damage and has since been inoperable.
And, of course, Guyana recalls very well the environmental disaster which occurred in the mining sector years ago when a tailings pond containing cyanide-laced effluent developed seepages allowing millions of gallons of contaminated liquid to flow into one of the main rivers of Guyana.
Guyana must therefore count the environmental costs involved in constructing the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Facility in the same way as it is quantifying the benefits of a renewable and clean source of energy that would meet the future needs of the country.
With the opposition tabling a motion the National Assembly, it is now possible for the Environmental Impact Assessment of this project to be debated and a verdict reached on the possible environmental consequences of this proposed investment.
The opposition should equally demand an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) into the proposed road that is to be built to the Falls. This assessment is required by the Environmental Protection Act. The proposed three-billion dollar road will no doubt traverse existing trails that have been cut but also will involve the felling of virgin forests, and thus existing ecosystems will be subject to destruction.
A road project of this nature and magnitude also requires an Environmental Impact Assessment and the opposition should insist that this be done before any work commences.
There has been an EIA into the hydropower station itself and within this EIA it was commented that the environmental effects of road construction are usually minimal.
This statement should however not be construed as an EIA on the road, but simply a general assessment about the environmental effects of road construction.
What is being built is a not a mud dam but a three-billlion-dollar road.
The law requires that where ecosystems are likely to be effected, that an EIA should be done and as was said not so long ago, the law is the law and must be complied with.
It is truly amazing to have read in Friday’s edition of this newspaper that the road contract awarded involves design and construction components.
One has to wonder how the evaluators were able to determine the most responsive bid for the construction of the road project when the design of the road forms part of the very bids which they are evaluating.
And one has to wonder how the evaluators could have pronounced on an EIA for the road when according to reports the contract signed involves a design component; meaning that at the time the bids were evaluated there was no agreement on a design and thus no EIA on the selected design. Can someone explain this?

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