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Environmental Activist against World Bank’s criticism of EPA Act

Sep 25, 2019 News

“Guyana should not allow the World Bank or other organisation to come to Guyana to dismantle the laws that protect the people and environment of Guyana.”
These were the profound words of Attorney-at-law, Melinda Janki, in her speech at a Fair Deal Forum last Thursday held at the Critchlow Labour College, Woolford Avenue, Georgetown.
Ms. Janki made this statement in response to a World Bank’s International Development Association Project Appraisal Document to Guyana, which was released on March 1, 2019.
According to the Attorney-at-law, the document released by the World Bank condemns Guyana’s Environmental Protection Act that was drafted in the year 1996 as outdated and complex.
She also stressed that the proposal made by the World Bank to update Guyana’s Environmental Act should not be allowed.
The project document created by the World Bank is intended to propose a development objective for Guyana in relation to its most recent sector of Oil and Gas.
On page one of the document, under the heading, ‘Proposed development objective(s),’ it states, “the project development objective is to support the enhancement of legal and institutional frameworks and the strengthening of the capacity of key institutions to manage the oil and gas sector in Guyana”.
One of these key institutions in Guyana is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is responsible for issuing environmental licences and permits to foreign companies who wish to operate in Guyana’s territories.
In relation to this, the project document stated, under “Country Context” number 12, “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is beleaguered (besieged) by the complex and outdated environmental licensing and permitting process and is limited by a mismatch between its actual human, financial, and technical capacity and a broad mandate it has been assigned under the Environmental Protection Act.”
The World Bank also went on to note, in sub-component B (4) of the document, by saying that Guyana possesses a general framework for environmental and social management, but gaps have been identified in several areas, particularly with respect to the oversight of the oil and gas sector.
However, on the other hand, Janki argued that the Environmental Protection Act, drafted in 1996, was instituted to benefit both the people of Guyana and the environment, and must not be altered or changed.
In her argument, she said that the Environmental Protection Act of 1996 says that companies must take every single Act into consideration, especially in the area of climate change.

She reiterated that companies must note the cost that environmental damage can have on Guyana.
Janki went on to mention various examples of sectors that can be affected, if the Environmental Protection Act is taken for granted. These, she said, include tourism, agriculture, etc.
The overview of the Environmental Protection Act, which was enacted by parliament in the year 1996, states that the Act was made, “to provide for the management, conservation, protection and improvement of the environment, the prevention and control of pollution, the assessment of the impact of economic development on the environment, the sustainable use of natural resources and for matters incidental thereto or connected therewith”.

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