Riches of the Poor

02 Apr

SEKAB doctored the EIA


Damning news on SEKAB from development-today.com:

SEKAB ‘substantially altered’ biofuel study, kept Orgut’s name

SEKAB has made changes in the environmental study of the Bagamoyo biofuel plantation project in Tanzania without consulting the Swedish firm Orgut that wrote the original report. SEKAB submitted the report to Tanzanian authorities last December with Orgut’s name on it. Orgut now disowns the SEKAB report.

So this is why the EIA report, which was ready ages ago, was never released!

Credit to Orgut for revealing this. Does this mean that the consultants don’t stand by the conclusions in the incomplete leaked version of the report that we have seen? Can they now let us see the original?

How can EIAs not be public, by the way? What’s the point with making them if citizens aren’t supposed to read them?


Filed under: Biofuels, Tanzania Tags:


2 Responses to “SEKAB doctored the EIA”

  1. By Geir Sundet on Apr 2, 2009 | Reply

    The thing with EIAs are that they are the property of the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) until they have read and given a position on the report. Currently, what I hear is that they have a pile of hundreds of EAIs and that we shouldn’t expect them to process any of them in a hurry.

  2. By Lars on Apr 2, 2009 | Reply

    I thought the EIA was the property of the company? I know that EIAs are often kept secret until they are approved, but why is that? Why should government prohibit the company from sharing the findings?

    Anyhow, this should mean that the EIA will not be approved, and that SEKAB can not get the go ahead for investing in Bagamoyo (which they’ve already started doing)

    Or?

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