The draft Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) for the Amaila Falls access road and transmission lines will soon be released to the public, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Dr Inderjit Ramdass says.
Ramdass disclosed that the ESMP was submitted this week to the Agency. According to him, officials are making a cursory check of the document and that after this is completed it will be made public. The Director said too that it would probably take about four weeks for the EPA to assess the ESMP and to give its approval.
Meanwhile, Ramdass disclosed that the Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the project is yet to be submitted to the EPA. He said that he was told that this should be done shortly after some final touches are made to the document.
Senior Engineer Walter Willis explained to this newspaper that the ESIA relates to the entire hydropower plant project. He said that the project sponsor, Sithe Global LLC, was the entity responsible for conducting the ESIA. Consequently, this entity would have been responsible for hiring the persons who conducted this phase of the exercise. He explained that the document is supposed to be submitted to the EPA as well as other entities that have an interest in the project. A well placed sourced explained to this newspaper that these other entities would include potential donor agencies and this would include the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
In July, the IDB entered into a technical co-operation agreement with the Guyana government amounting to US$1.2 million to partially fund studies for the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project (AFHEP) which will be used by the Bank to evaluate the feasibility of the project. The studies partially financed by the Technical Cooperation include: the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, the Hydrology Review, and the Off-taker and Market Assessment. There will also be the establishment of a panel of experts.
A report in the Business News Americas quoted an unnamed IDB project official as saying that “a substantial portion of the environmental studies for the Amaila Falls hydro project in Guyana will be ready at year-end.” “The environmental studies will be used to determine if the IDB continues the due diligence phase in the lead-up to possible financing,” the report further stated.
The information on the IDB website said the total cost to produce the studies is US$ 2,517,000. IDB Country Representative Marco Nicola told Stabroek News subsequently that it was the project sponsor that was funding the outstanding balance – US$1.3M ($260M) – on this aspect of the project.
Recently, Willis told media operatives that the start up of access roads project could not begin until the Environmental Construction Permit was given. Explaining the delay of this process, Willis explained that an extensive environmental audit had to be conducted in other for the necessary permission to be granted.
Phase one of the AFHEP includes “the upgrading of approximately 85 km of existing roadway, the design and construction of approximately 110 km of virgin roadway, the design and construction of two new pontoon crossings at the Essequibo and Kuribrong rivers.”The fourth part of the project is for the clearing of a pathway alongside the roadways to allow for the installation of approximately 65 km of transmission lines.
