Hopefully the recent Nalco Champion episode, not least the protest by residents over plans to create a facility for the storage of chemicals at the JFL Inland Terminal, at 4055 Industrial Site, a location in immediate proximity to a residential area, will be sufficient to provide an enduring lesson for Guyana insofar as the onshore environmental implications of the country’s oil and gas pursuits are concerned. Some points of immediate relevance should be made here.
First, business-related decisions that have to do with oil and gas infrastructure and which have environmental implications should be subjected not just to competent environmental vetting but also to satisfactory public consultation, the latter in order to avoid the kind of public backlash that greeted what appeared to be an accidental discovery. The Stabroek News has reported that while there had been some measure of disclosure that clearance had been granted “to use the area as a storage facility, it was not specified what materials should be stored at the facility.” That sounds – as we say in Guyana – like just the kind of ‘wishy, washy’ arrangement that can, inadvertently or otherwise, send signals of concealment or, at best, a paucity of transparency.
It seems that in the final analysis it was the noises of the residents that served as a precursor to having the exercise halted. That kind of militancy in these circumstances is to be applauded.
Unfortunately, and setting aside the various other considerations, the whole NALCO Champion matter raises issues of trust and the absolute importance of Guyana being able to rely on its own capabilities – whether these are available here or have to be hired in, so that we can assure ourselves of the environmental bona fides of the various onshore projects that will be set up here in connection with our oil and gas pursuits.
Contextually, there appears to be much to be said for the recent observations made by Mr. Charles Ceres regarding the dubious “qualifications” of both the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) and the Georgetown City Council to make seriously reassuring assessments about the implications of setting up certain types of facilities in residential areas. An observation of this type, surely, has to be taken seriously and as a matter of the greatest urgency since the bona fides of these two entities are almost certainly going to come under public scrutiny again before all of the environmental issues relating to our onshore oil and gas infrastructure are exhausted.
Moving beyond the euphoric feeling of Guyana’s considerable oil finds and the potential implications of these for the future of individuals, families and the country as a whole, we will, hopefully sooner rather than later, come to understand that the ‘gift’ of a world class oil and gas industry brings with it certain weighty responsibilities, including those that have to do with making serious decisions regarding how the development of the sector can and will impact on environmental considerations that have to do not just with the welfare of the population as a whole but with other aspects of the environmental footprint that the industry can leave behind for years to come, perhaps even forever.
The tendency in poorer countries encountering sudden game-changing windfalls of the kind which Guyana is experiencing has been, frequently, to throw caution to the winds and begin to allow those multiple dollar signs to trigger a kind of ‘let’s get on with it’ mindset which is sometimes attended by an infrastructure of reckless, even corrupt practices, that serve the particular purpose of letting things slide and favouring expediency and material gain over mindfulness of longer-term considerations. These are the kinds of ill-concealed dangers that can come with windfalls like ours.
The fact is that however solemn the assurances that may come from those in authority, pitfalls sometimes derive from either a lack of knowledge or from shortsightedness.
What the NALCO Champion episode ought to have taught us is that as a nation we are still not altogether prepared for the multifaceted issues, including the environmental ones, associated with discharging our responsibilities in the setting up of an onshore oil and gas infrastructure. That deficiency, if it is not corrected, and quickly, will almost certainly cost us dear. The same thing has happened to other poor countries which, like Guyana, have spent most of their existence chomping at the bit over daydreams of development and on account of inattention to critical issues, stumbling either at or close to the final hurdle.
At this particular juncture there are certain realities that Guyana has to face; one of them has to do with the likelihood that in the period ahead we will be deluged with investor interests some of which will not be unmindful of our vulnerabilities that derive from a lack of experience and expertise in critical areas. Numbered among those are issues relating to how to circumvent those considerations associated with oil and gas and the environment and how to ensure that in whatever we do the physical health and the welfare of the Guyanese people are matters of the highest consideration. The potential investors, mind you, will have their public relations specialists at hand to attest to their environmental bona fides and to provide assurances that where those are concerned we are batting on a sound wicket. We have to look beyond those as well. Careful and reflective analyses of all of the various business proposals that might come our way, whether these be from foreign entities or in tandem with the local private sector must be scrutinized carefully. Critically, we cannot afford to be lacking in the expertise with which to do so.
