Two persons have applied to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for permits to set up wharves, among other projects on the East Bank of Demerara.
At Friendship, Shivanand Brijbhukan has proposed to the EPA a project to set up a shipping wharf at Lot 39-40 Public Road.
Heading further south, Lenny Sookram of NAMALCO Construction Guyana Inc has asked for permission to build and operate a wharf and an asphalt plant, a concrete batching plant: and workshop which he states will be to be located at 3-15 Brickery, Public Road.
The EPA says that it has screened the applications and determined that they “will not significantly affect the environment.”
It also informed that the projects are exempt from the requirement to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), as set out in Section 11 of the EPA Act.
However, it pointed out that the screening and decisions were in no way an indication that the three proposed projects have been approved.
The agency stated that it requires that an Environmental and Social Assessment and Management Plan (ESAMP) be prepared for NAMALCO, to address specific issued identified in the screening process and to detail specific and practical mitigation measures to ensure that the proposed project can be undertaken in an environmentally sound and sustainable manner.
Since 2015, a number of businesses have been set up along the Eastern Bank of the Demerara River catering to the oil and gas sector.
