The Tribune

By Leandra Rolle

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A LOCAL environmental watchdog has commended the government for introducing several bills seeking to address environmental issues in the country.

The compendium of bills, which was passed in the House of Assembly last week, includes the Ministry of the Environment Bill, the Environmental Planning and Protection Bill, the Environmental Protection (Control of Plastic Pollution) Bill, the Bahamas National Trust (Amendment) Bill and the Bahamas Protected Areas Fund (Amendment) Bill and the Tariff (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill.

And, in a press statement released on Friday, Save the Bays thanked the government for its introduction of the bills, noting the move as a step in the right direction.

“The enactment of overarching environmental legislation has been a key objective of STB since its inception in 2013; an essential aspect of our ongoing fight against the scourge of unregulated development and a cornerstone of our advocacy for good governance in The Bahamas,” the group said.

“The FNM government and Minister of Environment Romi Ferreira, a former STB director, are to be commended for undertaking this process. The days of The Bahamas being the Wild Wild West of development must come to an end.”

According to Minister of Environment and Housing Romauld Ferreira, under the Environmental Planning and Protection Bill, environmental offenders will be fined up to $30m and jailed up to ten years.

The legislation also creates for more transparency for the Environmental Impact Assessment process.

Of late, large projects such as the proposed Oban oil storage facility in Grand Bahama and Disney’s planned development for Lighthouse Point have been the subject of scrutiny as it relates to their EIAs.

However, with this law, the government is aiming to provide a better road map for potential developers seeking approvals.

“For far too long, investors have been allowed to destroy our country’s sensitive ecosystems and ruin our natural resources which are supposed to be the patrimony of future generations of Bahamians,” the environmental group said.

“Even worse, while laying waste to land and sea, many of these large-scale projects, often spear-headed by speculative developers, forever alter the face of our communities and skew local job markets only to falter within a few years leaving Bahamians high and dry.”

The group continued: “We also hope that the associated penalties will be enforceable, unlike the Blackbeard’s Cay case, in which the court ordered the area remediated to its pre-development condition, but the developer was able to simply ignore the ruling. Such brazen affronts to the new environmental laws must not be tolerated.”