Ineke Steinhauer
Technical sectretary
The National Plan for Maritime Dredging of Colombia establishes as one of its strategies the reuse of dredged materials in the multiple needs of the country's coastlines. In a series of webinars in 2020, the experience and practice concerning the reuse of dredged material in both countries were highlighted. The NCEA contributed to one of the webinars with case presentations on ESIAs for the Varadero Canal in Colombia en the Sand Engine in The Netherlands. Based on the webinars, 5 topics were suggested for further cooperation between Colombia and The Netherlands in 2021. NCEA advice on ESIA or SEA related to policies or projects for dredging and reuse of dredged materials was identified as one of those topics.
Significant details
The Colombian government is currently working on Generic Terms of Reference (ToR) for EIAs for dredging projects related to access channels of maritime areas and ports. The NCEA was requested to:
- Review and comment on the content of these ToR document and share specific lessons learned from other locations and projects the NCEA is active in;
- Participate in virtual working sessions to present the comments and discuss these with experts from Colombia: the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Transport, National Planning Department, ANI (infrastructure agency), INVIAS, and Cormagdalena.
In its advisory report (see above) the NCEA recommends several topics to be supplemented in order to serve as a good practice guidance. For example, more information should be provided on the need for project alternatives, impact identification and assessment, if reuse of the dredge spoils is possible (circular economy) and what the relation is with climate change.