308-i. Review: Initial Environmental Evaluation for land reclamation - Maldives

The NCEA reviewed an Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE) and advised on the necessity to undertake a full-fledged EIA for a land reclamation project at Vilufushi island.

Advisory reports and other documents

Significant details

A dredging firm was planning to start a dredging and land reclamation project on the tsunami stricken Vilufushi island. An Initial Environmental Evaluation (IEE) was prepared for this project. Due to the urgent need for this project to allow the island's population to reclame their land, a quick start of the project was desirable. However, this should not go at the expense of the situation of the (social and natural) environment. Therefore, the NCEA was requested to advise on appropriate impact assessment under the given time pressure.

The NCEA issued an advice of the secretariat in which it commented on the proposed project and the necessity to assess environmental impacts. Some of the comments were:

• The project is part of a larger initiative and should be judged as such;
• This larger initiative is very suitable for SEA, which may have already been executed for it;
• It seems that the Environmental Ministry (MEC) is not aware of any impact assessment procedure for this project - yet it is responsible for deciding on the necessity of an EIA procedure for any project;
• According to other EIA guidelines such as the World Bank's, EIA would certainly be required for this initiative.

Based on these comments, the NCEA recommended, among others, to verify with environmental authorities whether EIA/SEA has already been done, and to verify with the party submitting the IEE whether a formal EIA procedure has been undertaken.

Parties involved

Members of the working group

Technical secretary: Reinoud Post

Further details

Country: Maldives

Last modified: 10 May 2019