24 Nov 2020

 The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act has been amended as part of government’s drive towards ensuring that national laws are business and investor friendly.   

 This was said by Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) director Mr Charles Mojalemotho during a media briefing in Gaborone on Monday.

  He said the amended act would help create a conducive environment for doing business in Botswana by ensuring timely decision making without compromising the environment.

Important changes in the legislation included significant reduction in turnaround times for processing of environmental assessments documents by the department, said Mr Mojalemotho.

He said the amendment was also in response to a World Bank EIA study which recommended improvement in efficiency, reduction of the cost of doing EIAs and reduction of the number of projects subjected to EIA. 

Mr Mojalemotho explained that turnaround time for processing project brief application had been reduced from 10 to three working days while the notice period for advertising was reduced from 21 to 10 working days. 

The turnaround time for environmental management plan and scoping report reviews as well as terms of reference now took 10 instead of 28 working days, explained the director.

Also reduced is the turnaround time for the detailed environmental statement  review from 60 to 14 working days while the strategic version would now be reviewed in one calendar month instead of 60 days.

The period for public review notification and canvassing for comments or objections has been reduced to 10 working days from the previous 21.  

For his part, DEA deputy director, Mr Botshabelo Othusitse said environmental management plans were now exempt from public review requirements.

 Instead, the DEA director was empowered to appoint private reviewers from individuals with technical expertise in specialized areas which would increase the pool of reviewers and consequently contribute to expedient discharge of the environmental assessment reports, he explained.

Mr Othusitse further said it was no longer a requirement for waste management and rehabilitation plans to be developed by registered practitioners thus reducing development costs. 

Mr Othusitse said the DEA would embark on a stakeholder awareness programme on the amendments.  ends