Lagos-Calabar Coastal High Way: FG issued preliminary impact assessment certification for site clearance, compensation

The Federal government says it has issued a preliminary impact assessment certification for site clearance and scoping for compensation along the Lagos-Calabar Coastal High Way.

The minister of State for Environment, Iziaq Salako disclosed this on Friday at the World Press Freedom Day organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment and UNESCO at Radio House with the theme: A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of Environmental Crisis.

Salako said, ‘‘Federal Ministry of Works applied since December last year for environmental impact and social assessment of the project and that the Ministry of Environment has done its preliminary assessment.

‘‘First, let me say that environmental impact and social assessment is mandated by law for some categories of projects, public and private. The Federal Ministry of Environment implements that law, and I can tell you that we take it very, very seriously. We don’t joke with it. As a matter of fact, I can tell you that in recent months, we have observed a few loopholes in the existing law.

‘‘And we are already approaching the Federal Executive Council to see how to block those loopholes. The Federal Ministry of Works applied since December last year for environmental impact and social assessment of that project that you spoke about. And the Ministry of Environment has done its preliminary assessment, and I can confirm we have issued a preliminary impact assessment certification for site clearance and scoping for compensation.

‘‘We have done that, and that is what is going on now. But you know that it is a very big project, a long road, so it’s not something we can do in one field swoop. So we have decided to therefore approach the issuance of the certification in phases like that, so that the project can go on, and we can also be doing our own bit of it.’’