An island for an island

The following information was forwarded to GreenTnT.org. Please have a read.

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The Government of Trinidad and Tobago is planning to reclaim a sizeable portion of the southern coast of the Gulf-of-Paria to create an industrial island. The project implementors are the National Energy Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NEC). Earlier last year the NEC commissioned an Italian firm, TECHNITAL, to do the feasibilty study for the project and then follow up with a design concept as well as apply for the Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) for approval of the industrial island. The island will be built in the shallow nearshore zone known as the Oropouche Bank and will be linked to the mainland at Mosquito Creek by a causeway.

The project has now reached the stage where the NEC has approved the conceptual designs provided by TECHNITAL and submitted a CEC application to the EMA. Draft Terms of Reference were issued by the EMA for the conduct of an EIA a couple of months ago and some closed door stakeholder consultations have already been held between NEC/TECHNITAL and some of the regulatory and industry stakeholders. Interestingly, the EMA has asked the NEC to conduct a mandatory public consultation on the Draft EIA Terms of Reference and on the project conceptual design. This consultation is being held today (Oct 28th) at 5:00pm at the Paria Suites Hotel in La Romain. The problem is that the NEC did not issue any press notices of the meeting but chose to selectively invite persons who they consider to be community stakeholders by direct mail. You can read between the lines as to the NEC's intent in staging a public meeting with a chosen few. The Oropouche Bank Industrial Island project is one that has the potential to have extremely severe and wide ranging environmental and social impacts to the whole of Trinidad. It is a project that must have the greatest public involvement at each step of the project either to ensure its environmental sustainability or to prevent it from going ahead. Thus it is important that the public consultation process is indeed one in which Trinidad and Tobago has a say and not just a chosen few. I would like to urge all interested parties to attend this "public consultation" tomorrow and if they are turned away to raise their voices in protest. ---------------------------------------------------- For those who can attend the meeting, please do so! Again, it is today (Oct 28th) at 5:00pm at the Paria Suites Hotel in La Romain. For those who are able to make it, I will open a discussion topic on the group page, please post your opinions. http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=11556&uid=9734758279 Thanks GreenTnT.org