Social distancing regulations have placed restrictions on public gatherings, making processes like EIAs challenging.
As South Africa adapts to living with the risk of Covid-19 infections, an important recent step by government has been the publishing of directions on how public participation can safely be achieved during environmental authorisation (EA) processes.
According to Selma Nel, principal scientist at SRK Consulting, it is vital that interested and affected parties are consulted and engaged with during environmental authorisation processes. Social distancing regulations under the national state of disaster, however, have placed restrictions on public gatherings – making it difficult to undertake certain activities of the legislated stakeholder engagement process.
Valuable guidance from government in June last year has clarified what would now be considered as acceptable alternatives to conventional engagement methods. This was done through the publishing of the directions regarding measures to address, prevent and combat the spread of Covid-19 relating to National environmental permits and licences (Government Notice R650) by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF).
“It is crucial that all parties ensure that the stakeholder engagement process is undertaken in a fair and transparent manner as certain aspects of the lockdown regulations could possibly result in mistrust between stakeholders,” said Nel.
“The directions are very useful in guiding not only the environmental assessment practitioners (EAPs) but all stakeholders including the competent authorities,” she said. “This has clarified how to manage an application – whether for environmental, waste, air quality or any other permits and licences.”
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