Phnom Penh, February 17, 2015: Representatives from NGO Forum on Cambodia, Development & Partnership in Action (DPA) as well as inter-ministry committee members were invited by the Ministry of Environment (MoE) to provide input on the full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studied by CES Co., Ltd over the GUANGXI NONFERFOUS METAL GROUP (CAMBODIA) CO., LTD’s Ferrous Mine Project in Preah Vihear province at the MoE, The meeting was chaired by H.E Say Sam Al, the Minister of MoE.
After finishing the presentation on the full EIA report conducted by the company, the expertise of the NGOs and the Inter-ministry committee were asked to deliver feedback on specific cases of forestry, water resource, environment, mine and energy and the financial issues, which were mentioned in the report.
The four concern issues of the EIA report that were raised for the feedback during the meeting were water pollution, deforestation, and waste management. Concerns about the social fund, which is planned for more than 8 million dollars, were also raised. This fund will be used to develop the affected communities and to ensure transparency and accountability between the Environment, Mines and Energy and Economic and Financial Ministries with their own peoples and communities.
“The critical inputs from NGOs representatives over the projects are about the temples around the project area which is considered as a site of cultural tourism. In addition trainings to the community on the technical work, and a fisheries baseline survey are in need to be completed. Meanwhile, public participants and affected communities compensation have been inserted into the review,” Mr. Tek Vannara, NGOF’s ED stated after the meeting. “It won’t end here as the Technical working Group will keep working on the comments and will be later inform the inter-ministerial committee of their work on this case,” he added.