First addendum to the EIA report for the proposed coastal protection works in AA. Ukulhas

Abstract

This is the First Addendum to the project’s approved main EIA, which has been prepared for obtaining permit and environmental clearance for a new burrow site that will be used for obtaining required fill material for the request by the AA Ukulhas Island Council to extend the project shoreline to 2005 shoreline. The Proponent of the project is Ministry of Environment and Energy and the contractor of the project is SAS e Senok JV Pvt. Ltd. As part of this Addendum, it is proposed to obtain additional 13,125cbm of sand from the extended burrow site located close to the approved burrow site. The request by the AA Ukulhas Island Council was agreed by Ministry of Environment and Energy and further 2 months have been added to the original project scope. It is a legal requirement under the Amended EIA Regulation 2012 EIAs/Addendums for projects that are believed to generate negative environmental impacts. This Addendum has been prepared as per the approved Terms of Reference (TOR) on 12 April 2016. The scope of this Addendum is to assess the existing environmental condition of the proposed project areas and surrounding environment, identify potential environmental impacts, propose environmental management and mitigation measures to minimize environmental impacts as well as propose an environmental monitoring plan with appropriate environmental parameters to monitor changes on a regular basis. A detailed environmental assessment was undertaken as part of the main EIA and marine and coastal environmental assessments relevant for the proposed project have been used as the baseline environmental condition in this Addendum. The major environmental impacts from the proposed dredging and filling works are direct removal of reef section of the new burrow site, effects of sedimentation within the surrounding environment, changes in the lagoon hydrodynamics as well as increased turbidity in seawater due to sedimentation. Careful planning and scheduling of the proposed activities to coincide with calm days and low tide operations has been proposed as the main mitigation measures in addition to regular monitoring of the various aspects of the environment. Although there are a number of environmental impacts from the proposed development, some of these can bring permanent changes to the environment of the island, other impacts can be reduced and mitigated by use of appropriate methodology. The effectiveness of these methodologies can be documented by implementing a comprehensive monitoring programme. Also, with positive social outlook of the project and considering the overall need for the project, it is concluded that the request by the AA Ukulhas Island Council to be implemented.