Environmental audit of the desalination plant in Gangehi Island Resort, North Ari Atoll

Abstract

This report has been prepared in order to assess the environmental performance of the existing desalination plant for the purpose of registration of the plant according to the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency. This report focuses only on the desalination plant and no other operations of the resort are incorporated within the context of this report. Environmental Impact Assessment (or Audit) is required for the registration of desalination plant under the Desalination Regulation of the Maldives. Also, desalination plant projects fall within the list of projects requiring Environmental Impact Assessment study under the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation of the Maldives. However, since the desalination plant in Gangehi (like many other such facilities in the Maldives) has been operational when the Desalination Regulation and the EIA Regulation came into effect, the scope for this Environmental Impact Assessment has been based on that of an environmental audit of the existing facilities, focusing on the environmental compliance and performance of the existing desalination plant. Therefore, this report will include a compliance and performance audit. The compliance audit or review will assess how well the project implementation complies with the existing environmental policies or requirements by the registering authority and the performance audit will assess the actual environmental impacts of the project and how well the impacts have been mitigated during the construction as well operational phase. The performance audit will also include a review of the existing monitoring programme, discussing the deficiencies and suggesting improvements for future monitoring. There have not been any legal requirements for environmental monitoring as there has not been any EIA report for the resort facilities under consideration. Therefore, this report is based on the findings of site investigations carried out by the consultant and necessary information provided by the management and technical staff at Gangehi resort. However, it is noted that the resort has a system in place to monitor environmental performance indicators of which water quality tests undertaken in the recent past by the Proponent have been used in preparing this report. In addition to discussing the findings of the audit, a matrix will be presented which summarises the status of environmental compliance and performance for activities involving the operation and maintenance of the facility. This report will also provide recommendations for further environmental improvements to the desalination plants.