Insistence on Legal Violations and Continuation of Dredging Works at Adloun Fishermen’s

Why the insistence on legal violations and the continuation of excavation and leveling works!! Those who overlook these violations are partners in them.

On Monday, the Ministry of Culture renewed its request through an official letter to the Ministry of Public Works to halt the works until an archaeological survey is conducted. This comes as a reminder of what the Ministry of Environment stated regarding claims that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) had been completed and submitted, knowing that such an assessment must be carried out with the participation and supervision of the Ministry of Environment and prepared by an independent and credible institution.

The Media Office of the Minister of Environment, Mohammad Al-Mashnouk, issued the following statement today:

“In response to what was circulated by some media outlets on 22/1/2016 regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposed project at the fishermen’s port in the Adloun area – Sidon District, and as a follow-up to its statement issued on 22/1/2016, the Ministry of Environment clarifies the following:

- The aforementioned project is still in the scoping phase of the Environmental Impact Assessment.
- Paragraphs (6) and (7) of Article Seven of Decree No. 8633/2012 (Environmental Impact Assessment Procedures) stipulate the following verbatim:

‘The Ministry of Environment shall, within a period of fifteen days from the date of registration of the report related to defining the scope of the “Environmental Impact Assessment” in its registry, state its position and notify the project owner accordingly. This position may be approval of the report, approval with specific amendments, or a request for additional information. The Ministry shall state its position regarding the additional information submitted by the project owner within a period of fifteen days from the date of its registration in the registry. (7) In the event that no response is issued by the Ministry of Environment within the period specified above, the project owner has the right to consider the report related to defining the scope of the “Environmental Impact Assessment” as approved and to comply with it when preparing the “Environmental Impact Assessment” report.’

This means that, contrary to what was circulated in the media regarding the right of the project owner to begin implementing the proposed project if the fifteen-day period passes without any response from the Ministry, the legal texts do not permit this. Paragraph (7) of Article Seven of Decree No. 8633/2012 is clear in granting the project owner only the right to move to the next stage following the scoping phase of the Environmental Impact Assessment system, which is the preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment report based on the scoping report.

Accordingly, the ongoing works at the fishermen’s port constitute a clear violation of the provisions of Decree No. 8633/2012 and must be halted immediately, as stated in the Ministry’s statement dated 22/1/2016.”