Environment Act fees to rise to cover rising costs

National

PENALTY fees imposed on industries under the Environment Act 2000 will be increased to cater for the costs of compliance, monitoring of environment permits and carrying out conservation projects, a Cabinet minister says.
Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change John Pundari said penalty fees charged under the environment regulation was insignificant compared to the resources needed to get the job done.
“I know and understand the importance of monitoring and compliance when it comes
to matters of environment permits,” he said.
“Over the next two to three months, I’ll be looking at reviewing the Environment Act 2000, especially in the area of penalty.”
He said if the country and the people were talking about sustainable environment development, the legal framework must provide the means towards achieving that.
“While the Environment Act 2000 may be recent, we need to relook at it again according to the priorities we have
going into the next five years,” he said.
“Reviewing the Environment Act 2000, will be important especially in the areas of penalties to make sure that we have compliance when out there doing monitoring.
“We must be able to get the result we want when doing monitoring and compliance of environment permits.”