Morobe wants concern addressed

THE Morobe government wants the Wafi-Golpu gold project to go ahead but the Government should first adequately address environmental concerns before the project is given approval to operate.
Governor Ginson Saonu told Conservation Environment Protection Authority (Cepa) officials this week in Lae that his people were concerned about potential environmental impacts of the project’s proposed deep-sea tailings placement (DSTP).
Saonu asked if Cepa could source additional expertise from around the world to assist with environmental assessments of potential impacts, if any, of the DSTP system.
Cepa managing director Gunther Joku said the environmental impact statement (EIS) submitted by Wafi-Golpu project had gone through comprehensive peer reviews and assessments both from internal and external experts in relevant scientific fields. “The peer review looked at the terrestrial (land) and marine (sea) issues, pipeline and specific review of the DSTP,” he said.
Joku said the Cepa had to ensure that external organisations selected to conduct peer reviews for submissions such as that of Wafi-Golpu’s DSTP system, were credible and had experience of working in tropical climates such as PNG.
This, he said, was because PNG’s natural environment such as water and sea behaved differently to that of other climatic regions of the world.
In addition, Cepa engaged national experts from the University of PNG and University of Technology to do peer reviews of Wafi-Golpu’s EIS document.
The experts looked at marine, biodiversity and other critical areas of the biophysical and biological marine and terrestrial environments.
The Cepa officials were in Morobe this week to conduct environmental awareness and consultations relating to the DSTP system that had been proposed by the Wafi-Golpu project.
The consultations are a requirement under Environment Act as it would form part of the basis for assessment of the company’s environment permit.
Landowners and impacted community members attended the awareness throughout the week.