Acting Permanent Secretary for Environment, Ritesh Dass [Source: Twitter]

The total cost of Environment Impact Assessments processed and approved by the government in the last financial year stood at about $1billion.

Making submissions to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, Acting Permanent Secretary for Environment, Ritesh Dass says an EIA is crucial to mitigate environment processes and social impacts caused by development.

Dass says EIAs form an integral part of the Ministry ensuring the natural and historic heritage of any proposed site for development is not affected.

“The Department of Environment remains the sole agency for the administration of the EIA process and this has been in place since 2007.If you take a longer term view. This amounted to $5.3billion in the last 4 years, this is testament of the strength of the EIA process that the Ministry administers.”

Dass says the Ministry continues to ensure that EIAs are processed thoroughly before approvals are given.

The Assessment is a legislative process under the Environment Act of 2005 and Environment Management Regulations of 2007.