The Civil Engineering Contractor February 2019 | Page 29

INSIGHT
It’s official: giving
teeth to EAPASA
By Eamonn Ryan
An online registration
process for environmental
assessment practitioners
(EAPs) was launched
on 27 November 2018,
heralding a membership
drive by the Environmental
Assessment Practitioners
Association of South
Africa (EAPASA).
E
arlier in the year, in February
2018, regulations had been
introduced, thereby establishing
EAPASA as the single registration
authority for EAPs for a period of
five years, requiring anyone who is
practising as an EAP to be registered.
In the months since, the registration
system has been refined and the Board
embarked on a national roadshow
to disseminate information on the
organisation and get public comment,
with more planned in 2019.
Speaking at the launch in Durban,
Jacqui Hex, Jones & Wagener technical
director and environmental specialist,
as well as EAPASA board member and
public relations chairperson, notes that
issues had been raised by colleagues,
requiring some fine-tuning of the
system that was still coming. “This
online registration system breathes
life into the EAPASA system. Anyone
practising as an EAP has to be registered
by 8 February 2020 — failing which
they cannot undertake environmental
impact assessments (EIAs) in terms of
the NEMA (National Environmental
Management Act). This will create
informed decision-making regarding
environmental issues.”
The section 24H Registration
Authority Regulations (under
NEMA) states: “No person other
than a registered environmental
assessment practitioner may hold
primary responsibility for the
planning, management, coordination
or review of EIAs and associated
EMPrs [environmental management
programmes].” She says it has been a
long journey — one starting in 2012
— to regulate a profession in order to
ensure that the sector is represented
by qualified and ethical professionals.
It was needed to address situations
where some developers were
unwilling to do things “by the book”,
says the chief operating officer of
the Department of Environmental
Affairs, Limpho Makotoko. Because
practitioners had previously operated
in the absence of a statutory
registration body, there had been
incidents of malpractice. “The
EIA sector is full of possibilities
and the introduction of this system
heralds an era of excellence that
will raise South African EAPs to a
world-class standard. We’re here to
ensure that the EIA industry operates
professionally, efficiently, ethically,
and representatively,” says Makotoko.
Various operations, like construction sites,
need environmental impact assessments.
www.civilsonline.co.za
CEC February 2019 | 27