In an independent peer review, the East Sepik provincial government has concluded that the Frieda River will be further delayed. According to East Sepik administration mines coordinator Martin Torovi, there are still a lot of questions that have to be answered. He added that their review has shown that there is still a lot of weakness to the dam.
He said, “Frieda is located on one of the faults in the family of fault structures. The question is if the dam is built there will it stand or not? We do not know where the fault is and there will be many catastrophic effects. There is no proper site investigation done to clearly tell us how short waves will travel apart from the environmental impacts.”
Based on their review, Mr Torovi recommended that instead of granting an environmental permit, he has asked the developer to fund research and development studies first. Other recommendations included the government setting up bodies to regulate dams and a thorough investigation that details structural analysis and mapping for satisfactory standards.
Mr Torovi added that there should also be the putting up of long-term funds in mind closure and environmental bonds which the state and developer must publish.
