The National Environmental Standards Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has expressed concerns over the non-compliance with the agency’s rules and regulations guiding the citing of base stations by telecom operators.
This was contained in a statement signed by the agency’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sule Oyofo in Abuja.
The statement said that telecom operators should ensure that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure was followed in the citing of their base stations.
It said that the operators are promoting environmental health hazards in the country if procedures were not properly followed.
“I am deeply concern about the likely negative environmental and safety impacts of telecom operations, EIA procedures is not properly carried out before the citing of base stations,’’ it said.
It explained that one of the objectives of EIA was to ensure that environmental factors are considered in the decision making process.
The statement added that EIA will ensure that possible adverse environmental impacts were identified, avoided or minimised.
It said that the agency collaborated with the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) to improve partnership and promote service delivery.
It added that the essence of the collaboration was for the experts to share ideas and keep all communication lines open for effective dissemination of information.
It said that the agency was committed to ensuring that it achieved environmental protection as well as improving the environmental health across the country.
According to the statement, it is the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Environment to supervise the conduct of EIA procedures, including the issuance of an Environmental Impact Certificate.
“While it is the statutory responsibility of NESREA to ensure that the issues identified in the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) are complied with.
“The agency also sanctions companies that did not carry out EIA before commencement of projects,’’ it said.
It also said that EIS was a tool for decision making and can be use to describe the positive and negative environmental effects of a proposed action.
