3 weeks ago
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Dr Wayne Kublalsingh - Environmental activist and UWI lecturer Dr Wayne Kublalsingh says TT should pay heed to the Armstrong Report on the Dibe to Mon Desir portion of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension project. The project is commonly referred to as the Point Fortin Highway project.
Kublalsingh, in a conversation with Newsday on August 2, advised that the government read and adopt the advice given in the report published in 2013, as it would give key advice on the environmental and social impact continuing with that segment of the highway.
He was referring to the report by an independent 21-member Highway Review Committee (HRC), led by Dr James Armstrong. The committee was set up by the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) in 2012 to independently review the contentious Debe to Mon Desir portion of the highway extension.
Kublalsingh made the statement after the Court of Appeal ruled on July 31 that the army's destruction of a camp set up to protest the construction of the disputed portion of the highway, breached the constitutional rights of the seven members of the Highway Reroute Movement (HRM).
“It (the Armstrong Report) was written by several experts in different fields. So they should look at that and see what advice that gives them, because it gives very strong advice,” he said.
The report, a 269-page document on the Dibe to Mon Desir leg of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension project published in 2013, highlighted concerns with the construction of the highway in that area, and sought to address the lack of detail presented to the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) at the time.
Kublalsingh said one of the recommendations was to widen the bridges along the Debe road, as they were too narrow.
On July 28, this year, Kalisa Danclair, a 29-year-old woman from Siparia died when her car drove off a bridge near Rahamut Trace and crashed in the Oropouche River. A Newsday report noted that residents said the bridge where Danclair lost her life was built during colonial times and was not designed to accommodate the number of cars which drove across it daily.
“We proposed and presented to the government a report in which we said that road should be widened and a new bridge should be made, as well as other things,” Kublalsingh said.
Another submission of the Armstrong report was to properly compensate the people who were displaced from their lands in the construction of the highway.
“They have built this highway and many of them have not been paid for the acquisition of the land,” he said.
Kublalsingh, as leader of the HRM, challenged the state’s continuation of a segment of the Solomon Hochoy Highway extension between Debe and Mon Desir in court. HRM claimed that officials promised verbally that the project, started during the People’s Partnership administration, would pause for technical review.
HRM won its case in High Court in 2020, but the office of the Attorney General appealed.
At the Court of Appeal, justices Nolan Bereaux, Peter Rajkumar and Maria Wilson found that no clear, unqualified promises had been made by government and, therefore, rejected the trial judge’s ruling that constitutional rights related to property and private life were breached on that basis.
In its ruling, however, the panel of the Appeal Court did find that using the army to remove peaceful protesters violated their right to the protection of the law and due process even though their right to freedom of expression had not been violated. The state was, therefore, ordered to pay $350,000 in damages to the group for constitutional breaches, $50,000 to Kublalsingh for assault and battery and $15,000 to one of the movement members, Elizabeth Rambharose, for assault.
Kublalsingh said, should the damages ever be paid, most of it will go to the group. However, he told Newsday the fight for the Debe-Mon Desir highway had been going on since 2006.
“The whole process has been quite laborious,” he said. “As far as the court is concerned, of course we are disappointed that it has taken so long, but given the nature of our justice system we couldn’t have expected a more ambitious or speedy result.”
(See page 19)
A summary of the recommendations of the Armstrong Report
1. The CEC 1372/2006 contains an extensive list of conditions intended to address the lack of detail presented to the EMA at the time of the application. A significant amount of work still needs to be undertaken to obtain approvals before any additional site activities are carried out, those include satisfying CEC conditions, submission of EIA plans to the EMA, Storm Water and Water Management plans.
2. In accordance with the TCP Act no further construction work should be carried out on the site until all of the conditions attached to the Planning Permissions have been fulfilled.
3. It is imperative that a proper Social Impact Assessment be undertaken before a decision is made whether or not to continue with the Debe to Mon Desir segment of the Highway…the SIA studies to consider the alternate routes proposed by the HRM and by MOWT/NIDCO.
4. In view of the issues relating to the dislocation of persons from their homes it is critical that a Resettlement Plan should be prepared and submitted to the EMA before any decision is finalised regarding the resettlement of affected persons.
5. No further engineering operations are to be undertaken on the land at Petit Morne, St. Madeline on which it is proposed to relocate persons residing in the path of the alignment until all necessary approvals are obtained.
6. Quantitative assessment of the surface and groundwater hydrology model and study of the wetland as a hydrodynamic system should be undertaken in the public interest…
7. An Environmental Economic Study of this Project must also be undertaken to inform a decision whether or not to proceed with this Highway segment. This should include a cost-benefit analysis….
8. Off-site impacts, such as the impact of removing and transporting extraordinarily large quantities of aggregate to be sourced from areas far removed from the Project Area need to be determined and measures designed to mitigate any negative impacts.
9. The HRC recommends that the APDSL studies be continued and consideration be given to staging highway improvement for the south western peninsula to allow the phased development of the transportation system.
10. The HRC recommends that all relevant state agencies together review their policy for the assessment of damage at Section 3 of the Land Acquisition Act.
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