Environmental watchdog shifts blame for enforcement failures
The EPA blamed lack of resources, poor inter-agency cooperation and insufficient enforcement powers.
05 Nov 2018, 9:00 AM
A lack of resources, poor inter-agency cooperation and insufficient enforcement authority are to blame for the failure to ensure environmental protection standards, officials told the press Sunday.
The Environment Protection Agency’s director general Ibrahim Naeem described his responsibilities as a “fragmented mandate.”
The EPA was weakened during the outgoing administration of President Abdulla Yameen, he said, referring to the transfer of its powers to authorise projects on resorts to the tourism ministry.
“This is the biggest challenge. It is a fragmented mandate. For example, everything in the oceans are under the fisheries ministry. Now we don’t have a say about anything that happens within the borders of a tourism development or a resort,” he said.
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