New CRZ draft to sort out old mess
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, OCT 11
The Environment and Forest Ministry on Monday mounted FAQs (frequently asked questions) on the draft Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification issued on September 15 inviting suggestions and objections within 60 days, pointing out 10 major issues of the 1991 notification it seeks to tackle.
It says the new objective of the 2010 notification is to ensure livelihood security to communities along the coastal areas, conservation and protection of coastal stretches, and their sustainable development, accounting dangers of natural hazard and sea level rise from global warming. The CRZ notification, 1991, now in vogue does not address these objectives.
Absolutely no restrictions are imposed on any fishing activities and allied activities of the traditional fishing communities in the water area. The new notification will control discharge of untreated sewage, effluents, solid wastes and such activities that destroy fish and their habitats. It will also regulate activities like dredging, sand mining, ship discharge that seriously impact fishing and allied activities.
Similarly, the foreshore development activities are sought to be regulated to cut down erosion affecting fishermen and their dwelling units. In the CRZ-III areas, the fishing villages, common properties of the fishermen communities, fishing jetties, ice plants, fish drying platforms or areas infrastructure facilities of fishing and local communities such as dispensaries, roads, schools, etc., shall be indicated on the cadastral scale maps.
The draft notification not only covers 500 metres from the high tide line as in the 1991 notification but also the land that falls in the hazard line beyond this and also aquatic area up to 12 nautical miles. Work is already on to mark the hazard line taking into account tides, waves, sea level rise and shoreline changes to enable erection of pillars by 2015.
For preventing further pollution of the coastal areas, the notification contemplates the phase-out of the solid waste dumping within one year and discharge of untreated waste (read sewage) within two years. To prevent shoreline changes due to manmade activities, the ministry will classify the changing coastal stretches as high, medium and low eroding sites and take steps to minimise the erosion within two years.
The draft notification removes the dual authority of the state and Centre in clearing constructions up to Rs 5 crore and above respectively and adopts the 2006 EIA notification for clearance of constructions by the ministry only where the built-up area is over 20,000 square metres. The notification lays down detailed clearance procedures and says such clearance to any project shall be valid for five years.
Also, projects will be monitored post clearance requiring the project management to submit half-yearly compliance. The 1991 notification does not provide for post-clearance monitoring.
The notification also mandates the Coastal Zone Management Authorities (CZMA) to create a dedicate website and post agenda, minutes, decisions, clearance letters, violations and actions taken. This kind of transparency was not provided in the 1991 notification.
Also, the 1991 notification was silent on the guidelines coastal zone management plan (CZMP) maps, causing immense hardship to the coastal people while the draft notification provides detailed guidelines and mandates that the CZMPs will be first put up to public for seeking comments. It also fixes time period for the clearances.
For want of any enforcement mechanism in the present notification, there were large number of violations that is sought to be taken care in the proposed notification by detailing the agencies and the timeframe for action against the violators.
The draft also makes a separate Goa-specific provision with stringent regulatory mechanism for sustainable development and ecological protection of coastal areas. It seeks to provide basic infrastructure facilities to the fishing communities for their livelihood. It specifies benefits given to the local communities.
The ministry has also clarified that the CZMPs prepared under the 1991 notification will remain in vogue until the new CZMPs are approved under the new notification. Since the coastal areas are dynamic and prone to changes, the new notification provides for revision of CZMPs after five years on the request of the state or union territory government.
