Abuja (Nigeria), December 4, 2024: Nigeria has released its new guidelines onconducting environmental audit in the country – these were unveiled here today in a workshop jointly conducted by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) of Nigeria and Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the New Delhi (India)-based think tank. Over 350 participants attended the event.
IshitaGarg, programme manager, industrial pollution, CSE, explains:“An environmental audit is a series of activities undertaken with respect to the operations of a facility or an organisation to evaluate its environmental performance. It is not a one-time step but an ongoing activity that aims to identify and correct environmental issues that arise during the operation of a project and improve operating and environmental conditions in industries.”
Officially unveiling theaudit guidelines, Dr InnocentBarikor, Director General, NESREA, said:“The Agency has observed that audit reports received from consultants come in different formats, lack important information, and in some cases they do not reflect the actual status of the process of the operating facility. Also, these reports do not adequately cover the information included in the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) developed during the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The new guidelines are intended to streamline the processes associated with undertaking and review of the environmental audits.”
DrBarikor added: “This revised guideline is an outcome of the collaborative efforts between CSE and NESREA. I would like to extend my appreciation to CSE for the support they have provided to NESREA in the development of these guidelines – this was needed to standardise environmental audit reports in our country.Going forward, the Agency will be verifying the parameters in the audit reports submitted by consultants and will also take a decisive action against any consultant that engages in falsification, fabrication and plagiarism.”
Inpreparing the guidelines, officials of NESREA and CSE reviewed the existing audit guidelines and the corresponding environmental audit reports from different sectors and concluded that the existing audit reports lacked technical data and information required for depicting the performance of the industries.
Speaking at the event, IshitaGarg said: “A thoroughly performed environmental audit allows industries to analyse the ambiguities in the implementation of management plans and take corrective measures. It also helps industries improve the process efficiency by optimizing the usage of resources, increasing production and thereby resulting in monetary benefits”.
On the regulatory front, “a comprehensive audit report can be helpful as it will assist in assessing the compliance status of the industry and understand its environmental performance. Comparing data of two to three years can ascertain whether the performance of an industry is improving or declining,” she added.
Garg also said that “most audit reports had enough qualitative information, but lacked in basic quantitative data like the production capacity, energy and water consumption, quantity of wastewater and solid waste generated. The reports also contain only one-year data which makes it difficult to compare the performance of the industry with the previous years. In the absence of sufficient data, the whole audit process becomes ineffective.”
The Director, Inspection and Enforcement, NESREA,Isa Abdussalamsaid: “The new guidelines are more robust, focusing on quantitative and technical data from the industries along with the information on mitigation measures taken in various sectorsover the years. Apart from being of immense use for project proponents and assistance to experts in conducting audits, these guidelines would also be useful for the regulatory bodies to review the submitted audit reports.”
To know more about the new guidelines on environmental audit, please contact:
Ishita.garg@cseindia.org or dg@nesrea.gov.ng
For more on CSE’s work in Nigeria and other nations in Africa, please contact Sukanya Nair of The CSE Media Resource Centre: sukanya.nair@cseindia.org, 8816818864
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