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| National |
| Work on fertilizer factory resumes |
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by
Joseph Langa, 26 April 2006
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05:26:31
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Coin Tech Fertilizer Company, a Taiwanese firm which is constructing the much hyped fertilizer plant in Lilongwe, has resumed the project which was briefly stopped following a court injunction obtained by Kapani Enterprises last week.
The High Court in Lilongwe granted an injunction to Kapani Enterprises stopping the construction of the project because Coin Tech had not yet completed an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) before commencing construction work.
But the same court dissolved the injunction on Monday following a notice from lawyer for Kapani Enterprises Allan Chinula to discontinue the case and later an application from Coin Tech lawyer Ian Malera to dissolve the injunction.
“Take notice that we hereby wholly discontinue this action against the respondents,” reads the notice filed at the court and served on Coin Tech, which is so far claiming damages from Kapani following the court action.
Minister of Mines, Natural Resources and Environment Henry Chimunthu Banda on Tuesday said that government gave the fertilizer company a go-ahead with the construction on the basis that a brief on the EIA was done.
“Even if Kapani did not rescind their decision, government could still have asked the company to go ahead with the project because an EIA was done,” Banda said.
But an insider at the ministry yesterday said that government made a mistake to give the company a go-ahead on the factory after it only did a brief on the EIA.
“An EIA, according to the Act, is an involving venture...The Act says a public inspection has to be done. It should contain detailed report about the project and the activities to be undertaken to implement the project,” said the source.
“A factory like this one needs a comprehensive EIA because it releases a lot of toxic both in the air and water surfaces,” he added.
For instance, he said, phopharous is one gas which could be emitted and too much of it in the air could cause kidney damage and eutrophication when it gets into contact with surface water.
Eutrophication in water could lead to formation of algae and duck-weed which are phosphate dependant and suffocate organisms in surface water.
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