The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia, in collaboration with the Liberia National Police (LNP) and the Ministry of Mines and Energy, will Tuesday begin a three-week nationwide rigorous environmental compliance monitoring across the country.
The exercise will also include detailed environmental monitoring, chemical inventory, sampling, and analysis of environmental media (air, soil, and water quality) where feasible for informed decision-making in Liberia’s sustainable management of natural resources.
According to an EPA release, it is geared towards ensuring the sustainable operation of all ongoing and proposed projects in Liberia, in keeping with Part III, Section 6, and Annex I of the Environmental Protection and Management Law (EPML) of Liberia.
“It is anticipated that this effort will help ensure the health and safety of the environment, including abating issues of environmental degradation and pollution,” Danise Love Dennis-Dodoo, Head of Media & Corporate Communications at the EPA said.
She said that the intervention is in consonance with Article 6 of the Liberia Constitution, which guarantees “every person in Liberia the right to life, and by extension, the right to a clean and healthy environment that supports that life”.
Additionally, Mrs. Dodoo disclosed that the scope of the exercise is expected to cover both the counties and city limits, concessions, and forest landscape of the Republic of Liberia, where ongoing activities require the conduct of an environmental impact assessment and mitigation.
She is calling on all concerned to grant the EPA monitoring team unhindered access to their facilities and provide all requested documents.
Meanwhile, the EPA welcomes full cooperation with all natural resource management institutions, the LNP, local municipal governments, and Township Commissioners.
Madam Dodoo disclosed that the monitoring team will arrive at each facility in an EPA-registered vehicle, along with their counterparts in their respective government-registered vehicles, and team members will display their working identification cards and conform to induction protocols as required by the facility’s health, safety, and environment team.
She reassures the public of EPA’s commitment to maintaining a safe, clean, and healthy environment for this and succeeding generations.
