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| (Courtesy The Star Newspaper) |
Panorama Environmental, Inc. of San Francisco completed an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for potential geothermal energy exploration in Soufriere in February 2018. The Department of Sustainable Development, within the aforementioned ministry, on Thursday March 15, 2018, hosted its fourth leg of public consultations at the Castries City Hall to explain the findings of the ESIA. Previously, discussions were held in communities in Soufriere which will be directly impacted by any geothermal exploration.
Although consultant Susanne Heim of Panorama Environmental, Inc., along with Aloysiaus Barthelmy who is the local geothermal technical coordinator and Mark Lambrides, a senior energy specialist from World Bank, said that by following World Bank regulations to prevent noise pollution and to sustain human and social rights, as well as keeping international standards of maintaining air and water quality, project coordinators promise a better outcome than the last recorded geothermal exploration phase. It was also constantly mentioned by Barthelmy that the last project was handled “by the British” as opposed to the World Bank this time around.
