Transcript
DARYL RAIRI: What they have been saying there has been a lot of work done and no action and there is a concern of the aesthetics of the lagoon the tourism industry is concerned about this issue. Comments like that is what they have been saying at our meeting.
JAMIE TAHANA: Are they valid concerns that you and the government agree with?
DR: We, all concerns are valid, what we want to do is to try and absorb what the issues are so we can work together with the communities so we can move this program forward,
JT: Either way moving it forward will take a long time wont it controlling the nutrients into the lagoon. So you have brought six possible early measures. What do you mean by early measures?
DR: Early measures is what work can be done in the next couple of months. So early measures that we mentioned at the workshop was there was a group that submitted an EIA for the removal of sediment to increase the flushing of the lagoon. So that could be one early measure but the issue is that the Cook Islands government has an EIA process, Environmental Impact Assessment process. So that needs to be followed and any issues raised by the environment authority we need to make sure that we have answered the questions that are raised by them. Another one is the management of the seaweed. Regulating the chemical use another early measure is regulations of waste water treatments so those were some of the early measures that we were discussing at the meeting.
JT: And so what is the process of doing that what happens now to get them going and how long could it possibly take? Have you even decided whether you will do these yet?
DR: Yeah I couldn't give you an exact timeline for getting these early measures going but I mean some of the regulations to regulate on the chemical use that could start as soon as possible. Regulations can be improved on so those can start. The removal of sediment like I have said before there is EIA processes they could take up to about three months to have anything approved.
JT: What was the reaction from the community to these early measures when you brought it to them?
DR: What we did was we held workshops and we asked the community which of the three early measures was a priority to them and they came back. Most of the groups chose sediment removal, reducing sediments, nutrients in the lagoon and enforcing or improving regulations.
JT: So that just needs to be taken to government does it?
DR: Yep well we get community feedback and then we will present it to. We have a committee that we report to. It is a coordinating committee for this program so what we do is we get all the feedback and then we present the feedback to the committee for the approval once we get approval then we can move.
