“Ground and Surface Water Investigation for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Brunei Darussalam”, a project led by Dr. Stefan Herwig Gödeke (left), a Senior Assistant Professor from the Geological Sciences programme in the Faculty of Science (FOS), pictured here with Geosciences students, in preparation for fieldwork.”
The project “Ground and Surface Water Investigation for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Brunei Darussalam” has been funded by the ASEAN Corporate Social Responsibility fund.
The ASEAN CSR Vision 2020 Small Grants Fund is offered by the ASEAN CSR Network (ACN) with the support of the Government of Sweden through its Embassy in Bangkok. It is designed to provide access to supplementary funding to local and regional organizations who are engaged in work to promote Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and with an interest to link their work to regional objectives.
This project, led by Dr. Stefan Gödeke from Geology, will perform water sampling and water analyses, as well as install observatory groundwater monitoring points, for monitoring and sampling puposes in Lumut, in the vicinity of the future fertilizer plant.
Environmental regulations, specifying the need for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are new to Brunei and only become mandatory in 2017. Currently, there are a number of significant major building projects in Brunei, which include the building of the Brunei Temburong Bridge, the building of a major industrial complex including refinery at Pulau Muara Besar and the harbourfront development in Bandar Seri Begawan. Such major construction projects will undoubtedly have an impact to the environment, highlighting the importance of long-term monitoring of the surrounding sites. Another currently ongoing project is the construction of the Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions fertilizer plant in Lumut, Brunei. The EIA is a necessity for the project to prove that adverse impact on the environment is minimised. The monitoring duration and assessment of the baseline conditions for the EIA are not clearly defined in the regulations. The goal of this research project is to add value and influence the Environmental Impact Assessment in Brunei as a whole, in collaboration with Thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions Sdn. Bhd.