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The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (Deat) was confident that it would wipe out an environmental impact-assessment (EIA) backlog of more than 1 000 applications, within the first half of next year, spokesperson Mava Scott said on Friday.
A backlog of about 1 075 EIA applications under the 1997 EIA regulations was still in the system on June 30, while a further 1 000-odd applications were pending, but within the applicable timeframes.
Last year June, the department had some 5 859 applications under the 1997 regulations pending.
Government passed new EIA regulations last July, to smooth the process of decisions and to ensure that backlogs were minimised.
The State also engaged the services of private consultants to assist, in particular, provincial governments, to clear the backlog of EIAs and Deat introduced a five-point action plan to expedite the processing of applications submitted under the former EIA regulations.
Under the new legislation, some 1 985 applications were still pending, but Scott reported that these were mostly processed within the newly prescribed timeframes.
“There is no significant backlog in this regard,” he said.
The backlog, which President Thabo Mbeki described as "quite frightening", was blamed for delaying investment in South Africa.
