5.2. Strengthen EA at the local government level
For EA, the Ministry of Environment is to be consulted and is
required to deliver its opinions on projects or plans with regard to
environmental aspects. Thus, from time to time, projects are stopped
because of opinions made by the Ministry of Environment, which puts
pressure on local governments. Local governments tend to overestimate the economic benefits of projects and do not take into account adverse
environmental impacts. In other words, local governments tend to shirk
their responsibilities of overseeing the likely environmental impacts of
projects and, by doing so, transfer them to the Ministry of Environment. Consequently, unless the Ministry of Environment takes a close look at
the environmental aspects of every proposed project, the environment
of the local government area could suffer.