5.8 Monitoring and Enforcement of Licenses to Pollute

Licenses are not self-executory, they need an effective enforcement mechanism to ensure that the stipulated terms and conditions of the licence are being implemented. In addition, the enforcement programme should ensure that whoever violates these terms and conditions does not make profit out of it; and society has to be compensated for the damages it has endured as a result of the violation of set terms and conditions.

In order to have an effective monitoring and enforcement mechanism, the NEMC Act should be amended to require mandatory record-keeping and reporting of emission activities. Then each facility's license should provide for
enforcement mechanisms in order to reduce or mitigate the onus of detecting and proving the violations. For example, a facility will be required to periodically monitor its emissions pursuant to the agreed measuring methodology and record emissions data accordingly in the facility's emission chart. The emissions records are then to be submitted to the regulatory Authority (or NEMC) which shall make the information available to the public. The Authority should consider violation of the license conditions, and take offence of any failure to monitor emissions or submit reports to it.

It is also important for the NEMC Act and the license to provide for the penalties for non-compliance of the licence's terms and conditions which may include: the suspension of the facility's permit and closure of its operations; imposing civil or criminal penalties; and, ordering that the facility complies with certain pollution control measures within a specified period of time. Every facility license should incorporate these enforcement measures. The Authority, however, should be given the mandate to give a grace period to a facility that will guarantee compliance or investment in pollution control equipment.