Environment Minister Romauld Ferreira has expressed confidence in the Environmental Impact Assessment of Disney’s development of Lighthouse Point in South Eleuthera. 

Minister Ferreira also confirmed that the EIA will be made available to the public once it is completed.

“The way you do an environmental impact assessment is not a mystery; you can actually google that and you can get a number of ways to do it. 

“The government has its own protocol which is on the website of the Best Commission. So the protocol as to what’s involved in an Environmental Impact Assessment, that’s kind of like known science, well established  and that’s not going to change. 

“What happens is there is a degree of specificity for a particular project. This is nothing new. The construction of a pier and the installation of amenities, I’m sure is no new ground-breaking era. 

“It’s all well-established industrial activities with well-known impacts and well-known mitigating measures,” he said. 

The purpose of an EIA,  said the Minister,  is to discover the greatest benefit for the greatest amount of people.

“The tool will be applied and is applied to all developments in the country and the Disney development in South Eleuthera will be no exception.

“I have not received the final Impact Assessment for it,  but as we get the information,  we will make it public on the government’s website and we encourage all Bahamians to keep abreast with what’s going on so;  you can weigh the pros and cons for yourself,” he said.   

The Minister’s comments come  two  weeks after five environmental groups raised concerns over the adequacy of the EIA on Lighthouse Point. 

This resulted in the group writing a letter to Disney’s Senior Vice President of enterprise social responsibility expressing their concerns. 

Following this move,  both Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis and Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar expressed confidence in the deal with Disney.

In March this year  it was announced that a private Heads of Agreement signing was held between the government and Disney executives for the construction of a $250 million to $400 million project in South Eleuthera amid large push back from the environmentalists. 

However, Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis maintains that this deal is in the best interest of Bahamians.