<B> Nature Watch has launched a petition to stop the construction of the South-Eastern highway so as to save the Ferney Valley. This construction has started... Don?t you think it is too late? </B>

It is late, but we took action as soon as we learnt about the problem. The public was never informed of the real implications of the highway though it?s public money. We must not forget that, in January 2001, when the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) report was finalised... government used a special procedure to vet the report without making it public. The report was thus examined only by selected ministries. No one noted the monumental omissions concerning Ferney?s biodiversity. It is only thanks to an article in July 2004 by Henri Marimootoo in Week-End, that we came across this incredible issue. Some of us read it and discussed it with others. NW was formed in December.

<B> The petition proposes a different lay-out for the highway that would save the valley. Is the government taking this into serious consideration? </B>

We first participated in the consultative dialogue process launched by Government through the Environment Monitoring Committee (EMC), chaired by PS Seebaluck. We were invited to the PMO meeting where the EMC report was submitted. We are happy to have contributes to this process, but we are dissatisfied at the reluctance of Government to commit itself to saving the valley. We have submitted an optional route that a) avoids the valley, b) allows the highway to be made, c) minimises the environmental impact d) is far less costly to build. Government has not given considered it. Argument: ?it would no longer be called the South Eastern Highway?. However this alternative links the same key points (Plaine-Magnien, Riche-en-Eau, Kewal Nagar). With the petition, we want to let the Government know what the public really thinks. We intend to submit the petition at the same time as the expert submits his report. We are not against development, far from it. We want it to be sustainable: our natural non renewable resources are limited and must be used efficiently. Ferney Valley harbours one of our last indigenous forests.

<B> Is the new layout totally ?environment-friendly?? </B>

It is far less damaging. Better, the road would be far less costly. No major bridges or tunnel through a mountain to build: the road runs across flat land and through a passage between two mountains of the Bambous range. We do not understand the Government?s insistence on spending Rs 800 millions for a highway in the South East... are there such traffic-jams there urgently requiring a highway? According to engineers who did the feasibility study, only 2,500 vehicles per day will be using it... against 67 000 each day on traffic-jammed highways to Port Louis. A highway and a tunnel for less than 4% of Port Louis? daily traffic?