THE Environmental Management Authority (EMA) acted unlawfully when it granted a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) to the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) for the proposed Valsayn South Housing Development, the High Court has ruled.

Delivering a 72-page judgment yesterday, Justice Robin Mohammed found that the EMA failed to properly assess significant environmental risks—particularly those tied to hydrology and hydro-geology—before approving the project. As a result, the court has quashed the CEC and ordered the EMA to revisit its assessment in accordance with the law.

The ruling comes after environmental activist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh and farmers’ advocate Shiraz Khan sought judicial review of the EMA’s 2023 decision to approve HDC’s plan to construct hundreds of housing units on lands south of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway in Valsayn.