A draft environmental impact assessment report on the proposed Melting poT Indianoceanic Submarine System (METISS) subsea cable system has been compiled and will be available to the public for comment for a 30 day comment period.
METISS is a fibre optic subsea cable system linking South Africa, Madagascar, Réunion and Mauritius to provide additional telecommunications capacity to South African users. The fibre optic cable of about 3 200km in length will deliver a boost to bandwidth between the respective countries, providing a connection speed of 24 terabites per second.
READ ALSO: Inter-country undersea cable to anchor at Amanzimtoti beach
The environmental authorisation process commenced in February with the release of a draft scoping report (DSR) for public comment. All comments were incorporated into the final scoping report (FSR) and submitted to the department of environmental affairs (DEA) for a decision. The FSR was approved by DEA on 13 April and the draft EIA report was compiled and is available to the public for a 30 day comment period, from 4 June to 5 July.
The report is available on the website www.erm.com/metiss-fibre-optic-submarinecable-system, on request from ERM, and at the following public locations: Amanzimtoti library, Kingsburgh library and ERM offices, Suite S005, 17 The Boulevard, Westway Office Park, Westville. Stakeholders are invited to submit comments on the draft EIA via email to metiss-subseacable-eia@erm.com, or call 021-681-5400 or 011-798-4300.
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