The Department of Environmental Affairs would embark on a six-month long campaign to inspect compliance to environmental legislation throughout the country, it said on Monday.

The Environmental Management Inspectorate (EMI), dubbed the Green Scorpions, would carry out the compliance assessments.

During the campaign, 40 environmental authorisations, and 20 waste licences would be inspected.

The main objectives of the campaign were to monitor adherence to conditions stipulated in environmental management plans, waste licences, and to improve the general status of compliance within the regulated community by taking proper enforcement actions in the events of non compliance.

The EMI has prioritised and clustered specific environmental assessments in each province and will dedicate one week for inspections in each province.

The first environmental compliance inspections would take place in the Western Cape from September 27, to October 1.

Based on the risk prioritisation process, the Green Scorpions would be inspecting the following facilities in the province: the construction of the new Eskom Safari substation in Paarl, the upgrade of the East Fort water scheme by the Knysna municipality, the development of a reverse osmosis project in the Port of Saldanha by Transnet, the construction of a substation and relocation of power lines in Kwa-Nokuthula (Plettenberg Bay) by the Bitou municipality, and the Section 31L compliance notice issued by the department to the Department of Public Works for illegal construction of facilities for the storage of materials and maintenance of vessels in the sea or within 100 m inland of the high-water mark of the sea, as well as the illegal construction of facilities for the aboveground storage of dangerous goods.

Following the inspections in the Western Cape, provincial inspections would take place in KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State and the Eastern Cape. Further inspections were envisaged in December, January and March.