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The project, which has been the subject of controversy since it was mooted several years ago, is to begin at the end of September, according to Tarda.
A senior Tarda official, Mr Seif Mahmoud, said yesterday that all was not lost, and that discussions were going on between the Government and the interested parties. Managing director Samuel Marima was not available for comment yesterday as he was said to be in a day-long meeting.
But Nema said the project would not start because a number of environmental issues had not been addressed.
Environment assessment
"No environmental impact assessment has been done on the project," said Mr Zephaniah Ouma, a Nema official who has been involved with the project at the grassroots level.
"This is a requisite audit for any project ahead of its implementation."
Tarda yesterday advertised the sale of 6,000 tons of mature sugarcane grown for trial on a 40-acre plot at Sailoni, near Garsen, last year. Negotiations between the Government, investors and stakeholders are ongoing on-," Mr Mahmoud said. The building of the factory could start in September.
A Nema compliance and enforcement source at the fresh water and marine department, said the Tana delta would be gazetted by UNEP as a wetlands site to put paid to the project.
The President's nod
President Kibaki gave a nod to the project when he toured the area in 2004. It was therefore expected that in a few months, the factory would start operating. Controversy has dogged the project, with the two local communities feuding over it, the Orma are opposing it, while the Pokomo are in support.
The pastoralists Orma say it will rob them of grazing land for their more than 500,000 cattle.
They have been backed by local MPs, led by Bura's Mr Ali Wario, who describes the project as "another harbinger of destruction, just like the collapsed Bura, Hola and Gamba irrigation schemes."
The project is intended to cover about 12,400 hectares, or seven per cent of the Tana Delta, and environmentalists say it will consume Ozi, Kulesa, Hewani, Bumbwe and Wema villages the as well as Mitapani riverine forests.
The deputy director of East African Wildlife Society, Mr Hadley Becha, and his counterpart at the Kenya Wetlands Forum, Mr Peter Odhiambo, also oppose it.