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| Sunday, 14 March 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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"Main cause of sea water flooding" : Sand mining in Kelani continues by Neomi Kodikara
The prevailing drought and salinization of the Kelani river, which culminated in an acute water crisis, making millions of urban and suburban consumers suffer, has brought the National Water Supply and Drainage Boards's (NWSDB) decision to construct an inflatable boom across the Kelani river back into the limelight. The NWSDB passes the blame on to the Central Environment Authority (CEA) for delaying its approval but CEA and environmentalists warn of possible dire environmental consequences. The NWSDB had prepared the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and submitted it to the CEA for approval in September 2003 and kept for public scrutiny for the required 30 days. A spokesman for the Board said that it was imperative to see the construction of a barrier get off the ground as soon as possible, as sea water intrusion is a recurring problem. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has pledged financial support. Meanwhile, the Central Environment Authority (CEA) denied all accusations that it delayed granting approval to the construction of a permanent salinity barrier across the Kelani river. "It is building a permanent structure across the Kelani river which could have equally serious environmental impacts such as increased flooding in surrounding areas and accumulation of heavy metals at the intake which are very toxic to human health," a senior official for CEA said.
He reiterated that doing a proper evaluation of the project with proper expertise is quite important rather than blindly approving the project due to urgency. Meanwhile, though it is banned to excavate sand from the Kelani river there are many groups still engaged in the activity. Though mechanised mining is hardly being operated, exploitation is yet severe through manual methods. Sand-mining in the rivers causes a drop in beach recharge, hence aggravating coastal erosion lowers the river-bed makes it unstable with consequential collapse of the banks and influx of sea water, which we are now clearly seeing. The current method of sand-mining is the use of barges with deep divers. One barge has an average capacity of 1.25 cubes of sand and a crew of 6-7 and a diver. There are around 181 landing sites along the Kelani river. The annual demand for sand stands at 8 million cubic metres, of which 50 per cent is for Colombo and is estimated to soar to 10 million cubic metres by next year. A cube of sand is around Rs. 2,100 now and is expected to go up with the ban. The permit procedure lacks uniformity and its monitoring is not effective. The level of illicit mining is said to be more than 70 per cent, though all entrepreneurs express conformity to permit conditions. N. P. N. Nissanka, an entrepreneur we met at the mouth of the Kelani river who was at work said that he had 12 `parus' and each mines thrice a day, amounting to 1,000 cubes. They work for four days a week. "There are six or more crew in one `paruwa', so there are about 85 dependent families on this job," he said. Being in the trade for nearly 25 years he claimed to be having a licence issued by the Coast Conservation Department (CCD) of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Another labourer, idling at the river bank near Peliyagoda charged that without giving them a job, the government cannot ban sand-mining. "How many families starve today because they are deprived of their livelihood? It's a poor man's job,' he added. For thousands of families this is the only mode of income to eke out a living. Another who did not want to reveal his identity told us that his `boss' (owner of the barge) had a `permit', a letter from the MP of the area. However, R. A. D. B. Samaranayake, Director of CCD said that they had stopped issuing permits since 2002, but many continued mining with the blessings of politicians. "As we do not have an enforcement army, the police are empowered to arrest illicit sand-miners." He reiterated that a letter from an MP is not a valid licence to carry out sand-mining. The Department had issued only 10 licences, but as there was a huge amount of applications, through a Parliament Consulting Committee it was decided to increase the number to 12. "When we granted permits we educated them that they could only mine sand once a day, three days a week, but they ignore all such rules and exceed limits," he said. He was of the opinion that sustainable mining could be allowed. Samaranayake further said that they are seeking the possibilities of off-shore seasand-mining. However, the Environmental Foundation Ltd (EFL) disapproves the proposed salinity barrier at Ambatale across the Kelani river, pointing out that it might clog sand and cause floods. It calls for a desalination plant or complete ban of sand-mining. The EFL also dismisses the justification for not banning sand-mining, as water for human consumption has priority over human need for sand, and also there are alternatives for river sand. "There are many alternatives for sand in building construction, hence banning sand-mining creates a low cost and environmentally sound method to control the salination," D.C. Kodituwakku, Environmental Scientist attached to EFL, said. According to her, off-shore seasand-mining is not an alternative. "Not only industry's purpose but also the country's environmental concerns should be considered," she said. Explaining the reasons behind their disapproval she said that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) did not contain the impacts arising after the building of the temporary submerged barrier. The EIA is also said to be lacking in information about the waste pollution sources in the stream, which is necessary for mitigating the accumulation of pollution. "As the catchment management is very important, an action plan should have been done before putting up the salinity barrier," Kodituwakku said. "The EIA does not state how damage due to the transport of logs and bamboos by water would be prevented, though it says that road transport of these items would be promoted when the water level is low, it does not mention whether it would be banned," she said while adding that the biodiversity aspect of the river had been completely ignored. The erecting of the barrier will alter the flow of the rate of the Kelani river, and might change the sediment transport of the river to Muthurajawela marsh and also the flow of saline water to Muthurajawela are some other possible threats that were not discussed in the EIA. According to the Action Plan of the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry for 2003-2007 it was estimated that sand coming down the Kelani river annually amounts to 1.4 million tonnes, of which nearly two-thirds are removed in mining. The Supreme Court last February 13 took a strong view regarding the granting of permits for mechanised sand-mining in river beds, marking a new step in Judicial Environmental Activism. For the first time in Sri Lanka the Supreme Court called upon an environmental organisation to assist Court in a case involving the environment, although it was not a party to it. A private mechanical sand-mining company had filed a Fundamental Rights petition seeking relief, stating that other companies had granted permission to mine sand in river-beds while it was not. The Court took an extremely strong view of The Court took an extremely strong view of activities potentially damaging to the environment. While suspending the permits granted to all parties involved in mining sand mechanically from river-beds, they directed the Geological Survey Department (GSD) and Central Environment Authority (CEA) to asses the impact of this and report by March 19. |
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