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| Sunday, 14 November 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Viable alternative to tackle the sand crises : A case for off-shore sand by Shanika Sriyananda R. Sumathipala, an ordinary clerk at the Government Press, dreams of building his own house. He has been carefully saving his hard earned money for years to make his dream a reality.
However, sky-rocketing prices of sand and other essential construction materials has turned his dream into ashes. The loan he obtained and his meagre savings are not enough even to complete the foundation. "Dreams like Sumathipala's can be achieved if off-shore sand is made available for construction purpose. If we have off-shore sand, we have to pay less than Rs. 2,500 a cube", claims Godwin Withana, former Director General National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) and present Chairman of Land and Marine Engineering Ltd, who blames the government for 'not seriously considering' looking for alternatives to river sand. "Off-shore sand, which is now used world over, is the major direct substitute for river sand. It is cheap and we have an immense potential for sea sand", he says. His revelation sheds a ray of hope for environmentalists, who have been strongly urging the government to protect sand dunes and to prevent the rivers from being mined excessively. The Kelani Ganga and Maha Oya have been mined for river sand far beyond capacity and Deduru Oya is now under threat. The estimated sand consumption for the construction industry for 2000 was 4.9 million cubic metres and it increases by nearly two million metric cubes per year. Withana who identifies sand from dunes, crushed rock and quarry dust along with off-shore sand as viable alternative to river sand warns, "If we fail to take immediate action to introduce the alternatives the country's construction industry will collapse in the near future due to severe scarcity of sand". He also warns that 'there will not be sand in rivers in future to mine'. "The rate of sand mining has far exceeded the rate of natural replenishment of sand in the rivers", he says. The National Sand Study, which issued it report in 1992 gave a clear warning signal on the need to cut down the rate of river sand mining and the need to introduce alternatives to river sand. In 1999, NBRO commenced research on alternatives to sand and this comprehensive study showed the potential of off-shore sand, dune sand and crushed rocks as viable alternative. Another study was also conducted by the Coast Conservation Department in 2000 with the assistance of the Moratuwa University and a consultant from the Asian Development Bank. Several such studies and researches have been completed and reports were issued clearly indicating the potential of alternatives to replace river sand to save the rivers and also solve the crisis in the construction sector. But, it seems the remaining rivers are being mined excessively in the absence of a clear decision by the government to popularise alternatives. The latest victims are the rivers in Polonnaruwa. "River sand is now transported from Polonnaruwa and the price of a cube of sand has shot up to more than 5,000", he points out adding that the use of river sand has now become risky as there is no quality assurance in river sand. "Therefore switching to alternative sand is important", he says. "Off-shore sand has proven the potential and when the stockpiled sand is exposed to one shower of rain, it will wash off the salt content in it. Salt content is very low in these deposits and there is no need to instal mechanical washing plants", he says adding that we can hire international companies for dredging sand on a contact basis. Withana identifies the deposits in North of Colombo to Kalpitiya as the best locations to exploit off-shore sand because the chloride and shell contents are low compared to deposits in the Southern area. Off-shore sand in the Southern province, he says is not ideal due to high chloride and shell content. "The other advantage is that there are storage and processing location in this area and easy facilities to transport the sand to Colombo and other areas where there is a high demand", Withana points out. According to Withana, off-shore sand mining should be planned in a scientific manner and large investments would not be required. However, he requests the government to appoint a separate Ministry for Construction, which is one of the vital requirements for the country's development. "The issue of sand shortage is getting serious day-by-day. But the government is doing nothing to solve the problem and has not realised the importance of improving the construction field. "There are over 80 ministers in the Cabinet. So why can't one Minister with good vision be appointed to look after the construction field," he questions. Withana also requests the government to set up a Committee to look into alternatives and to form regulations. "We have regulations only for river sand and they can not be applied for off-shore sand", he adds. No more ice sheet in Greenland? "The Greenland ice-sheet would melt faster in a warmer climate and is likely to be eliminated, except for residual glaciers in the mountains if the annual average temperature in Greenland increases by more than about 3oC. This could raise the global average sea-level by 7 metres over a period of 1,000 years or more." So begins a paper in the journal Nature. One degree Celsius is equivalent to 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit; one meter equals 1.094 yards. The paper's authors go on to argue that, by the year 2100, concentrations of greenhouse gases will have likely reached levels "that are sufficient to raise the temperature past this warming threshold." At present, notes the paper, "about half of the snow falling on Greenland melts and runs off as water, and the remainder is discharged in the form of icebergs. Climate change caused by higher greenhouse-gas concentrations is expected to produce both higher temperatures and greater precipitation, but most studies conclude that the increase in melting will outweigh the increase in snowfall. For an annual average warming of more than 2.7 degrees C, the melting exceeds the snowfall" a situation in which, the authors observe, "the ice-sheet must contract, even if iceberg production is reduced to zero as it retreats from the coast." It has been predicted that a warming of 3 degrees C (5.4 degrees F) would prompt a progressive retreat of the ice-sheet over millennia, possibly reaching a steady state in an inland form. Greater temperature increases would result in more rapid and significant loss of the ice-sheet. Using methods deployed in the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the paper's authors used climate models to calculate Greenland's temperature rise under scenarios in which atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide stabilize at different levels. Temperature increase exceeded the 2.7 degrees Celsius threshold in 34 of the 35 scenarios, although the authors note that calculations using summer warming (when the ice-sheet is sensitive to temperature increase) rather than year-round warming could reduce that number to 24 out of 35. Given that the lowest carbon dioxide concentration considered in the models was 450 parts per million (p.p.m.), and further given that (a) this level is exceeded by 2050 in all the IPCC's emission scenarios, and (b) that carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas, the authors conclude that the Greenland ice-sheet "is likely to be eliminated by anthropogenic climate change unless much more substantial emission reductions are made than those envisaged by the IPCC." Symposium on Air Resource Management The first National Symposium on Air Resource Management in Sri Lanka organised by the Clean Air Sri Lanka (CleanAirSL) together with the Air Resource Management Centre (AirMAC) and United States Asia Environmental Partnership (USAID/USAEP) will be held at Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo 03 on December 2 and 3. The symposium will be on the findings of Sri Lankan researchers on air monitoring, modelling and emission inventory, indoor air pollution, vehicular air pollution, policies and economics of air pollution, air pollution and public health, point and non-point source air pollution control, trans boundary air pollution, acid rain, property and eco system damage, air pollution, climate change and ozone layer depletion and education, technology, awareness and training. The CleanAirSL wish to provide opportunity to a limited number (50 people) of interested individuals to participate in the symposium. Those who are interested in applying can get more details from the Conference Secretariat, CleanAirSL, Air Resource Management Centre, 104, 'Parisara Piyasa', Tel/Fax: 0112887456 (Ruwan or Sanjaya) Denzil Kobbekaduwa Mawatha, E-mail: [email protected] Battaramulla. Consuming Pollution Six months ago Green Peace launched a Mercury Hair Sampling Project in order to draw attention to the global problem of mercury pollution, and promote clean energy. Here is an interim report, written by the Environmental Quality Institute (EQI). This report echoes what other research has found that Americans are being poisoned by mercury pollution. Mercury is a toxic chemical emitted from coal-burning power plants. When it enters our atmosphere, it settles into our lakes, streams and oceans where it is absorbed by fish. Consuming the contaminated fish can result in severe health problems including adversely affecting memory, attention and development. Women of childbearing age and children are most at risk. According to the Environmental Quality Institute (EQI) report, approximately 21 per cent of women of childbearing age who submitted a hair sample showed levels of mercury above the limit set by the EPA. At first glance, 21 per cent may not seem like an excessive number, but that's more than one in five women being contaminated by mercury pollution. What you can do Get tested! The more participants Green Peace has the more meaningful the study results will be. Wouldn't you like to be the data point that made the difference? Take action now! Organise a mercury testing party or fundraiser. One Green Peace member is organising a combined environmental film screening and testing event at her church; another is cutting his hair into a mullet for Halloween and the cause. Your imagination is the only limit! Volunteer! Right of reply : Is he the right man? The box 'Is he the right man' below Shanika Sriyananda's article on 'New order pirates' in the Sunday Observer of 31.10.2004 (spirit) is a thinly veiled reference to my appointment as Chairman of the Industrial Technology Institute, and is full of misinformation and half truths. I must thank the writer for making it clear that she was unable to obtain my comments, as I was abroad. The incident referred to occurred about three years ago when a parcel of extracts (not from medicinal plants) was voluntarily shown by my technician to the Customs at the Kandy Post Office prior to being sent abroad. Stating that "the professor was caught by the SCLD while he was attempting to smuggle" is therefore in my view rather far fetched. The extracts were being sent for bioassay to Novartis, Switzerland on a research agreement signed with the University of Peradeniya. The article quotes Customs sources that no charge sheet had been handed over although a year had passed. This is a serious criticism of the Customs Department as this implies that the senior Customs officer who conducted the inquiry is either inefficient or has been in some way, influenced. A simpler explanation would be that the inquiry found there was no case. I do not know what is meant by 'being popular for gene piracy' but I think an explanation is due as to why research chemists studying natural products require collaboration with foreign institutions which have well developed bioassay systems. Sri Lanka does not have the funds to establish the large number of unambiguous bioassays needed to determine whether any of the compounds isolated are potentially useful as drugs or in our case, pesticides. I have made every effort to ensure that the agreement between the University of Peradeniya and Novartis meets the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) although Sri Lanka has failed to legislate to meet its obligations under the CBD. The agreement assures a payment upfront to the University ($15,000 for use in research), ensures that the material will be only subjected to the particular tests and not transferred to a third party without our consent, provides all test results to us, provides for joint authorship of papers and patents, allows us to work on the extracts and arranges for the payment of a royalty to the University, should the project generate a commercial product. Modern biotechnology makes the transfer and expropriation of genetic material extremely facile. A single seed or a single leaf is all that is required for this purpose and I do not think the combined effort of the whole Customs Department will be able to prevent it. In spite of the Flora and Fauna Act, plants are still being exported. The only way illegal shipments can be reduced is by involving our scientists in the process of detection and to build up within them a strong code of ethics, which would prevent them condoning such actions. But I am sorry to say the actions of the Customs Biodiversity Unit does little to foster such cooperation. When the Customs at the Kandy Post Office contacted the Unit about the parcel to be sent to Novartis, Samantha Gunasekera asked that the material be confiscated and that the National Identity Card of any technician be seized. The Biodiversity Unit, supposedly a law enforcing agency, kept the NIC illegally for three months and released it only after a lawyer intervened. As I was leaving the country on official work the day after the incident, I left a letter of explanation pointing out that this shipment was part of a University research agreement, that no plant material was involved and that the plants were not collected from forests. What followed in the next few days was a threat by Mr. Gunasekera to my technician that I would be arrested at the airport on return, publicity in the newspapers and television as a major biopiracy detection including the statement that 'mahacharya' had not only tried to smuggle the genetic material but had 'panala giya.' And all this before any investigation or inquiry. The Biodiversity Unit's case against me was based on the extracts being forest products if the plant used came from the forest, since the Customs Ordinance prevents the export of an item obtained by contravening the Forest Act. Although most of our extracts were from roadside weeds, the sides of the road were being claimed by Mr. Gunasekera as forest lands, as the Forest Act specifies all lands not privately owned as being forest land. The extracts also included one from a teak leaf and one from a part of a Pihimbiya tree both from private gardens. Mr. Gunasekera submitted a letter from the Controller of Forests at the inquiry stating that while the other plants could be found in forests as well as in home gardens, three plants, Teak, Pihimbiya and a Solanum species, (a weed which we had collected from the roadside at Gelioya) were found exclusively in the forests. Affidavits to show that the source of the teak and Pihimbiya were indeed private home gardens, exposed either the ignorance or the lack of integrity of some of our government servants. The box about me confirms my impression that the Biodiversity Unit is unwilling to accept that any of its suspects could actually be innocent and has no qualms in tarnishing anybody's image. I am sure that after reading my comments, you will agree with me that the title of the box "Is he the right man?" would be singularly appropriate if it is directed at the Head of the Customs Biodiversity Unit rather than at me. (Prof.) Vijaya Kumar, Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Perdeniya |
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His application for a loan from the State Mortgage Bank has been
approved. And his housing plan for a two-bedroom unit was also approved by
the Pradeshiya Sabha. Every thing is ready to commence work on his dream
house.
