Port City project steams ahead despite protests
Despite protests from political parties and environmental
organisations, construction work of the Colombo Port City project
continues.
Legal experts said that though the government wanted to scrap the
project as political parties in the ruling alliance had pledged during
the election campaign, scrapping an agreement of this type involving
governments cannot be done unilaterally.
A legal expert who wished to remain anonymous, said that since the
main parties involved in this project are the Sri Lankan and Chinese
governments and a construction company from China, in addition to
commercial arbitration, there are diplomatic concerns.
Following the regime change on January 9, the special envoy of the
Chinese President and a high level Chinese delegation visited Sri Lanka
and we can understand the pressure from China to protect its massive
investments in the country, most of them highly controversial.
Normally there should be an arbitration clause in huge projects such
as this so that disputes could be settled through international
arbitration.
In the oil hedging dispute, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had to
go for international arbitration because the agreement had an
arbitration clause. If there is no arbitration clause the dispute could
be settled in normal courts - High Courts or Commercial Courts under the
law of the country, he said.
Propaganda secretary of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Vijitha
Herath said that government must revise this shady deal of the previous
government which will cause huge economic and environment issues.
Herath said that the Chinese delegation met JVP leaders and discussed
the matter and the party clearly stated its stance on the project. If
the project creates serious environmental and economic issues and
threatens the sovereignty of the country it should be scraped or
revised.
“This agreement has been signed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa
without even informing the Cabinet. Therefore, the validity of this
agreement can be legally challenged," he said.
The main legal point is that Sri Lanka doesn't have regulations or an
Act of Parliament for projects related to reclamation of the sea. In
countries such as India they have laws to safeguard the environment and
other concerns in the reclamation of the sea. “There are huge
environmental concerns and we have information that the Environment
Impact Assessment (EIA) report too has not been done properly. According
to estimates, the project needs 120 million cubic metres of rock and
massive amounts of sea sand," Herath said.
Environment issues related to obtaining material and transporting
them, coastal and land erosion and impact on marine biodiversity are not
known because the EIA report is not available for the public to peruse.
According to the agreement, one third of the 575 acres of land area
reclaimed will be owned by China. This is a threat to the sovereignty of
the country, he said.
Herath said that the government should seriously think whether this
massive project estimated to cost $ 15 billion would produce worthwhile
benefits.
“Is this the first priority in the economic development of the
country? he queried.
The project was not transparent from the beginning and a full
investigation is needed, Herath said.
- GW
|