Environment - the survival of mankind

Birth of an independent forum :

The inaugural session of the Public Forum :

by Indeewara Thilakarathne

The inaugural session of the Public Forum (PF), a joint initiative by SPARC (Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre) and the German Cultural Centre or Goethe Institute of Colombo was recently held at the German Cultural Centre.

The PF is an attempt by a civic conscious group of citizens to create an independent social space for concerned citizens to air their views on pressing issues, in an objective manner and to come out with concrete recommendations.

The session commenced with the presentation by Prof. S. W. Kotagama on environment, providing an overview of the environmental issue in Sri Lanka. Tracing back to the very foundation of civilization, Prof. Kotagama outlined the broader perspective of the issue.

He, particularly, emphasized the fact that any solution to the environmental issue, should require to take into consideration the three major elements; natural environment, structured environment (built environment) and cultural or social environment.

It is obvious that any solution which does not take into consideration these three elements is bound to fail. Through the process of development, man has virtually pulled apart these three elements breaking the natural equilibrium and creating a host of problems which are seemingly intractable.

The process of development and its manifold achievements have been brought about with a growing cost of degradation of many eco-systems producing pollutants and pollution.

Prof. Kotagama pointed out that there was a marked shift of paradigms from the position of poverty being the cause of environmental degradation to the environmental degradation being the cause of poverty. The former notion was overwhelmingly endorsed by international forums over the last decade.

He stated that for the first time in history, Sri Lanka is experiencing 'environment refugees' as thousands were rendered internally displaced by massive landslides and floods. Although the scientists warned of this calamity in the 1980's when large chunks of soil were eroded from the up-county and washed off in the rivers, the authorities did not heed the warnings.

Although people advocated the three Rs, re-use, re-cycle and refuse, people are still reluctant to refuse things that they do not really want. Dr. (Mrs) Ajantha Perera in her presentation on the problem of garbage disposal extensively dealt with the handling of garbage by local authorities.

Among other things, she pointed out that the local authority's modus operandi of piling up garbage on dumping sites, has, in fact, endangered the lives of the neighbours.

When the rain water gushes through the mountains of garbage, water takes with it, all soluble substances in the garbage, polluting the waterways and sweeping through the make-shift houses of the community nearby. This process has not only polluted the otherwise, drinkable water but also caused the spread of viral and bacterial diseases claiming considerable lives annually.

She emphasized that the environment impact assessment should always be a must before the setting up of an industry and that the industrial development and environment protection should go hand in hand in order to achieve greater economic growth with little damage to the environment.

One of the salient aspects of her presentation was the practical approach she advocated in separating garbage at home into paper, glass, plastics and tins. This will, in turn, facilitate re-use and re-cycling process. She also insisted that every one should use a compost bin so that some of the waste can be turned into usable manure.

Dr. Sirimal Abeyratne of the University of Colombo extensively dealt with the economic aspects of the environment issue. However the main gist of his presentation seemed to be on the areas of developing infrastructure.

He questioned the economical viability of maintaining cluster isolated villages, suggesting that they should be integrated into the neighbouring cities which will drastically reduce the cost of developing infrastructure.

He argued that rather than developing the cluster of scattered villages, it was far more economical to develop a mega city providing modern amenities. The land, thus, saved could be used for industrial and agricultural purposes deploying mechanized production methods.

Sena Peiris in his presentation touched upon several aspects of cost incurred in the production of consumer goods. He stressed that enormous energy had been burnt in producing seemingly insignificant-articles and goods. According to Sena Peiris, every consumer goods are the results of a complex production process which had burnt a lot of fuel.

He attributed environment pollution to man's greediness and unbridled consumerism which has plundered the limited resources. The man has forgotten the requirements and become a slave to materials and energy. He stated that society should change the attitudes and people should adopt a simple life-style prioritizing requirements and reducing wants.

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