‘ENVIRONMENT LAW VIOLATION GRAVER THAN COMMONLAW VIOLATION’

Violation of the Environment Law was graver than the violation of the Common Law as the survival of all living beings on earth depend on the efforts taken by man to protect the environment, Power and Energy Minister, Patali Champika Ranawaka said.

Addressing the national ceremony held to mark the World Environment Day organised by the UN and other volunteer organisations, Minister Ranawaka said the haphazard and unplanned use of chemical fertilizer has created a huge health problem for Sri Lanka, as thousands of citizens at the prime of their lives in the North-Central, Eastern, Uva and Wayamba provinces had fallen ill with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).

The excessive and careless use of Glyphosate in agriculture in Sri Lanka had been the main contributory factor for the sharp increase of CKD in many parts of the country. The spread of CKD had affected not only the families of victims but the entire economy, as many of those fallen ill were bread winners of their respective families, Minister Ranawaka said.

Minister Ranawaka charged that despite the efforts taken by nature loving politicians in the previous government who took much effort to prohibit the import of this highly harmful chemical to save the people of Rajarata from CKD, it was not successful as the rulers were in the pockets of chemical companies.

“The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is ‘Consume Frugally.’ Sri Lanka imports one third of all its requirements including food, cloth, fuel and raw materials. The biggest import bill is for oil, gas and coal imported for power generation. Our target is to make Sri Lanka self sufficient in energy by 2025,bailing out Sri Lanka from fuel dependency on foreign countries,” he stressed.

Minister Ranawaka pointed out that each and every Sri Lankan must learn to save power as well as to control the demand for power. The Power and Energy Ministry was able to face the 2012 drought successfully by saving of power through frugal use. The next media campaign of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) would be to save 10% by using power sparingly, which would be good for the pocket of the consumer and the Treasury.

Minister Ranawaka stressed that though it was a national priority to resettle Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim people who have been evicted from the Wanni during the ethnic conflict in their traditional places of residence, it had to be done in a systematic manner not harming the environment and added unplanned clearing of protected forest reserves for resettlement was a crime against humanity and nature, and added that man must not make the earth uninhabitable by his actions.

The haphazard and unplanned use of chemical fertilizer has created a huge health problem for Sri Lanka, as thousands of citizens at the prime of their lives in the North-Central, Eastern, Uva and Wayamba provinces had fallen ill with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).