Fuss over a Green economy

Green economy is a subject being talked all over the globe. What is a Green economy has to be understood before debating about it. Most educated persons are aware of it and those not educated about a Green economy have to be educated. Getting on to a Green economy and finding a solution is analysing cause and effect.

We in Sri Lanka too talk about a Green economy. Some think of it as an economy proposed by a Green government. When the President of Sri Lanka talks about a Green economy, people wonder why the President talks about a Green economy. Fortunately in Sinhala it is "haritha arthikaya".

All developed countries have used global natural resources and given back emissions and pollution. Some developing countries are still doing it. Some developed countries do so not in their own countries but in countries they have offered to develop as those countries are more interested in FDI, introduction of industry, technology and employment.

We in Ceylon being a developed country in the 1940s became an under developed country from 1958 onwards and thereafter a poor country that could not feed its people from the late 1960s to 1976 and once again started to venture out to be a developing country from 1977 by opening its closed doors.

Singapore was an unknown state. Started developing from the 1960s thanks to leftist policies of Ceylon which closed its doors to international companies. An intelligent head of state of Singapore opened doors and invited all the displaced companies of Ceylon to establish themselves in Singapore. Ceylon became poor and Singapore started to grow to become a recognized state within a few years. Singapore followed Ceylon (mostly learning from its mistakes) and now we want to follow Singapore after wasting 60 years of country time. Even now. Not too late.

Air pollution

Pollution can be identified as the main deterrent to a Green economy. Pollution comes in many forms. Taking a lead is air followed by water, sound. Air pollution here has been controlled to some extent by issuing a clean air certificate every year to vehicles at the time of obtaining the revenue license. There are two private smog testing companies. If so how is it that we still see belching vehicles on the roads? Prime movers, land vehicles, tractors 2-wheel and 4-wheel, earth moving equipment, backhoes. Practically all combustion engine equipment inclusive of generators, boilers, coal power generation plants, etc have to be registered and subjected to emission testing. Portable emission measuring equipment is available in plenty all over the world. Sri Lanka too imported them to do sudden checks on emission.

What happened to them is a golden question. Some of the state vehicles inclusive of public transport vehicles, service vehicles, prime movers and sometimes vehicles used by law enforcement authority can be seen emitting black smoke from the exhaust. No action has been taken up to now to control black smoke emitting from diesel engines of Sri Lanka Railway. On certain days pink clouds can be seen in the sky as well as smog. Most of us are unaware about it. It can be seen very well when travelling by air during the day when your flight is approaching/ leaving Colombo airport for take - off/landing facing east. Aircraft travels overland for approximately 20 minutes.

It is easy to observe pollution and destruction and the rape of forests at high elevation even by an untrained mind. Take a look at the sky on a normal day. Hardly any blue sky is seen. On a day after rain in the night a very clear deep blue sky can be seen. That is because all the pollution has been washed away by rain. Recently when I ran for shelter along a side walk where many vendors were sell- ing fruit and vegetables, I found them rushing to close their stock. I told them it would be great for the rain to wash the dust off their goods. One of them told me, they always prevent rain on their products as it is acid rain and it ruins their fruits/ vegetables. That means the common vendor is aware of the pollution in rain water being acidic but none of our legislators is aware of it. Air quality in Colombo was measured some time back and displayed. Nothing of the sort takes place now. Why? Is the Central Environmental Authority worried that their inefficiency will be displayed to public?

In Delhi there is a digital green/red pollution display at all police stations. It is always red and some days air quality alerts are given by a warning siren. It will take many years for them to do a green display. But they are trying. Emission testing has been made compulsory every three months for all vehicles in India.

Next is pollution of water. All rivers, lakes, water ways are used as dumps for release of effluents/garbage by the public as well as industry. Animals are given a bath in lakes, vehicles are washed in lakes and people too bathe in lakes. Water in lakes in some areas is used as city supply with chlorine treatment. Does it undergo filtration? Colombo city supply has brown sediment if filtered. How can there be sediment? This shows the filtration system of Colombo city water supply is inefficient or not being maintained/monitored. Most big industry does not release polluted water to waterways but yet some do as affluent treatment filtration plants are expensive and maintenance cost is high, but this sh0uld be a part of their corporate social responsibility. Small industry, especially rubber industry including people has to be educated about release of used water into waterways without eliminating chemicals. Sewage too is released into waterways by allowing settlements along rivers or canal banks. It is easy for us to write about it but difficult to implement. We need a lot of education and monitoring by dedicated, uncorrupt public officials.

Nuisance sounds

Another great pollutant is sound. There is religious sound pollution especially in the morning and evenings. Do we need this type of sound pollution which is a public nuisance? Those who want to listen to their prayers can do so in their homes, office or workplace by use of radio, TV or mobile phones without being a public nuisance. There is a law in the country that sound has to be below 80 decibels ( db) at the perimeter. If so, religious pollution has to be controlled below 80 db or completely eliminated. Next is the sound from horns of vehicles the biggest culprit being drivers of buses. Horns are supposed to be below 60 db. Special equipment was imported to check sound of vehicle horns. Is that happening?

What has happened to the equipment? Even God may not know. Our efficient Sri Lanka police are deaf to sound pollution from horns. Any traffic police officer can prosecute drivers of buses for excessive use of horn and sound of horn. Does it happen? If the police are efficient they can publish records of prosecutions weekly/ monthly.

Going back to creating a green economy! The best friend the whole world has that converts carbon products back to green are trees and plants. Much publicity is given to planting of millions of trees. A politician's ego!

Approximately 6,000 acres were destroyed by man- made forest fires in 2016/ 17. A million trees if scientifically planned need 5,000 acres of land ie. about 180 - 200 plants per acre. It's high time to start! There is no forward planning in this country. Only political noise and closing the door after the cows have bolted. A special force to monitor and take action is a good thought but will it reduce the felling of forests as politicians are the biggest culprits of all destruction be it forest or sand mining just to name two.

Ban tree felling

Ban felling of any trees in a forest even with permits for 10 years. Raid all saw mills that have tree stumps that are not from cultivated forests and certified timber. Stop their saw mill permits and impose heavy penalties.

This is very easy as timber mills cannot be made sound proof nor can large logs be hidden. Transport of timber should be completely banned for 10 years unless it is imported timber.

Pollution is also caused by garbage. This is a country that is yet to convert garbage into economic profit but still believes in dumping anywhere and everywhere. Many exposed granite quarries, clay mining sites are available but no landfill takes places at these sites, as no money can be made by councils. People are made to protest on the use of landfills encouraged by hidden hands.

This country does not have a Green economy target. Most countries have planned to bring down air pollution by 50 per cent by 2020 - 2025. Do we have such a plan? Plans are made in other countries to electrify all vehicles on roads inclusive of cars, trucks, buses, trains. Do we have such a plan? Electric vehicles are considered a luxury in this country.

Intelligent countries give rebates on purchase of electric vehicles made locally and imports are offered concessionary duty or zero duty. Trains are electric and most on linier motion technology zero emission/sound less as they travel above track. Most countries now have tree-lined roads. We have hardly any other than neglected plants planted during modification of Galle Road and a few other roads by a far thinking secretary responsible for environment. Assume there are no curators in the RDA, municipal councils, town councils; only tree choppers.

Our politicians plan to stay in power or topple a government in power. Not to look after the country. Elections are declared. Soon we will be polluted by sound from political meetings/ musical shows going on late into the night, air and sound pollution by fire crackers. Polythene decorations of streets and sage, empty bottles of water, plastic cups scattered all over after meetings. Sound pollution must be stopped by 11 pm as the law states. All laws will be violated by those responsible for governance. In order to show good governance, the President, Prime Minister, Minister of Environment should not attend rallies and meetings that do not follow the laws of the country.