Legal action against encroachers of BOLGODA LAKE

The Moratuwa Divisional Secretariat is to take legal action against land owners who have encroached the Bolgoda Lake for commercial purposes. The Divisional Secretary, K. C Niroshan said despite raids on several lands to detect and deter land owners from encroaching on to the Lake in this unsafe manner, many continued to fill the lake with wood shavings and rocks.

“We have conducted raids with the Grama Niladhari and the Police previously and we have warned them but there has been no change, therefore we have decided that we will make a walkway around the lake to ensure this does not continue,” Niroshan said.

He stated that the procedure to build the walkway around the lake had already begun. “When the walk way is being made, encroachers will have no choice but to remove these unauthorised structures,” he said.

Meanwhile, residents in the area complained that with many land owners encroaching on to the lake it would soon not look like a lake but instead resemble a canal. Priyantha Pradeep, a resident of the area stated that many of the land owners filled the lake with rocks and wood shaving that they purchased from the area. “These structures are very shaky and they are dangerous as they could be washed away when it floods,” he said.

“Some have built homes on these shaky pieces of land while many hotel owners have established the gardens and recreational areas of their commercial spaces on these encroachments,” Pradeep said. He complained that despite the existence of many laws to protect the lake and the many life forms that depend on it, authorities were not taking adequate action.