DABUR LANKA PROJECT: A HYDRO-MYSTERY
The Dabur land allegedly pumps water in the area to be exported. This is the core of depression
Water, the main constituent of all living cells in the human body, is the most essential solvent on Earth. If there was no water there would have been no life. However, the distribution of water on Earth is quite uneven. Sri Lanka though is a developing country and is blessed to be placed in the Indian Ocean. Yet a majority of the rural population does not have access to pure water facilities and in turn they are prone to drink contaminated water. However, during the recent past, with the rapid phase of development many foreign investments were made in the country’s economic sphere in order to beautify and ‘uplift’ the quality of life in suburbs.
Dabur Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, is one such company that rooted itself in Sri Lanka and started a state-of-the-art packaged fruitbased beverage company in Kotadeniyawa, Negombo. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s leading consumer goods maker, Dabur India Ltd. The $16 million (initial investment)-worth plant can produce 2.8 lakh of cases of fruit-based beverages every month. During its inauguration with the presence of the then Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapakse, Dabur Inida Ltd., Executive Chief Officer Sunil Duggal mentioned that the demand for their fruitbased juices and beverages under the ‘Real’ brand has been reporting strong growth month-on-month. Dabur’s Food business had reported more than a 25 per cent growth in 2012-13 despite the supply constraints. Why this company was built in Kotadeniyawa, Mirigama, was simply because of easy access to water. However, much to the dismay of the area residents, this company is pumping water without conducting any yield test and are standing firm against further proceedings of the factory complex.
WHYALLOWOTHERS TOEXHAUSTOUR RESOURCES? : FEIZAL MANSOOR
Feizal Mansoor, a self-employed farmer from the area took an upper hand in dealing with this problem and even filed a case in the Supreme Court. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, he said, “Dabur operated in full transparency and said that this establishment was an environmentally sound thing. This project was backed by the Board of Investments (BOI), which was the investment promotion agency of the Sri Lankan government. The documents produced by Dabur in courts showed that the National Water Supply and Drainage Board have drilled three deep bore wells for the plant. Each well is supposed to yield up to 252,000 litres of water a day. This area has a laterite soil, which means water goes straight through the soil. During the drought season, we have no water for around 7 months. However, to extract such a huge amount of water, no yield test was conducted during the dry season to show the actual groundwater availability in the region.”
“The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) is a fundamental rights activist, but has failed to take any action against this issue. They have had bad luck with lawyers. In fact I filed a case and another was filed by my wife and was taken to Supreme Court. The then Chief Justice was at the bench and to our dismay; he wanted my attorney to withdraw one case because it was from the same client. The land on which the factory now stands was initially owned by my sister-in-law. However, during an initial investigation, the Water Resources Board did a 24-hour pumping test in December and got my land tested too. Thereafter, they dug 3 tube wells because they cannot operate feasibly unless they knew the amount of water down there. “The surveyor from CEAhowever has mentioned my land as bare land in the site map. This too is quite suspicious. During the dry season my land goes all brown. I doubt if even the minute percentage of water that remains in the ground is being pumped by our Indian neighbour. They said that they did a test during the rainy season but to date I have never seen that report. It neither generates employment for Sri Lanka nor manufactures anything for domestic consumption. Therefore I believe that we should not allow them to exhaust our resources. ”
THEEIAWASFLAWED :RAVEENDRA KARIYAWASAM
Raveendra Kariyawasam, national coordinator of the Centre for Environmental and Nature Studies (CENS) alleges that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted for the project is flawed. The assessment was done during the monsoon last year, whereas groundwater of the region remains significantly low during other seasons. Raveendra says rampant extraction of groundwater will affect the region’s traditional water-intensive crops such as paddy and coconut as well as the ecosystem. He suggests that more investigations on the impact of the project on the existing aquifer system should be carried out before granting permission to go ahead.
Residents of Kotadeniyawa village in the Western Province, where the plant is located, had also sent a petition to the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, saying that the plant would deplete the region’s groundwater level and hamper agricultural activities.
The surveyor from CEA however has mentioned my land as a bare land in the site map. This too is quite suspicious. During the dry season my land goes all brown. I doubt if even the minute percentage of water that remains in the ground is being pumped by our Indian neighbour. They said that they did a test during the rainy season but to date I have never seen that report.