Unseen invaders afloat in plastic waste
Along with the World’s Ocean Day on June 8, a high-level United Nations Conference on Oceans was held last week in New York.
Sri Lanka assured its support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
One of those goals is to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources’’, or goal 14.
Arjan Rajasuriya, coordinator, coastal and marine programme, IUCN Sri Lanka country office, said Sri Lanka should ensure sustainable fisheries, reduction/elimination of pollution, ocean litter etc.
Much of the pollution of our seas comes from the land in various forms such as non-biodegradable waste including polythene, plastic, chemical waste from household detergents, vehicle service stations, factories etc.
Mr Rajasuriya cited pollution of the sea from Panadura to Negombo as an example. There are two sewage outfalls - one in Dehiwala and the other in Modera. All the new condominiums are spewing out high volumes of polluted water and massive loads of toilet waste. “Where one or two houses stood in the past, now we have highrise buildings with about 20 to 30 apartments. Just imagine the increase of waste-water alone and the volume of sewage,” Mr Rajasuriya points out.
Sri Lanka is also concerned about invasive alien species. Studies are being done in ports and fishery harbours on the possible invasive species coming into our waters from ballast water and hulls of ships and fishing boats. But we are completely ignoring invaders attached to floating plastic debris. Much of the floating plastic waste that goes from land add up to large floating piles (rafts) of plastic litter floating out at sea. Eventually currents and wind bring them to shore. Many invaders can come through these sources, but we are not giving much attention to these floating plastics, Mr Rajasuriya worries.