Water sent for testing: CEA and NARA

The Central Environmental Authority (CEA) and the National Aquatic Resources, Research and Development Agency (NARA) have taken water samples for testing to scientifically determine what has caused the massive pollution of the Hamilton Canal, the Sunday Times learns.

“When we got to know about the problem, my officers inspected the canal and collected water samples for testing to find out the pollutants. They also inspected the compost plant of the SLLRDC,” said the Acting Director of the CEA Gampaha Office, M. Sivakumar, adding that the report is due tomorrow.

He reiterated that there is an urgent need to draw up a long-term rehabilitation plan for the canal, especially as new development projects are due to take place. Even by the time the latest issue cropped up, the canal was severely polluted due to many discharging rubbish into its waters.

NARA Chairperson E.A.S.K. Edirisinghe said that on a complaint received a week ago, a team visited the area and also the waste-dumping site. They “physically observed” a black liquid oozing out of the dumpsite and found that the treatment plant there had not been functioning.

“Even though the team was told that the overflowing liquid was being channelled to a closed-circuit canal which was not connected to the Hamilton Canal and as such was not discharging waste into the latter, that canal seemed to be linked to the main canal,” he said, adding that the report will be ready next week.

The NARA team had found that oxygen levels in the waters of the Hamilton Canal were low and was checking whether any chemical flowing into it was causing this problem, it is learnt.