Major flaw: Colombo Port City Project sand mining licence not obtained as yet
The Port City Project of Colombo which was originally conceived as a governmental project conducted by the Ports Authority and later by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) became a foreign direct investment of the Ports Ministry and the China Communication and Construction Company that fundamentally changed the concept of the project dramatically, said Naazima Kamardeen, Professor of Commercial Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo.
She was speaking at a conference held at the Verite Research Conference Room in Colombo last week on the topic of “Environmental development of Port City project under the Belt and Road Initiative Project of China”.
She said although the Sri Lanka Ports Authority commissioned a feasibility study with the National Aquatic Resources Research Development Agency (NARA) on sand extraction and had subsequently commissioned an Environmental Impact Assessment report (EIA) with the University of Moratuwa, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report is not available so far to make an assessment. She said the China Communication and Construction Company subsequently made an unsolicited concept proposal based on Investment Law and an unsolicited proposal meant that there was no way of evaluating such a proposal to gauge its suitability whether such an entity was best suited to conduct the development project owing to the absence of other proposals from other parties. Only one party had made such an unsolicited proposal. Although the project was to retain 200 hectares originally, it was later raised to 269 hectares of land from the sea. One of the most important environmental aspects of the project was dredging for sand from the sea necessary for the project which was extremely environmentally hazardous activity.
Meanwhile dredging for sand became a separate project all together and NARA was commissioned to conduct a feasibility report so that the Sri Lanka Ports Authority could apply for a sand mining licence from the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau for the Port City Project to start. However with new buildings coming up in the Ports City with housing units and development activity there could be destruction to ecosystems from dredging and pollution in the Galle Face area owing to sewerage and waste matter disposal and pollution of the Beira Lake. But the Port City has not started as yet to make an assessment. The water requirement for buildings in the Port City has been estimated as 1000 cubic metres of water for a day but the source from where the water comes has not been considered. Apart from this, 65 million cubic feet of sand is needed for the Port City project construction.
She said the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was not confined to Asia alone but to other countries in the world as well where China wanted to build many infrastructure projects by having massive investments including the US. However it has caused many concerns in those countries if China pulls out those investments that will invariably have an impact on their economies. It has also raised economic and security concerns when networked with global naval and shipping routes and ports when countries do not have access to sensitive information and control over certain strategic locations. “Whatever port we look in Sri Lanka is geographically located with advantages and much talked about it,” she said.
Apart from this, 65 million cubic feet of sand is needed for the Port City project construction.
Meanwhile dredging for sand became a separate project all together and NARA was commissioned to conduct a feasibility report so that the Sri Lanka Ports Authority could apply for a sand mining licence from the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau for the Port City Project to start.