Financial Times

Building restrictions after the tsunami
Old coastal regulations revived
By Feizal Samath
The government recently issued guidelines for construction on coastal areas after the tsunami disaster, reversing an earlier, controversial decision to enforce a 100-200 metres buffer (no build zone) and bringing in a more flexible plan -- based however on an old set of regulations.

In a letter to District Secretaries in affected regions across the country, Coast Conservation Director Dr R.A.D.B. Samaranayake said building construction would permitted in an area ranging from a low of 35 metres off the beach to a high of 125 metres off the beach in the coastal zone across the affected regions.

The regulations are not new and are standards stipulated in the coastal zone management plan in 1997, which ironically have been openly violated in the past in building construction along the coast. How well it would be applied this time, remains to be seen, construction specialists said.

Dr Samaranayake’s letter, copied to Secretaries to the President, Treasury and Fisheries & Aquatic Resources, said the original plan to impose a 100 to 200-metres buffet zone was relaxed owing to an acute of scarcity of land.
There has also been widespread criticism of the restrictions from residents and others.

The 1997 regulations circulated to the chief government officials in these areas also include building restrictions in Colombo and the western coast. The coast from Kalpitiya to Negombo has a restrictive building zone ranging from 40 to 60 metres while the stretch from Uswetakeiyawa (off Wattala) to the Mount Lavinia Hotel – including prime Colombo city beaches – has a building restriction of 45 to 55 metres.

From the Mount Lavinia hotel to Kalutara, the restrictions from the beach range between 35 to 60 metres and upto Aluthgama the range is between 50 and 60 metres.

The rest of the southern coast building restrictions varies from 35 to 60 metres while at one point – Yala National Park – the bar is 125 metres.
Potuvil has a buffer zone of 80 metres, Thirukovil – 125 metres and Kalmunai/Kalkudah also a high of 125 metres. Trincomalee – at Fort Frederick – the buffer zone is 110 metres while Mullaitivu and Elephant Pass have 125 metre restrictions, though the government would not be able to enforce it since these areas are controlled by the LTTE.

Manthai and Murukkan areas also have a buffer zone of 125 metres. Coastal experts said these building restrictions exist in the past but were observed in the breach due to political interference, corrupt officials and indifference of governments. “It would be interesting to see how these old regulations would be enforced when it wasn’t done in the past,” one expert said.

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