Are Central Bank economic and trade data credible?
A well-recognised environmental lawyer has cast doubts on the credibility of government statistics, saying that the government finances are now in doldrums, ‘whatever the Central Bank (may) say’.
Ravi Algama made this comment while he was speaking on ‘Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) A Management Tool Rather than a Restricting Exercise for the Private Sector’ at a discussion on ‘Awareness raising on the impact of Food Loss and Waste’ to mark the World Environmental Day’ held at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) Auditorium last week.
The introduction of the EIA process has a very unique feature, Mr Algama said, as it is the first time where citizens of this country are given the opportunity of participating in the decision making process of this country, since once an EIA is presented to the public, it has a legal right to make comments on it.Enlightening the private sector, he said that the EIA could be beneficial and is a management tool and there is no monstrous effect as the private sector feared.
He said, “Don’t think that every impact is a harmful impact, but it could be beneficial to the environment”.
In the new era of environment, he noted that now there is a new concept called PPP – the Polluter Pay Principle.
He said that in prawn farming when ponds are affected by disease, these ponds are abandoned. They are polluted with a heavy concentration of tetracycline and other forms of antibiotics and for those areas to once again gain the pristine nature it would take another 200 years. He said, “If you make a mess of things you have to spend your good money and clean it. That is why the Union Carbide in India is almost bankrupt. Because after they paid compensation to all the victims of the disaster major leak from the factory it created, there is hardly any profit left”.
He said that the best land in Teldeniya and Kotmale were submerged to build reservoirs and a large number of families were removed and relocated in areas like Dehiattakandiya, Aralaganwila, Thanamalwila and Girandurukotte. They were promised with schools, hospitals and good housing. If the EIA was in operation these affected people would have raised issues.
He said that in these development schemes there would be corruption and said that in Samanalawewa to repair the leak, the authorities have spent three times the original cost of the project.
Sajeewa Chamikara, Director, Sri Lanka Nature Group speaking on ‘ Biodiversity Heritage of Sri Lanka and its Effects on our Food-print’, said though the world produced more than double the food requirements, each day more than 20,000 people die due to malnutrition and hunger. This phenomenon is due to waste and food is increasingly being used for other purposes like running machines and automobiles.
He said that today’s world population of 7 billion would increase to 9 billion by 2050 and thus the waste of food has to be made by applying proper management systems and otherwise the world would face a more dangerous situation, adverse than today.Mr. Chamikara said that today to produce 13 billion tons of food a large quantity of arable land in the world is used and as a result of using aggressive pesticides, chemicals and fertilizer, much damage has been caused to the world’s natural eco-system, and this is common to Sri Lanka too.
He gave many examples of how the eco-system gets damaged due to unhindered pollution and pointed out that the residue of these pesticides, chemicals and fertilizer would get into the water system which eventually flows into rivers and waterways and to the sea resulting in fish being affected and creating a grave imbalance in the eco-system, biodiversity and in turn affect human survival.
He said that large quantities of jelly fish are exported. As jelly fish is the food of some other fish in the sea when the jelly is depleted those fish who are fed on jelly fish would diminish.He said that areas like Lunugamwehera, Polonnaruwa forest and other land are being cleared to grow Cavendish plantains. To grow them lots of chemicals have to be used and ultimately that would affect the landmass that goes into this banana cultivation for exports.
He pointed out that Kalpitiya as a mega tourist potential would fail as it was poorly planned with apparently no foresight.
He said that is why major hoteliers operating in the country is reluctant to invest in this tourist sector. He said that this tourist development affects the bar-reef, and even dolphin watching would be affected. It is apparent that the investors there are new rich people, he asserted. The discussion was moderated by Prema Cooray, Managing Director, CCC Solutions.
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