Fishermen and other affected groups mull protests against port city
View(s):The government’s intention to review the Colombo Port City project is causing a hornet’s nest along the sea coast from Ma Oya (Waikkala, Kochchikade) to around Moratuwa with fishermen along these areas flexing their muscles for a gigantic protest campaign island wide as this disaster not only affects the fishing industry, but is also a national disaster destabilizing the country’s eco system.
File pic of Port City
On Wednesday, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrema told an investment conference in Colombo that the port city project had been cleared by Chinese authorities, after the former had extensive meetings in Beijing last week. “Its’ all systems go from the Chinese side for this project while we expect the EIA report soon in the next few days,” he said.
Meanwhile, a meeting was held in Negombo this week to sketch the protest, and the campaign is supported by Kandalama Rev Fr Sarath Iddamalgoda and organized by the ‘United Front’ representing those who would be affected by the new development.
Present at the meeting were representatives from fishermen’s organizations, social and community service organizations and Catholic priests and nuns.
Hemantha Vithanage, Executive Director, Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) alerting about the hidden dangers of this project, said that in the first instance the Chinese company – China Communication Construction (Pvt) Co is one of the most corrupt companies in that country and blacklisted by the World Bank.
The project was first envisaged in 2002 when Ranil Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister under the “Reawaken Sri Lanka” Programme and then on 17 September 2014 by former President Mahinda Rajapakse and the budget for the project is US$1.4 billion, he revealed.
The main reasons to protest against this project, he pointed, are that the project was started under an unlawful agreement and violated the Sri Lankan law. He indicated that the original area of 120 hectares was changed to 269 and the extents are changed constantly. Another major reason he said is that it affects the sovereignty of the country. He went on to indicate how the laws are violated quoting relevant sections of the laws.
He pointed out that during the election campaign as an election promise Mr. Wickremesinghe said that this project would be suspended forthwith as it harms the environment in a big way.
With all these promises and assurances, Mr. Vithanage indicated that while a fundamental rights appeal in courts was pending against the Port City, the Prime Minister in Switzerland has declared that the Port City Project would resume.
He said that sand for the project would be obtained from the shallow seas from Uswetakiyawa to Negombo. The sand obtained from these shallow seas earlier was 200 million cubic metres (cm) and a further 60 million cm is expected to be dredged.
The sea bed would be seriously damaged by dredging sand from shallow seas and as a result the silt in the sea bed would be heavily disturbed, resulting in the deterioration of fish breeding. Further, he pointed out that due to the sand dredging the coast along Galle Face, Dehiwela, Mount Lavinia, Ratmalana and Moratuwa are already under heavy sea erosion and further dredging would cause further erosion.
He said that 3.43 cm of boulders are needed for the project and afterwards for building construction further quantities of boulders would be needed. With the blasting of rock those living near rubble quarries would face landslides, and floods, etc, he pointed out.
As in the cases of Kandalama, Iranawila Kerawalapitiya and Wattala protests in Kerawalapitiya and Iranawila several people were killed by the repressive action of the government, where these projects were established.
One participant who did not want to be identified told the Business Times (BT) that the protesters would be treading on very dangerous grounds and, as the government has decided to go on with the project there would be likelihood of protesters being attacked and there could be lives lost.
The organisers were also trying to ascertain whether they would be able to engage the United Nations Environmental Agency in the protest campaign.