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SJU team defends EIA report
View(s):The team that carried out the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Uma Oya project has defended its report, but said it was not clear if the recommendations were followed.
Team leader Prof. Swarna Piyasiri said the EIA was prepared by professionals who had done their task properly.
Explaining the process, she said that in February 2009, the Sri Jayawardenapura University received an invitation to submit application to carry out the EIA and a team was appointed to go ahead with the procedure. Of the four universities which sent applications, the SJU was selected for the job.She said the university’s client was the Irrigation Department which should make available monitoring reports to the Central Environmental Authority. After the report was approved, the monitoring and implementation was the responsibility of the client, she said.
Prof. Piyasiri said a supplementary EIA was done because there was some discrepancy in the measurements of the Kuda Oya and Handapanagala areas but this was due to the fault of the Irrigation Dept. The discrepancy was discovered by the CEA monitoring team, she said.
“Monitoring the plan was the responsibility of the CEA, independent teams and the client. We don’ t know what they did about it,” she said.
Co-team leader and Engineering Aspects Professor K.D.W Nandalal said they raised the issue about the cracks after their study based on available data but were not be able to conduct inspections due to limitations. He said the geologist was of the opinion that some 80 percent of the tunnel went through hard rock.
Meanwhile, Engineer D.A.J. Ranwala referring to last week’s Sunday Times news item said he was only a team member and not a co-team leader as mentioned.
The co-team leader was Prof. K.D.W Nandalal.
The rest of the team members were: Dr U.K.G.K Padmalal – Department of Zoology, Open University; Dr. Kamal Ranatunga – Department Zoology, Sri Jayawardenapura University (SJP); Prof B.M.P Sighakumar – Department of Forestry Environmental Science (SJP); Sociologist/Resettlement Expert Yatawara Gedara Wijeratne, Dr. P. Gunawardene – Department of Forestry and Environmental Science (SJP). Hydrologist D.A.J Ranwala – Freelance Consultant; Geologist Dr R.L.R Chandrajith – Department of Geology, University of Peradeniya, Irrigation Engineer R. Karunaratne, Freelance Consultant; Electrical Engineer S.K Weerasena, BCEOM International; Tunnel Expert/ Engineer A.K.N.D Atukorala; D.B Rambodagedera (Agronomist); K.A.W Kodituwakku – Post Graduate Institute of Science, University of Peradeniya; Muni Gunaratne (Civil Engineer); MAK Munasinghe (Soil Scientist); Prashantha Bandula Mandawala (SJP), Wijewickrama (GIS Specialist) NBRO; and Dr. M.M. Pathmalal – Dept. of Zoology, (SJP)