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Corrupt officials allow industrial pollution By Quintus
Perera Asked whether
widespread corruption would negate all attempts to eliminate environmental
pollution and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission by various national
and international organizations, Peter Repinski, Associate Expert,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said corruption has
become a big problem but agreed it is a difficult issue to address
and has its limitations. He was speaking
to The Sunday Times FT at the end of the National Awareness Seminar
on "Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction in Industries in Asia
and Pacific (GERIAP) held in Colombo recently. The GERIAP project is to encourage company level action to increase efficiency of energy use in the production processes to reduce associated emissions, especially greenhouse gases. Cleaner Production (CP) mechanism is a combination of environmental management and economic benefits achieved simultaneously by actions of companies of their own. A process widely recognized, it is an effective way of addressing material resource productivity and has a wider focus on prevention of pollution and in terms of GERIAP, the scope and coverage of CP has been broadened to also include Energy Efficiency measures in energy intensive industry. The programme
was organized by Small and Medium Enterprise Developers (SMED) -
a project of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry
of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) and the Friedrich Naumann Stiffung in Sri
Lanka (FNS). UNEP is coordinating the project with financial support
by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
and implemented in close cooperation with national focal points
in each participating country. The participating countries are:
Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Philippines, Sri
Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. The industry sectors are chemicals,
iron and steel, lime and cement, and pulp and paper. Speaking on
Sustainable Development and Cleaner Production, V.R. Sena Peiris,
Director, National Cleaner Production Centre, said if businesses
didn't comply with the norms of environment set out, they would
not be able to obtain a licence to operate in addition to facing
several other challenges. He said effluents
and solid waste that often went down the drain or in the garbage
bin were part of the resources or inputs (if treated). CP waste
is considered a valuable resource and economically valuable. Waste
is something like money and should really be "in the bank for
the development of that industry itself, harnessed into rupees and
cents". Peiris said
often CP measures were implemented at little cost like good housekeeping
and better process control but measures like equipment modification
and technology change meant higher costs. The interesting point
to note was that most CP measures have a very short payback period,
quite often just a few months. The benefits of CP would be the reduction
of raw material consumption and costs, improved process efficiency
and product quality, increased profits, decrease in pollution, low
waste treatment costs, improved working conditions and improved
employee morale. He said that
in DC mills coconut water normally went waste causing environmental
hazards where as in the Philippines it has been converted into a
delicious drink. Solid waste has been converted into biogas. He
said that there were more than 5,000 CP solutions in the Internet.
A five star hotel which had kept the entire room capacity air-conditioned
had readjusted the air-conditioning for occupied rooms only. This
measure reduced the monthly electricity bill by Rs. 150,000, Peiris
said giving a large number of such examples. Nihal Abeysekera,
President, Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri
Lanka chaired the seminar. The others who addressed the seminar were: Peter Repinski, Associate Expert, UNEP; Prof. Priyantha Wijethunga, Centre for Energy Studies, University of Moratuwa; and M.N.R. Cooray, Manager Environment and Industrial Engineering Project SMED. National Savings
Bank (NSB) chairman of D.M. Swaminathan announced last week that
NSB had mobilized Rs. 7.6 billion in deposits during first quarter
2003, up sharply from Rs. 3.5 billion in same period last year. He said while
the target mobilization for first quarter 2003 was Rs. 3.7 billion,
NSB had surpassed that target by more than 100 %. "The total
deposit base stood at Rs. 143 billion as at 31st March 2003 compared
to Rs. 122 billion as at end of 1st quarter 2002, showing an increase
of 17% year on year. This remarkable achievement was as a result
of the confidence placed in the bank by our customers," Swaminathan
noted. The bank's pre-tax profit in the same quarter was Rs. 890 million against Rs.207 million in the corresponding 2002 quarter. Sri Lanka should aim for Iraqi sub-contracts The reconstruction
of Iraq provides huge opportunities for Sri Lanka if the government
succeeds in securing sub-contracts and jobs for some 200,000 people
from here, says Surath Wickremasinghe, President, Chamber of Construction
Industry, Sri Lanka. He said Sri
Lankan authorities should indicate their willingness to accept projects
and take a cue from the way India is approaching the issue. "The
Indian government does not want to be left out from the reconstruction
business in Iraq and has gifted tea and other gifts to establish
humanitarian connections prior to seeking projects. The President
of the Federation of Chambers of India has said that India hopes
to obtain at least 20 percent of the sub-contract work," Wickremasinghe
said in an interview. According to information reaching him, over 25,000 schools, 200 hospitals, 2,000 healthcare centres, 10 major power plants, 40,000 km of road network, bridges, 74 airports including six major airports, harbours and telecommunication facilities have to be restored in addition to other projects in rehabilitating and reconstructing Iraq. Wickremasinghe
suggested immediate meetings among CCISL, other chambers and the
relevant ministries like Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs, Industrial
Development and Enterprise and Labour to formulate an action plan
to obtain work not only in Iraq but also in other countries. |
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