Proposed Port City poses many environmental issues to Sri Lankan capital
The Port City project which is being built in Colombo can raise many environmental issues that had to be looked into closely as 300,000 people are expected to live there when the project was completed.
Winners. Pic by Amila Gamage
“Can you imagine issues that we have to face in terms of water and sewerage etc?” said Deputy Minister of Highways, Higher Education and Investment Promotion – Eran Wickramaratne, Chief Guest at the Sustainability Reporting Awards 2014 sponsored by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). The event was held in Colombo this week.
The Minister said that he had discussed with the Colombo Mayor issues that the residents of Colombo would face as a result of the Port City project. “I told him that there was no way that our existing sewerage system which was 200 years old should be connected to the Port City Sewerage system. “
He said the government was clearly for a sustainable economy and is committed to using natural resources in a most efficient way by way of economic instruments such as emissions, training schemes, regulation, taxes, subsidies, etc. He said companies should improve on managing the natural habitat and disclose such information not only to shareholders but to the public as well. Non-financial information too was useful to investors and for other companies.
Referring to climate change, he said it represents a number of risks for business operations and for supply chains. A few companies have responded to this challenge by identifying strategic measures to counter such risks. Therefore standardized sustainable reports were an important source to investors. He said water security too was an important resource and companies must take note of it. “Jalavahini” a project launched by a company was a pioneering initiative in this regard. Citing an example the minister said that a woman complained to him when he visited Colombo Central. She said there was only one public toilet for the residents use and they had to pay each time they used it. Half the population lives in such squalid conditions in the Colombo city dwellings.
President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), Sri Lanka Danushka Samarasinghe said the global population which was 6 billion in 2002 had increased to 7.2 billion in 2014. The population is expected to increase it to 9 billion in 2030 when the world will run out of natural resources. Adam Sack, Country Manager of the International Finance Corporation for Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said climate change will be a crucial factor for economic development in the next 20 -30 years.
He said “climate change is a fundamental threat to economic development for emerging economies like Sri Lanka. But with quick action stronger partnership and innovative models we can create opportunities to pioneer new sustainable growth models for the country”.
The best awards went to DIMO and John Keells Holding for sustainability reporting awards. DIMO won the most transparent corporate award while JKH was the runner up.