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Development puts Sri Lanka’s fragile central hills at risk
View(s):- Scant attention to National Physical Plan, Sri Lanka’s highest level spatial framework, which sets out how land, resources, settlements, transport networks, economic hubs and environmental assets should be organised around the country over the long term.
By Namini Wijedasa
In early 2017, the government department tasked with formulating Sri Lanka’s spatial development framework voiced strong opposition to plans for a 73.9km expressway from Kahathuduwa in the Colombo District to Pelmadulla in the Ratnapura District.
The “Ruwanpura” trace cuts through “central fragile areas” identified as crucial to the conservation of the country’s water sources, the National Physical Planning Department (NPPD) warned, in letters to the Road Development Authority, Central Environmental Authority and others.
The NPPD accepted that the proposed expressway could be built with adequate measures to minimise its impact on the sensitive environment. But “the accessibility and mobility increased by the expressway will have negative impact in the entire region” by promoting urbanisation and industrial developments, the Department stressed. It would lead to land use changes, land fragmentation, green cover depletion, and so on – all of which were “highly detrimental” to the conservation of the “central fragile area”.
Central Expressway, another risk
The NPPD raised another red flag, that year. It highlighted that a large share of the area affected by the 32.5km third section of the Central Expressway (CEP 3) from Pothuhera to Galagedara is also within this fragile zone and the central water catchment. Therefore, it said, it was necessary to select lands which were not within risk areas and to avoid catchments of the tributaries of Maha Oya and Deduru Oya, both while constructing the road and when resettling displaced communities.
At the time, the Sunday Times, too, reviewed the CEP 3 environmental impact assessment report. “Since certain sections of the proposed road run through steep mountain slopes the impact on land form and stability can be considered as significant,” it stated. “Unless proper mitigatory measures are taken the project can increase the possibility of landslides along the road cuts and possible land subsidence.”
The report cautioned that, as the project goes through a considerable extent of paddy fields and low lying areas, construction-related activities “are bound to cause significant hydrological impacts such as increasing the incidences of flooding, change in flow patterns and disruption to continuity of irrigation canals”.
It proposed long list of mitigatory measures such as slope stability techniques, relief drains, cascades, grouting and reinforcements.
The National Physical Plan
The ground breaking ceremony for CEP 3 was held in December 2020 and construction has been going on, after initial delays, since mid-2023. And despite the NPPD’s concerns (which the Sunday Times published in 2017) the current government in its 2026 budget has allocated Rs 1.5bn for land acquisition to start the Ruwanpura Expressway.
Highways Minister Bimal Ratnayake was recently quoted as saying a further feasibility study is needed for the section from Ingiriya to Ratnapura because of the surrounding river and other environmental reasons. (For now, the road will run up to Ingiriya).
Across governments, however, there is rarely – if any – reference to the National Physical Plan (the Plan) which is Sri Lanka’s highest level spatial framework, setting out how land, resources, settlements, transport networks, economic hubs and environmental assets should be organised around the country over the long term.
The latest version, gazetted in 2019, covers the period from 2017 to 2050. It was developed over two years following 23 focus group discussions with different disciplines including academics, engineers, architects, medical officers, scientists, the business community and the tourism sector. All other stakeholders, such as ministries and departments, were consulted.
“It was a long process of consultation,” said Jagath Munasinghe, who headed the NPPD at the time and who lectures in town planning at the University of Moratuwa. “The NPPD received its mandate from the National Physical Planning Council chaired by the Head of State.”
Careful with the “Central Fragile Area”
Many of the locations affected in last week’s devastation are within what the Plan calls the “Central Fragile Area” (CFA) or the “Central Highland Area”. It primarily consists of lands located above 300 meters from mean sea level and encompasses the upper catchments of all major rivers of the island.
Approximately 20 percent of the island’s total land area falls within this central hill zone, which is highly vulnerable to landslides and accommodates over 4 million residents. It is geographically defined to fall within the administrative districts of Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle, Matale, Ratnapura, Moneragala, Galle, Matara, Kalutara and Colombo.
The Plan considers the area’s conservation to be critical because of the increasing degradation of fragile settings and growing threats of landslides resulting from large-scale developments within the upper catchments of major rivers.
The conservation of the CFA is a main feature of the Plan which recommends a depopulation strategy. It proposes to attract a larger share of the next generations (2020-2050) living in these areas into proposed economic development zones by offering more attractive employment opportunities, affordable housing, and beneficial living environments.
Development must follow stringent regulations
The Plan states that physical developments within these lands must be guided by stringent regulations and comprehensive guidelines. It is compulsory to reforest the CFA through a well-organised and coordinated tree planting and re-foresting programme to ensure the long-term conservation of water resources.
Specifically, the Plan proposes to reduce the land extent used for high-elevation tea plantations (above 300 meters) by transforming non-performing plantations into non-commercial forest plantations or non-conventional export crops between 2020 and 2050. And for localities within this zone, “planned urban development” is a necessity due to increasing urbanisation.
The existence of the Central Fragile Area means that certain previously proposed large infrastructure projects, like the extension of expressways to Kandy, are questioned based on the area’s sensitivity and the expected return on huge investments. The Plan also notes that existing settlements in the CFA are growing at a relatively higher rate.
No need to reinvent the wheel
The comprehensive 148-page National Physical Plan is available to the government as it moves forward with disaster recovery and reconstruction, Prof Munasinghe pointed out.
“The Central Fragile Area is critical in terms of water and land resources, beauty, biodiversity, everything,” he said. “In planning, there is a famous saying that higher the accessibility, greater the potential for development. That means when you provide more roads and expressways, the potential for that areas to become physically developed is very high.”
“Now you understand the danger when you provide space in the Central Fragile Area,” he said, “when its development potential becomes more, thereby encouraging more and more people to settle there, make houses, businesses, and so forth. This is what the National Physical Plan warns.”
The alternatives
The Plan proposes four alternative development corridors, complete with proposed population projections. One is the East-West Development Corridor between the Colombo and Trincomalee districts, designed to capitalise on the advantages of two major ports in these locations, existing transport infrastructure and favourable living conditions.
Major concentrations include the Colombo metro region and other metro regions centering Negombo, Gampaha, Kurunegala, Dambulla and Trincomalee.
A second is the Northern Development Corridor, the epicentres of which are the Jaffna metro region and Kilinochchi. A third is the Southern Development Corridor centered on Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Tangalle, Embilipitiya and Tissamaharama.
The final is the Eastern Development Corridor, where Batticaloa is proposed to be developed as a metro region, along with cities at Valachchenai, Kalmunai, Ampara and Akkaraipattu.
“Even today, when you map the disaster areas, the least impacted are in these corridors,” Prof Munasinghe said. “That is the strength of the National Physical Plan and it can be taken as a framework for the country’s development in future if the government is willing to do so.”
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