Environment Ministry Secretary urges switching to electric vehicles soon to combat air pollution

By Ifham Nizam

Each year the government spent close to Rs. 100 million to treat diseases caused by air pollution, which had to be reduced, Environment Ministry Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe said yesterday

Dr. Jasinghe told The Island that one of the solutions was to encourage the import of electric vehicles when the ban on imports was lifted. It might even be judicious to replace old vehicles with electric vehicles now, Dr. Jasinghe said.

The Environment Ministry Secretary said that industrial air pollution was less in Sri Lanka.

“However, we have a lot of vehicles powered by fossil fuel. Every day, these vehicles emit toxic fumes. So, on average, we spend quite a lot of our health budget on these diseases,” he said.

One of the main reasons that deter people from buying electric cars was the need to charge their vehicles once they run a few hundred kilometres. However, scientists were rapidly increasing battery life of electric cars and soon one could drive about 1,000 kilometres with one charge, Dr. Jasinghe said.

“We need to look at cheaper and better sources of energy as well because encouraging the use of electric vehicles would be pointless if we produce electricity at high cost and using high polluting fossil fuel sources. We can easily promote renewable energy at the domestic level.”