By Ifham Nizam

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has decided not to give priority to the construction of new diesel and coal power plants in the country. The President had made that clear to the Cabinet, said Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera.

He said the President had pledged to support the programme implemented by international organizations to protect our country’s environment as well as to control global warming.

Accordingly, it is planned to obtain 70 percent of country’s electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

“We will implement future programmes to generate electricity from wind, LNG, hydro as well as solar energy. His support to fight global warming as well as for saving our planet has been recognized internationally. But many in our country are not aware of the programmes already initated,” Minister Amaraweera said

He said there was no other leader who had been as active as the President in protecting the country’s environment. Those who caused damage to the environment and especially the destruction of the forests were arrested regardless of rank. The Special Task Force, the Civil Defense Force as well as the Police were deployed to raid such anti-environmental activities and arrest those responsible. Moreover, cases had been filed against them.

According to the environmental conservation programmes implemented by the President, plans were in the pipeline to cultivate 16,000 hectares of new forests in the coming year, he said.

Said Minister Amaraweera: “Our goal is to increase our country’s forest cover to 30 percent by 2025. Last week, the Air Force launched an aerial planting programme. According to the information I have received, they will implement this sowing programme on 201 hectares in the next three months”

The conserving of the Kelani Ganga would be given priority under the Surakimu Ganga programme. Most of the money allocated under the programme would be used for the conservation of the Kelani, on which many people depend on to obtain their drinking water. Yet as things stand from Hanwella to Peliyagoda it was badly polluted, he said.