Environment Ministry Secretary, Dr. Anil Jasinghe receieves a book from CEJ Executive Director Heamantha Withanage

By Ifham Nizam

The government would shortly scale up the monitoring of the country’s entire environmentally sensitive area through GPS to find out all threatened extents, Environment Ministry Secretary, Dr. Anil Jasinghe said

Dr. Jasinghe, making the guest speech at the launch of a book titled `Nature in Therapy’ published by the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, stressed that co-management model was was under study, which would be concluded within two months.

Dr. Jasinghe said that air pollution was one of the major issues in the region and the good news was that South Asian Co-operation Environment Programme (SACEP) headquarters was now based in Sri Lanka with the support of World Bank and other institutions.

He also said that Sri Lanka was among better countries in the region when it came to air pollution, though there were no boundaries to the problem, but being an island nation the country was so far spared from its harsh effects.

Dr. Jasinghe added that next year the government would launch a clean air project with public participation.

CEJ Executive Director Heamatha Wthanage said that in 2020 they setup an online survey to get the public opinion about the situation which was responded by over 300 persons from diverse backgrounds.

“This encouraged us to develop the study further. As a result we have requested various governmental bodies to provide the data which they collect though various monitoring programmes, including sales data,” he said.

Withanage said that the Western Province Waste Management Authority provided waste generation data, and the National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) also provided air quality data during that period. Forest Department and Department of Wildlife Conservation also made available the data related to forest and wildlife impacts.

However, despite their requests under the Right to Information law, the Water Supply and Drainage Board, Central Environmental Authority, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and the Ceylon Electricity Board failed to share data although they responded to the RTI requests. “It is pathetic that those agencies don’t make available such information although they use public funds to generate such information,” he added.

Dr. Pathmalal Manage of the University of Sri Jayawardenepura, too joined hands with the CEJ to compile this report. As a result, they have agreed to conduct new data collection along the Kelani River which will make this study complete in a successful manner.