Conservation zones designated to protect river system:

Squatters to be relocated

By Ifham Nizam

The Central Environmental Authority will take steps to remove those who are currently occupying river banks and prevent construction or cultivation on land within 150 metres from rivers.

Plans are underway to relocate people living along the river basins.

“If not, the entire river system, which is the basic life giver to our country, will be in danger of being destroyed in a few years due to the misuse of river water,” Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

Ministry of Environment has decided to commence a programme to designate river protected zones immediately.

There are 103 rivers in Sri Lanka. The majority of them originate from the central highlands and the rest from other places. However, to date  no river conservation zones have been designated to protect the river system here.

Under the instructions of the Environment Ministry, CEA has collected more information on all river basins in the country, indicating that various individuals are engaged in illegal activities to destroy them.

Activities in this regard have been videotaped and the CEA officials had observed that there were more than 10,700 destructive places in rivers alone.

The CEA has been instructed  to pay close attention to the degradation of the environment.

The Minister has called for the establishment of conservation zones for all rivers in the country under the Surakimu Ganga programme implemented by the Ministry of Environment.

Besides the river system, there is a large spring system. Some 1544 water sources have been identified in the Nuwara-Eliya District, 204 in the Kandy District, 19 in the Kurunegala District, 210 in the Moneragala District and two in the Matale District. Minister Amaraweera said that those environmentally protected sensitive areas also needed to be properly designated to protect the water sources.