Environment Minister moves to tackle burnt ship fuel racket causing environmental harm

By Ifham Nizam

The environment Ministry will soon present a Cabinet Memorandum to regulate the proper use of burnt fuel oil discharged from ships here.

This move follows, a tug of war between the Environment Ministry and some of the officials of the Central Environmental Authority on issuing permits for oil clearance

The Cabinet paper will be presented to the Cabinet meeting next week after Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera and Ministry Secretary Dr. Anil Jasinghe returns from an overseas visit.

The objective of the Cabinet Memorandum was to promote the process of disposing of fuel oil in a systematic manner as a source of revenue for the country in dollars, a senior official said.

At present, the amount of fuel oil discharged annually from ships coming to our country exceeds 20,000 metric tonnes. About 27 agencies and individuals have been licensed to use them. But according to the current system, it will not bring any income to our country. Instead, due to competition among buyers, Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange is flowing out as ships are paid to obtain the discarded burnt oil.

As a result, the country has lost a large amount of its annual revenue for decades. The other is to tackle the problem of releasing the remaining toxic waste after extracting the oil into the environment.

Commenting on this, Environment Minister Amaraweera said: “Sri Lanka is the only country in the world that pays for garbage. At present 27 institutions and individuals are engaged in such activities but only four institutions have formal refining facilities. Others have no refining facilities. Also, these refineries can refine only 4,800 tonnes of burnt fuel oil annually.

“We have information that remaining fuel oil is being dumped near rivers or canals,” the Minister said.

The Cabinet Memorandum would be submitted to inform the Cabinet of Ministers in this regard and to prevent the damage caused to the environment of the country to earn revenue from this fuel and to regulate it properly, the minister said.