Oil, pollution and grease on palms

Wednesday 7th October, 2020

A person who dumps garbage on the roadside and thereby causes environmental pollution runs the risk of being hauled up before courts and fined. In fact, hefty fines have been imposed on many people for haphazard disposal of trash. It was only a few years ago that two dipsomaniacs were arrested, produced in court and fined for urinating in a public place. They were charged with polluting the environment among other things! Vehicle owners are made to obtain emission test reports to minimise air pollution. Such is the concern our governments and law enforcement agencies have for the environment when polluters happen to be the ordinary public. This kind of high-octane performance on the part of politicians, the police, and bureaucrats is absent when the culprits happen to be rich and powerful and, above all, willing to pay a fortune in backhanders.

We have recently reported that as many as 7,000 factories, located within the Kaduwela and Peliyagoda local government areas, release their waste into the Kelani Ganga, on which millions of people are dependent for their water needs. Out of them, about 4,000 are operating without environmental clearance. We quoted Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, as saying that he would get tough with the errant industrialists polluting the river. These factories could not have been set up in close proximity to the river without the help of politicians and bureaucrats. An investigation is called for to find out how they obtained permission to locate themselves in environmentally sensitive areas and have been releasing effluents into the river with impunity all these years.

It is heartening that the pollution of the Kelani Ganga has received the attention of the Environment Minister, at long last. But Amaraweera should be told that the road to hell is paved with good intentions; he has to walk the walk. Mere promises and rhetoric will not do. Our experience is that big polluters always have the last laugh as they are capable of swaying politicians and high ranking public officials. What happened in Rathupaswala, in 2013, is a case in point; the people of that area, who demanded clean water as they could not use their wells due to ground water pollution caused by a factory, received bullets instead of relief. In 2015, a diesel leak from a multinational beverage company polluted the Kelani water, and the Central Environmental Authority undertook to prevent the pollution of the river once and for all. But the pollution of the river continues unabated.

That big polluters can easily get away with their offences has become evident again. The ill-fated supertanker, MT New Diamond, which was recently saved by Sri Lanka and India jointly, has been towed away from Sri Lankan waters while negotiations are on claims regarding marine pollution caused by an oil spill from the vessel. The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre allowed the tanker to leave although the Marine Environmental Protection Authority had informed it that the ship should not be towed until negotiations were over. Sri Lankan scientists have confirmed that the New Diamond oil spill has caused considerable environmental damage. But not even the Attorney General (AG) has been able to stop the ship from leaving Sri Lankan waters. Who has intervened to allow the ship to leave? One smells a rat. Did anyone get his palm greased to help the owners of the oil tanker? The present dispensation is full of roguish elements willing to do anything for greenbacks. This issue should be raised in Parliament and reported to the COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises).

Let it be repeated that polluters must pay whether they are big or small. AG Dappula de Livera and his team have striven to have the New Diamond owners bear the cost of marine pollution. They deserve praise for their good work. We hope their efforts will not be in vain although the ship has already left. The AG should call for an explanation from those who granted permission for the tanker to be removed from Sri Lankan waters.