Reflection

An open letter to Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka

Much as I abhorred the absolute racist rhetoric that you spouted as the Jathika Hela Urumuya’s (JHU) representative in cabinet, like many others in this country, I felt that you appeared to have potential to do something positive about the matter of Sri Lanka’s environmental degradation.

That belief has been jolted by my experience with your Ministry in the matter of a very serious case of environmental pollution that I have sought, without any success whatsoever, to have your Ministry deal with over the past two years.

In 2007, I wrote to you about the matter of a landfill (garbage dump) that was being used to the detriment of people in the area, polluting two drinking water springs, breeding, literally, millions of disease-carrying mosquitoes and flies among other things.  I will not repeat what I stated with a great deal of specificity in that correspondence. 

Suffice it to say that I sent you a sheaf of documents which included a copy of a letter from your Ministry specifying that this landfill was not appropriate, a letter that was, by then four years old and about which nothing had been done.  In addition, I emailed colour pictures of the pollution downstream from the landfill which showed, very clearly, the filth that was being dumped in this source of drinking water.

My appeal to you, I might add, was subsequent to unsuccessful efforts to have this matter dealt with at a local level through the Pradeshiya Sabha which was doing the dumping and the Pradeshiya Sabha in whose jurisdiction the dump had been located, one being different from the other.  I might add that the chairman of the latter body told me that he could not do anything about the state of affairs because both Pradeshiya Sabhas shared the same political affiliation!

Wild goose chase

After the second reminder, I had the courtesy of a telephone call from a gentleman who, I presumed, was one of your Executive Assistants.  In the first instance he claimed not to have received the enclosures in the letter in question and, while I found this rather incomprehensible for obvious reasons, I sent him a fresh batch.  He was polite and helpful and referred me to another two people in your Ministry.  Little did I realise at the time that this was the beginning of what now seems like a deliberately organised wild goose chase.

The gentleman whom I called at this point, referred me to a third person who, in turn, referred me to a gentleman in the Polgolla (Regional?) office whom I had, in a much earlier phase of my quest for action, visited and with whom I had deposited the same, quite substantial, “brief.”  This gentleman gave me the same political gobbledygook which I was now getting fairly accustomed to and told me, in short, that the existing legislation was inadequate to do anything about environmental pollution of the kind I was trying to have remedied.

Back I went to the person who had asked me to phone the gentleman at Polgolla.  He then told me that I should phone Polgolla again.  I did so and was given the same run around as I was given before, with some variation in the verbiage which now included the “fact” that the central government was going to be funding the establishment of regional landfills which would then take care of the problem!

Malaria raises its head

Apart from the fact that malaria has  raised its head in the neighbourhood of this dump,  at least two residents of the area were diagnosed with that malady.  I am told that there recently have been three fatalities among those who have contracted dengue as well.  The response of those in the public health sector to this very serious state of affairs has been to rush around threatening residents with all kinds of punishments if they didn’t clear up potential mosquito breeding grounds. 

However, absolutely no attention has been paid to the prime source of mosquito breeding – the garbage dump – by either the health authorities or your environmental officers. I need hardly add that neither of these mosquito-borne diseases were prevalent in this area before the arrival of the “land fill.”

I have discussed this matter with friends who share my concern about environmental degradation and the deliberate pollution of drinking water sources and we have arrived at a conclusion that is fascinating but which I expect you will find rather unpleasant:  the complaint emanated from someone who could, by your definition, not be considered as one of the “chosen” and therefore, was not deserving of attention.

I hope my friends and I are wrong in the conclusions we have arrived at and that you will condescend to doing something to end a situation which has already proved deadly to residents around this garbage dump.  This might seem like shutting the stable door after some of the herd of horses has bolted, but it would be better than no action at all.