‘Problem factories’
Editorial-October 24, 2013,
Terrorism is a thing of the past and no lives are lost in terror strikes or war. But, there are other dangers people have to live with. At least four or five persons are killed in road accidents daily while dozens of others are injured, and a mystery kidney disease continues to snuff out lives in the North Central Province. It is said to be spreading to other areas. Food items are contaminated with harmful substances. As if these problems were not enough people have grave health risks and dangers posed by factories to contend with.
Tuesday’s gas leak at a detergent manufacturing facility in Piliyandala left 72 hospitalised. Luckily, there were no fatalities and public protests did not get out of hand unlike the ones which ended in disaster at Rathupaswala last August. Strangely, the factory, located in a highly residential area, had been given CEA clearance!
It is common knowledge that there are many such industrial facilities in populous localities; some of them even produce harmful chemicals and asbestos roofing sheets, but nobody in authority seems to care two hoots about environmental pollution they cause and health risks they pose to the public. The environmental authorities tend to slumber blissfully until disasters shake them awake.
Industrialisation is a dream all developing nations cherish and it is simply unattainable without factories to boost national production. But, there is no reason why they should be allowed to be established haphazardly all over the country at a massive environmental cost. The government tells us that it is trying to relocate all casinos to one place so that they could be regulated better. Why can’t it adopt a similar strategy as regards industrial facilities?
The Rathupaswala rubber glove factory is to be relocated on a presidential order. It has provided employment to a considerable number of people and its exports have stood the country’s forex-hungry economy in good stead, but, sadly, it has become the main suspect, where groundwater pollution is concerned, because it has been sitting in the wrong place all these years. Had it been set up in an industrial zone, it would have been able to operate uninterrupted without suffering losses owing to its protracted closure. We hope the findings of the committee that investigated the water issue will be made public and steps taken to ensure that the factory will be able to resume production after its relocation, without further delay.
Following Tuesday’s incident, a decision has been taken to shift the detergent factory in view of public protests. This is a step in the right direction, but the BoI and the CEA will have to ensure that it won’t cause similar problems elsewhere. What is urgently needed is a solution to the mismanagement of hazardous chemicals and not the translocation of the problem, so to speak. When garbage became a problem for Colombo, it was efficiently collected but callously dumped in the suburbs, where people are protesting against environmental pollution. The city is now clean, but areas like Meethotamulla have become uninhabitable due to Colombo’s garbage. The same goes for places like Karadiyanaru, where municipal waste is dumped, regardless of the danger such action poses to the picturesque Bolgoda Lake rich in biodiversity.
It is time laws were made to prevent factories being set up in residential as well as environmentally sensitive areas and to ensure that industrial waste is properly managed. The government should seriously consider commissioning a countrywide survey to find out the factories located in such localities and taking steps to move them to industrial zones. Ill-planned development always comes with a huge environmental cost and does more harm than good.
