Importance Of Environment In Good Governance – A Way Forward
By Thosapala Hewage –December 29, 2015
Thosapala Hewage
The Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka clearly states the role of the government in relation to environment.
Article 27 (14) states that,
“the State shall protect, preserve and improve the environment for the benefit of the community.”
Article 28 (f) also states that
“it is the duty of every person in Sri Lanka to protect nature and conserve its riches.”
Hence it is obvious that the government is bound by the Constitution to protect, preserve and improve environment of the country. That is why it is important in good governance to look after the environment carefully.
Sri Lanka like many other developing countries has to confront with wide range of environment challenges that are associated mainly with its economic development. This was clearly evidence especially during last six decades during which time the emphasis was given to achieve rapid economic growth, employment creation for poverty alleviation, large scale development projects (without due consideration to environment), increase in population exerted more pressure on the environment. All these contributed to the rapid degradation of the environment which resulted in additional economic and social costs and new issues that need to be addressed by the government.
The purpose of this paper is to identify major environmental problems of the country at present and make proposals to address them under good governance.
Although there are a plethora of environmental problems faced by the country let me identify major environmental problems for our analysis. Chief among them are severe land degradation, poor management of water resources, impacts of large scale deforestation, loss of biodiversity, coastal erosion, scarcity of water, pollution, inadequate facilities for waste disposal and loss of agricultural productivity.