The Recent Announcement On The Port City
Fr. Sarath Iddamalgoda
It was announced a few days ago that the work on Colombo Port City projectwill resume in October according to a revised plan giving it a new name “Financial City”. To our surprise neither the President nor the Prime Minister has explained to the people of the country how their revised plan of the “Financial City” will prevent the destruction of the marine environment and the loss of livelihoods of the fisherfolk, who will be deprived of their centuries old means of living due to sand mining to reclaim 269 hectares from the sea.
It is said that 3.45 million cubic meters of granite and 65 million cubic meters of sand have to be mined for the purpose of reclaiming this land from the sea. A panel of independent experts have warned of environmental damage this project would cause to the country.
Who would care to listen to them? Their views are discarded as rubbish.
It now appears to the citizens of this country that environmental safety and security of all living beings are not matters of any importance to those in power, cash hungry planners, policy makers and politicians. What a shame?
Such arrogant attitudes are often manifested by our leaders, when dealing with issues of life and death, as far as people are concerned. Their belief perhaps emanate from their love for the neo liberal economic policies. What matters in neo liberalism is profits at any cost, no matter what happens to living beings on earth. “Profits” (mammon) is the god that they worship.
This attitude is also highlighted by lack of transparency on the part of the government as regards the new agreements that have been signed recently and lack of consultation with those who are going to suffer the impact caused by the project.
Regarding the safety of our people there is a significant example for the Sri Lankan government to consider from China. The Chinese city “Tianjin” densely populated (like Colombo) was similarly situated next to the port which exploded on the 13th August 2015. The Chinese academics have warned the authorities of many unacceptable environmental risks of having a densely populated city next to a port, but was unable to generate concern among the officials.
