Cod Bay chokes on cement dust
By Sulochana Ramiah Mohan-2017-12-03
He reached in again and pulled out a piece of coral. It was dead and a discoloured shade of grey. The 37-year-old also picked out molluscs and oysters, all dead and about the same shade of grey.
Then he crushed them easily like chalk.
"It's the cement." he said, "This stretches along the coastline for about 4 km."
We were standing on the coast along the Kandy-Trincomalee Road, about 4 km from China Bay.
Cod Bay
Cod Bay looks like a pristine natural harbour, like many others Sri Lanka is blessed with, in Trincomalee in the Eastern Province. It has some 20 small coves surrounded by a 'greyish' blue sea.
When dusk falls, the illuminated gigantic cement factory nearby and the ships out at sea, adds beauty to the landscape.
But what lies beneath is an environmental disaster. The water is gray because it is polluted with cement dumped into the harbour, locals say, when ships are loaded at the quay at the Tokyo Cement factory.
Booming industry
We chanced upon the issue. Ceylon Today, on its visit to the Eastern Province last week, stopped for a photo-shoot of the scenic view of Cod Bay. But we were accosted by local people who gathered to tell us how the booming cement industry has in fact has destroyed the coral and marine life in Cod Bay.
When the cement factory began in 1988 there weren't so many ships rushing into unload cement for further processing.
Godwin Devapriya (62) who is one of the activists battling to protect the environment says, in the beginning, once in three months, a ship would arrive to unload cement. But that is not the case now. "For more than a year now, a massive ship comes to the factory to unload cement once in three days and the unloading goes on night and day till the next shipment comes in three days."
Devapriya who formed a society to fight to protect their livelihood and the environment had met the officials of the cement factory. According to Devapriya, about a year or so ago, Tokyo Cement had dredged the bottom of the Bay and removed some of the cement deposits. But he pointed out that the pollution cannot be prevented altogether because the cement dust pollutes the air while being unloaded from the ship and it eventually gets deposited in the sea.
Cement, cement, everywhere
The cement is everywhere. From the distance we also could see cement dust deposited on the factory roofs and houses nearby.
Upul says cement dust also could be found deposited on their household items around Cod Bay and many people have developed a dry cough. There are about 50 families involved in fishing in the area and many of them have already been affected by the cement dust they are compelled to inhale. Locals are most alarmed by the fact that they are losing their livelihood, which is fishing. Enormous cement deposits are killing off corals and because of that, there are hardly any fish around.
Devapriya says they had been catching a variety of fish such as Paraw, Seer, Saalayo, Sprats and Thalapath to name a few, in Cod Bay but not anymore because there are no corals for breeding.
"Our fishing nets always give way while pulling thick sediments with cement out from the sea," he lamented, saying their costs have gone up because of that.
Devapriya, a father of five children, fled Nilaveli during the LTTE insurgency and settled in Cod Bay to do fishing. At that time, Cod Bay was a thriving fishing area where fishermen earned well.
He points out that by the road to Kinniya on the right side of the cement factory there is a 50 acre land now covered with the mud and cement mixture that has been dredged up from the bottom of the bay. "The area is getting bigger with mud deposits around the cement factory," they noted.
And not a drop is safe...
The discharge of hot water into the sea is also a concern, they noted. "Early morning we can see smoke going out into the air and that's the waste hot water being dumped into the sea."
"Factory officials say that they have been monitoring cement sediments in the sea. However six month ago, they told us they would use buckets while unloading cement to prevent cement falling into the sea. However that is not at all feasible," Upul told Ceylon Today.
The society against environmental hazards had met Trincomalee District Secretary who has expressed his concern too. But nothing has happened so far. "We wanted the coastal guards to watch over the spill of cement dust," they urged.
One of the top officials at Tokyo Cement had told the villagers that Rs 500,000 was spent last time to remove the dust deposit.
Nearly 300 Lorries of cement a day leave the factory in Cod Bay and that could mean thousands oftons passing through the region.
Ecological disaster
Fishermen are watching the developments and are contemplating whether to go on a hunger strike soon to bring awareness on this issue. They say that if they block lorries that transport the cement, it would make them realize how important their lives are too. They are asking for an independent assessment on marine life and an immediate end to the destruction of the environment in Cod Bay.
"It's like Hiroshima after the bombing here, as trees in the area are covered by cement dust, corals are dying and water is getting more and more polluted," Upul said.
The website of Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) PLC quotes that it is the largest manufacturer and supplier of cement in Sri Lanka and that Tokyo Cement is one of Sri Lanka's most valuable brands with an installed capacity of nearly 3 million tons of cement, over 600 employees and Rs 14 billion in assets.
They also boast that as part of its efforts to pursue the Triple Bottom Line principle, the company commissioned the first 10 megawatt biomass power plant in Trincomalee and that the benefits of the
Rs 2 billion initiative are twofold – it frees the company's operations from reliance on thermal power generation via the national grid and acts as a source of eco friendly electricity. The website further says that their company has have always worked on an ethos of pragmatic optimism.
If so, can they find a solution to this total destruction caused to the environment?
It's exaggerated – Tokyo Cement official
One of the officials attached to Tokyo Cement told Ceylon Today that the information provided to the paper by locals is an exaggeration.
An environment expert working at the cement factory noted that from 1982 this cement factory was only operating in the East, employing people from the area. However, when asked about collateral damage being caused to marine life and people who in the vicinity, he said there are problems which they have been trying to resolve.
He rubbished the claim that about four feet of cement and mud is being deposited in Cod Bay. "We dredged the sea and removed all the sediment. But he could not recall when that had been done." He also said the coast of Cod Bay is a muddy area and so there are no corals or marine life there. "Corals are found in Pasikudah and not Cod Bay." He noted that Tokyo Cement has not yet conducted a proper analysis of the sea area. "We don't know the actual particulars of the place that Ceylon Today is referring to," he said.
NARA says:
National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) said that they were not officially informed about cement dust deposits in the sea in Cod Bay.
Speaking to Ceylon Today, Marine Biologist at NARA Ishara M. G. Ratnasuriya said if an official complaint is sent to the Ministry of Environment, they will be notified too. "Ask them to inform us officially so that we could come to assess the situation," he noted.
