Archives

THE OBSERVER

The Oldest English Newspaper in South Asia
Founded 4.2.1834
P. O. Box 1217,
35, D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha,
Colombo 10, Sri Lanka.
Telephone: Editor - 94-1-429226; Fax: 94-1-429230

Rain and economy

Colombo's citizens were breathing fresher, cleaner air this morning after a night's rain. It was after a long time, and given the weather experts' prognosis, it will not be something we can expect to be sustained.

In short, the 'inter-monsoonal rains' seem to have failed again. These rains, usually brought to land by the 'convectional winds' that blow in the Indian Ocean, used to be part of the climate of the island's "south-western quarter", as the Metereological Department calls it.

Today, however, we no longer expect the weeks-long, thunderous, torrential, showers that characterise the South West Monsoon, to arrive on time every year. Rather, delays are the norm and failures, even, of the Monsoon are getting more and more frequent. And so too with the inter-monsoonal rains.

While the Met. experts remain guarded over the causes of climatic change, the environmentalists are less inhibited. For years they warned against it and now, they categorically blame the incessant de-forestation of the country and the un-regulated urbanisation as two major causes of the emasculation of the country's rainfall capacity.

As our de-forestation continues apace, as tree-less cities swallow up the low-lying wetlands, as 'development' madly rushes on, our once-tropical homeland, with its dense flora and ubiquitous fauna, is heading towards the desertification that afflicts many parts of the continent across the Palk Straits.

While the most immediate repercussion may seem the lack of hydrel energy, the long term challenge is to reverse or revise our current model of 'development'. And we do not need to look elsewhere for ideas.

The cool waters of our vast ancient irrigation system holds out the same promise it did to our ancestors: a sustained prosperity comes only to those communities that include the ecology in their economy. One lesson we must learn, and learn soon, is that just as much as the lack of rain is bad for the economy, the lack of ecology-oriented economics is bad for the rains.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager