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| Wednesday, 6 August 2003 |
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Repeated raping of Muthurajawela by Tharuka Dissanaike As if regular encroachment, illicit industries, polluted waters and an expressway path defacing its pristine marshlands were not enough, a wayward politician also had to join the fray. If everybody else is taking to exploiting the marsh, why not he? After all, as a responsible politician, he is trying to provide housing for as many as 500 families who are without a place to go. The marsh, moreover, is just lying there, vacant and empty. How can such prime real estate be left for the sole consumption of birds, lizards, crocodiles and a few poor fishermen? Muthurajawela, the vast expanse of bog and marsh that connects the mouth of the Kelani, immediately north of Colombo city to the Negombo lagoon, has been enjoying the status of a wildlife sanctuary for almost a decade. No. Sorry. Enjoying is the wrong word. Although the marsh, considering its importance for flood retention, bio-diversity and replenishing fish stocks in the Negombo lagoon, was accorded such official status by the Wildlife Department, it never really enjoyed the protection that came with such elevation. Even before the sanctuary became a Sanctuary it was encroached, decimated and used as a garbage dump. The rivers which flowed into it, especially the Ja-ela and Dandugam Oya carried in their watery depths, toxic effluent from industrial zones and factories that dot their upstream. But the vastness of the 8000 acre marsh often managed to camouflage much of the damage wrought upon it by illegal settlers, illicit dumping and polluted rivers. Birds still flocked to its grasslands and crocodiles swam through the murky Dandugam Oya. But today, a great curving path of sand cuts across it. The filled trace for the Colombo-Airport Expressway snakes through the marsh ominously. The marsh is still big enough to take this decapitation. If it stopped there. But no. Once we start exploiting a natural resource, human greed cannot set realistic limits. The stop button somehow moves beyond reach. So why not establish an oil tank farm? Why not settle homeless people in its empty grasslands? Why not put up an oil refinery? The Muthurajawela Development Plan was drawn up with national and international expertise. It specified quite strongly the limits of using the marsh. Seeing early that the Muthurajawela was located in an area vulnerable to fast paced development (i.e. close to Colombo port and airport and sandwiched between the sea and fast expanding suburbs) the government drew up a comprehensive plan that satisfied the environment-lobby and gave the development lobby also things to smile about. The main Sanctuary or protected area was a large tract of marsh and lagoon at the northern-most end of the marsh. 500 acres filled with sand dredged from the sea, was devoted to industries and economic development and this was located close to the thriving suburb of Wattala. In the buffer area between the industries and the Sanctuary, the State permitted low-impact industries like tourism. But this neat plan has now been shot through and riddled with holes. In the heart of the declared Sanctuary, hundreds of illegal settlers are busily setting up homes, under the protective wings of an infamous area politician, better known for his scuffles with law enforcement officers than his good work in office. The Wildlife Department is gnashing its teeth and threatening legal action, but neither the Police nor the Department has managed to stop the settlers from settling into the 200 acres of marsh and mangrove. With lightning speed, semi-permanent houses have come up and soon brick-and-mortar homes will replace the wood-and-thatch ones. Evicting the settlers then will be no mean task. A weekend newspaper recently exposed the proposal to build a refinery and power plant in the buffer zone of the Muthurajawela. One wonders at the cheek and impunity with which such proposals are submitted- as if the proponent was so sure that lining the pockets of a few powerful people will suffice to remove any obstructing tag from the location. Buffer Zone of Muthurajawela is it? How very quaint? Well, of course a power plant and oil refinery will really not cause any such harmful effects on the marsh..... The Central Environmental Authority has, very rightly, rejected the project. But there is always the chance of appeal and the likelihood that powerful political friends will push the deal through... And so the rape of the marsh goes on. Carefully thought out plans and legal boundaries may exist. But as long as the country's politicians have scant regard for its laws and rules, trying to save places like the Muthurajawela will only be a losing battle. Ultimately the country will be the loser. |
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