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Environmental problems could be solved with the active participation of local government institutions, especially the problem of garbage disposal, Deputy Foreign Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala said on Tuesday.

He was delivering the keynote address at the International Seminar on Regional Partnership for Integrated Capacity Building for Multilateral Environmental Agreements in South Asia held at Kandalama.

This seminar was sponsored by the United Nations University in Tokyo in association with the Centre for Environmental Studies at the University of Peradeniya. The Chairman of the workshop was Prof. C. Maddumabandara.

The Deputy Minister said: "It is indeed a pleasure to be present at the inauguration of this seminar devoted to the purpose of discussing the issues related to capacity building for Environmental Agreements in South and West Asia.

I see a very vital regional dimension in the workshop, and it stimulates me to think on those lines as I have just returned from Shindao, China where the Asia Cooperation Dialogue - another regional grouping of Asian nations - was held with the participation of Foreign Ministers of 22 countries.

I mentioned this in order to show the extent to which the different countries, in the context of globalisation, have been compelled to take regional initiatives as globalisation has both promise and peril. The negative aspect of this process needs to be averted and positive opportunities have to be developed.

The rural areas have suffered as a result of globalisation and the impact of this process was seen in the recent political changes in certain countries of our part of the world. The gap between the developed and the developing countries has widened at the global level, and we also should not allow the rural-urban gap within our countries to widen further.

I mentioned this at the very start of my observations largely because of the fact that our Government - which, in fact, is a unique coalition, accepts a people-centred development strategy.

Our Government is committed to peace and a negotiated settlement to the national question and hope to take all possible efforts to find a negotiated political settlement to this question which in fact has interfered with the very process of development in the country.

While looking for a political settlement through which we seek to establish stability for development, our Government would give utmost priority to meeting the basic needs of the people.

All resources will be tapped to provide the people with the facilities required to live a decent life. We need to take substantial steps to alleviate poverty. Poverty reduction strategies have to be adapted. It is in this context that I would like to devote my attention to the environmental factor, which decades ago, was not considered a resource for development.

There were public policies and agreements in the past to protect and to preserve the environment. These multilateral agreements are now looking at the issues related to development, particularly the management of sustainable development which, all of us agree, cannot be achieved without recognising the importance of environmental management.

In Sri Lanka, though we are a poor country with a powerful human resources base, we have taken steps to establish an institutional base for the management of environment; some of the institutions came into existence long before the 1972 Stockholm Declaration on the need to preserve the World Environment.

In our legislative history, social welfarism became a key element in our public policies. In the early 30s, social welfare legislation came to be introduced and they had an environmental element as a necessary component of development.

With the introduction of a sustainable development strategy, the environment related legislation came to be enacted and there are more than 100 such pieces of legislations which had an indirect relationship to both the protection and management of environmental issues.

Though such legislations existed, there was no organised and concerted attempt to protect the environment, recognising it as an economic resource.

Some of the pieces of legislation aimed only at the prevention of the unlawful and unwanted exploitation of those resources whose existence was vital to the preservation of a healthy environment which, in itself, was an important resource.

Since the concept of environment had a narrow focus in those days, no much attention was paid to its utilisation for economic development.

In my view in the early period specially during the colonial period and thereafter the respective Governments due to lack of information and knowledge, began to look at the environmental issues only from a protection angle. It was not treated as an aspect of natural resource management.

In the late 70s, Sri Lanka recognised the need to protect the environment as an integral aspect of the development process, and degradation of environment was treated as a major factor impeding development.

This resulted in a major shift in the area of public policy an all governments thereafter, took legislative and public policy measures to protect the environment treating it as a resource for development.

In other words, its relevance for development came to be recognised. The enactment of the Central Environmental Authority Act. No. 47 of 1980 could be considered a landmark as it, for the first time, focused on the needs to have some central control over environmental issues.

As I mentioned previously, the environmental issues and questions came to be looked at from the point of view of their harmful aspects.

With the establishment of a major agency for protection and management of the environment as a resource for development, the whole emphasis underwent a transformation and thereafter the Central Environmental Agency was made responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and strategies for the protection and management of the environment in Sri Lanka.

One must not forget the fact that our legislators through a number of ordinances had paid some attention to the protection of environment purely from a regularity angle.

This was in line with the philosophy of administration which was enforced during the period. With the establishment of Ministry of Environment, the whole emphasis underwent a further change and it showed importance of the subject and the need to manage it properly for development.

With the formulation of a national environmental policy, the environmental issues came to be addressed under the following headings:

1. Land degradation

2. Loss of bio-diversity

3. Waste disposal problem

4. Water pollution

5. Depletion of coastal resources

The questions need to be asked whether these issues have been properly addressed with a view to protecting the environment and managing it for development. There are various institutions engaged in the task and they are as follows:

1. Department of Wildlife Conservation

2. Department of Forest Conservation

3. Central Environmental Authority

4. Urban Development Authority

5. Coastal Conservation Development

6. Marine Pollution Development Authority

In addition, there are all types of Committees and NGOs engaged in different tasks relating to the protection of environment. With such a plethora of Institutions, Organisations and Committees, have we succeeded in preventing the degradation of our environment? This is the question which, I as a non-specialist of the subject would like to pose before this distinguished audience.

Instead of pontificating on intellectual and philosophy issues relating to the protection and management of environment, I would like to refer to some home truths relating to one or two issues on which both popular participation and popular education is necessary.

In Sri Lanka, just at this juncture, there is the problem of disposal of waste, primarily the disposal of household garbage. One should think that this is only an urban problem. It has now become a rural problem though its magnitude is less. It does not mean that other issues are of less importance.

The problem of disposal of waste could be categorised into two; firstly, the disposal of garbage and the disposal of industrial waste. Both these issues need attention in the current context in Sri Lanka. In my view the disposal of garbage has become a major problem and a health hazard.

Whenever, you pass a street or some place where there is a cluster of houses what is prominently seen is that the way-side of a road has become the dumping ground for garbage. I blame the local government institutions for this menace.

In my view all local government institutions have failed to function effectively in Sri Lanka. With the enactment of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution I noticed a deterioration in the work of the local government institutions and the other factor contributing to this decline was the present electoral system under which the elected representative is not made directly accountable.

In the spheres of local government institutions the early institutions were called Sanitary Board, Town Sanity Board and Rural District Councils which, in the initial phase of their evolution into system, were only concerned with matters involving the sanitation of the People.

Therefore in my view, environmental problems could be solved with the active participation of the local government institutions, specially the problem of disposal of garbage which has now become major problem affecting the health of the people.

In the past three decades several industries have developed in the country, they range from a large industries to small and medium industries.

The SMI structure is now expanding and industrial waste therefore is yet another problem. People through civic organization take action against attempts to dispose industrial waste without proper care but popular participation in that action is still not enough.

What needs to be encouraged, is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). With the advancement of this concept specially the small and medium size enterprises become more socially and environmentally responsible.

It is likely that some small and medium size enterprises may think that Corporate Social Responsibility concept is expensive to implement and could only be afforded by large companies. A company's image depend on long term environmental practices.

In certain countries environmental non-government organizations have often complained of "green-washing" where companies effectively buy environmental credibility while continuing unsuitable business practices.

Therefore, in my view such small companies should have self monitor systems rather than report to a regularity board. In other words, what I am trying to say is that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is good for business; it is not a threat to business and both are compatible.

In Hong Kong there is what is called the Business Environmental Council, a non-Profit environmental organization that advises business on sustainable development. I think that we need a similar organization to provide advice on environmental issues to small and medium enterprises in Sri Lanka.

These are some of my own ideas which I would like to share with this audience of environmental specialists and experts. I am no expert but I am conscious of the social responsibility to protect the environment.

I am equally conscious of the fact that it needs to be managed properly to achieve development objectives. It is this Social Responsibility which needs to be encouraged and popularized and I hope that this seminar, apart from examining the multilateral agreements, would look into establish attainable goals and especially implementable ideas in this important area of environmental protection and management.

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