June 5 World Environment Day:

Lanka unites to combat climate change

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

Environment and Natural Resources Minister Champika Ranawaka, Power and Energy Minister W.D.J. Seneviratna and Ports Irrigation and Water Management Minister Chamal Rajapaksa, led national festivities of the 2009 International World Environment Day celebrations, opening Soba 2009 environmental exhibition at the Vihara Maha Devi Park, Colombo yesterday.

Minister Ranawaka announced last week that the World Environment Day on June 5, 2009, will be commemorated as a national event under the theme 'Your Planet Needs You - Unite To Combat Climate Change', which is the global theme chosen for 2009 World Environment Day by the UN Environment Program (UNEP).

The national celebrations of World Environment Day(WED)will be held at the Vihara Maha Devi Park today at 10 a.m. with the participation of Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka.

Soba 2009 will be held on June 4, 5 and 6.

World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP. It is hosted every year by a different city and commemorated with an international exposition throughout the week for June 5.

Minister Ranawaka addressing students at a seminar at the Colombo Mahaweli Centre to mark World Environment Day, said not getting seasonal North Eastern monsoon rains, and getting hit by out-of-season rains, excessive rains and droughts were the results of climate change.

He said the country has lost 15 percent of its paddy harvest due to excessive rains in 2008 and farmers of Mahaweli Zone are facing difficulties to farm this year as there is not enough water to irrigate their fields.

Climate change has caused some plants and animals to die while paving the way for plant species such as handapana and lantana to grow in place of them, he explained.

Global warming is also responsible for the mosquito menace and dengue that has already caused 90 deaths. Burning of fuel by humans has damaged the planet with increased Green House Effects that have given vent to natural disasters, such as melting of ice caps ,droughts, floods and tidal waves, Ranawaka explained.

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Mosquito eradication to mark Environmental Day

The Environment and Natural Resources Ministry will launch a mosquito eradication campaign to coincide with World Environment Day. All government establishments and schools as well as housing schemes will be cleaned on all Saturdays (June 06, 13, 20 and 27) to prevent mosquito breeding, a ministry release said yesterday.