First ever SEA in North

Chamikara Weerasinghe

As the Government has stepped up action to develop the Northern Province, the Central Environment Authority (CEA) has carried out the country’s first ever Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the Northern Province that will help identify suitable areas for proposed development programs in the province.

Central Environment Authority Chairman Charitha Herath said the SEA was carried out with the help of Disaster Management, Nation Building and Estate Infrastructure Development Ministries.

The United Nations Development Program has funded the study. The Central Environment Authority has also carried out SEAs for Trincomalee and Hambantota Development Plans coming under the Uthuru Vasanthaya program.

A CEA official said SEAs will serve as ‘opportunity maps’ to implement development projects as the play a significant role in enhancing the integration of environmental concerns in the policy and planning process.

It will prevent any chance of being dragged into haphazard development as the study will describe sensitive environmental features of the region, such as the placement of mangroves, marshes, mineral stocks, archaeological and cultural monuments, catchment areas and forestlands. Besides , the development of a Risk Reduction Plan will identify disaster prone areas which need mitigation before starting a project, sources said.

As a part of the assessment, several targeted studies will be conducted with a view to provide solutions to immediate needs in the North, such as provision of sand and building material for construction work, optimum use of marine and coastal resources, solid and liquid waste management, he said.

The Daily News learns that the Forest and Wildlife Departments are already in the process of identifying forest and wildlife areas in the North while Geological Surveys and Mines Bureau is surveying for mineral resources and groundwater availability in the region.

CEA Chairman Herath said they have distributed data and maps concerning the SEA to the Board of Investment, Fisheries Ministry, Urban Development Authority and other institutions, to be desseminated among the planners.