Science, Politics & Manipulations Of Water Pollution In Jaffna

By Murali Vallipuranathan -April 27, 2015

Dr. Murali Vallipuranathan

“The wars of the next century will be fought over water” – Ismail Serageldin, World Bank Vice President in 1995(1)

Water shortage has become an escalating problem globally because of the increasing demands from agriculture, expanding population, energy production and climate change (2). It was estimated that in 2007 around 1.2 billion people, or almost one in five people on the planet lived in areas of water scarcity (3). It is further predicted that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population would live under water stress conditions (4). This year United Nations declared the theme of “Water and Sustainable Development” for the World Water Day held on 22^nd March 2015 (5). Sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (6) and the selected theme of the UN emphasize creating awareness on water conservation and minimizing water pollution to ensure habitable planet for the future generations.

In developing countries, 70 percent of the industrial wastes are dumped untreated into waters, polluting the usable water supply (7). Joint ventures by global corporations such as Panasonic, Pepsi and Nestle were among 33 multinational companies that the Chinese government has blacklisted for causing water pollution (8). It is no secret that the multinational companies prefer to expand their ventures in developing countries because unlike developed world developing countries do not have strict regulations restricting industry and agricultural operations from pouring pollutants into lakes, streams, rivers and other water resources (7). It was reported that some multinational companies have paid bribes to government officials in order to get around obstacles erected against profitable operations of their enterprises (9). It is in this backdrop we have to view the water pollution issues in SrI Lanka.

Two major water pollution incidents caused by industry led to civil unrest and mass protests in Sri Lanka (10). First major protest was reported at Gampaha District in 2013 against the rubber glove factory of Dipped Products PLC belongs to the Heyleys Group located at Rathupaswala ended up in three people sacrificing their lives (11) (12). No State testing institution expressly held the private company responsible for Rathupaswala’s low water quality and state institutions may have been prevented by political influence from holding the company responsible (13). Though government agreed to pay compensation (14) opposition moved a motion in the parliament alleging that there was no freedom for the government agencies responsible for the protection of environment to perform their duties (15). Finally the company involved got off scot free without paying any penalty or compensation to the affected people.

Read More