Rathupaswala aftermath

Editorial-November 23, 2013, 9:14 pm 

Four months have passed since the Weliweriya – Belummahara shooting where several people, including two schoolboys, died in what to all intents and purposes appears to have been a military over-reaction to protests against suspicions of contamination of wells in the Rathupaswala area where the Dipped Products’ rubber glove manufacturing facilities are located. The factory has remained closed for production since July 30 and an industry, painstakingly built over a long period of time is ``crumbling day by day,’’ its owners said last week. Very few people realize that the Rathupaswala plant which is now closed accounts for over one percent of the country’s export revenue. Ironically, the second largest shareholder of Dipped Products is the Employees Provident Fund with hundreds of thousands or working people in its membership. The EPF stake in the company had grown from 12.6 percent in fiscal 2012 to 13.1 percent a year later. So a lot of ordinary people, quite apart from the national economy, are paying a price for what has now been established as a misperception that the factory is responsible for the low pH value of well water in the area.

What has the Government Analyst got to say about this? ``Analysis shows that the low pH in neighborhood wells cannot be due to the factory effluent,’’ a report filed on Aug. 13 said. The Central Environment Authority was more cautious but the direction in which it pointed was unmistakable. ``It is not possible to establish that treated effluent of the factory has influence low pH in wells.’’ The Water Board has also said that ``there is no clear evidence to show that the low pH of the area is due to factory effluent.’’ So there is a strong basis to establish that Dipped Products is not the polluter and the concerned authorities have given in to agitators who, with the government’s meek acquiescence, have arrogated to themselves the power to even stop the Chairman of the owning company and it’s Managing Director of entering the factory premises! The police have said that this is necessary to maintain peace in the village and only people from an approved list, checked at the gates by a group including village nominees, can enter to carry out essential maintenance.

All this makes a mockery of Sri Lanka’s drive to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and make the country a hub of all kinds of economic activity. DPL has even offered to truck in the water used for production until an industrial water connection is obtained, and haul off water used in the process to the disposal facility of the Board of Investment at Biyagama despite the huge cost. But no, the villagers or at least a group of agitators believed to be a minority will have none of this. DPL is a company founded by the Hayleys Group nearly four decades ago to become one of the world’s leading manufacturers and distributors of protective gloves accounting for about five percent of global production. The company owns and operates seven manufacturing subsidiaries here in Sri Lanka with five of those plants located at Rathupaswala. While the villagers of the area are entitled to clean water and any factory located there cannot be permitted to pollute ground water supplies, the regulatory mechanisms including quarterly tests of factory effluents has been in force over a period of many years with no problems detected.

It is not difficult to guess why the government is not doing what it should if everything it says about taking the country forward is not hollow rhetoric. While protestors cannot be allowed to block roads stopping traffic and inconveniencing tens of thousands, nobody can countenance opening fire on unarmed civilians and killing not just protestors but innocent bystanders having the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time. A military court of inquiry has made its determination and an over-reaction has been tacitly admitted. Whether a court martial will follow is an open question. While the government must take responsibility for the shooting, it is also responsible for ensuring that the economy runs smoothly and duly regulated industries are permitted to carry on their businesses without let or hindrance. At last weeks belated news briefing by the factory owners, they were asked whether there was truth in the rumors that allergic reactions have been set off among well water users in the area with crushed kitul seeds thrown into the wells. A reporter said there was also a story that goraka, a spice used to infuse acidity in Lankan cuisine, had been introduced into the wells. The DPL owners did not confirm this but said that they too had heard these stories. Some workers in the factory, including people living in the area, have been rightly or wrongly recently dismissed for an alleged violation of a collective agreement. Nobody can say for certain that this incentivized sabotage, but that possibility cannot be ruled out.

However that be, as much as Rs. 300 million foreign exchange has been lost every month since July 30 and the losses now top a billion. The DPL chairman is on record saying that it will not be difficult for him to pull out of Rathupaswala, pack his machines into containers and ship them off to Malaysia, a significant natural rubber producer, hungry for industries like theirs and set up shop there. The buildings are available and as Mr. Mohan Pandithage said, it is only a question of getting the machinery there and plugging on. That would mean job losses here. In addition to about a thousand direct employees, there are many more dependent on the factory for their livelihoods. These include rubber growers, tappers and suppliers providing various goods and services estimated at nearly 25,000. Pandithage saying he was a nationalist indicated that this would be a last resort. Time is obviously running out and it is necessary that government intervenes without cravenly fearing political repercussions at the forthcoming Western Provincial Council elections. Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa who is the UPFA’s Gampaha district leader and the president himself must do what needs to be done. Too many wrong signals have gone out already and the losses sustained are huge. Further foot-dragging cannot be countenanced. Quick action is imperative.