Until the 1960s the Sri Lankan economy depended heavily on the export oriented plantation crops of tea, rubber and coconut. But the adoption of open economic policies in late 1970s and the trade liberalization programme stated in the late 80s, lead the country more towards industrialization. By 1998, the services sector contributed 53% to the GDP, while agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector provided 21%. The country is divided to nine provinces and 25 districts for administrative purposes, while the
Population and Development Trends:
Source:
UNDP Human Development Report,
2007/2008
Key National Environmental Issues
Land
degradation
Land degradation is one of the most critical problems affecting the economic development of Sri Lanka . The high demand for the limited land resources has set up pressures on the islands land resources and these in turn have resulted in a high level of environmental degradation. The more important manifestations are heavy soil losses, high sediment yields, decline the soil fertility and reduction of crop yields, marginalization of agricultural lands, salinization, landslides and deforestation, and forest degradation. It had been estimated that nearly one third of the land in Sri Lanka is subjected to soil erosion, the erodible proportion ranging from less than 10% in some districts to over 50% in others. Severe erosion takes place in the hill country on sloping lands under cash crops like potatoes, tobacco, vegetables, poorly managed seedling tea and chena cultivation.
Waste
disposal
Management of solid and liquid waste are critical issues particularly in urban areas and around industrial sites. The daily collection of waste is about 2,500 tons of which the Western Province accounts for 57%. A large quantity of hazardous and non-hazardous waste is generated at industrial and hospital sites. It is estimated that waste generation would continue to increase at a rate of 1.2%. The present method of solid waste disposal is open dumping in low-lying lands. The per capita waste generation of municipal councils is 0.65 - 0.85 kg/day whereas pradeshiya sabhas is 0.20 - 0.45 kg/day. The per capita waste generation of urban councils is 0.45 - 0.65 kg/day.
Pollution
of inland waters
Sri Lanka 's mean annual rainfall ranges between 900 mm to 6000 mm, with an island wide average about 1900 mm, which is about two and a half times more than the world annual mean of 750 mm. The surface waters carried radially from the central hills through 103 distinct river basins covering 90% of the island. Sri Lanka 's inland waters include man-made lakes and ponds and marshes, constituting one of the highest densities in the world. The area under water bodies is 2905 km 2 or 4.43% of the total land area.
The major intentional (direct) causes for inland water pollution are agriculture, urbanization and industrialization that change land use patterns. Excessive use of agrochemicals, release of industrial effluents, domestic waste and sewage and dumping of solid waste into waterways are the unintentional (indirect) causes.
Loss
of biodiversity
Sri Lanka has the highest biodiversity per unit area of land among the Asian countries in terms of flowering plants all vertebrate groups, except of birds. The major threats to biodiversity are ever-increasing demand for land to cater for increasing population, poor land use planning, indiscriminate exploitation of biological resources, weak enforcement of legislation and the absence of an integrated conservation management approach.
Depletion of coastal and marine resources
Being an island country, Sri Lanka is endowed with a coastline of 1585 km. The coastal region includes terrestrial ecosystem, mangroves, lagoons and estuaries, shoreline ecosystem, coral reefs, etc. Coastal erosion has been a severe problem over the years especially in the south, west and northwestern coast. At certain locations, net erosion has been recorded up to 1 m per year. On the other hand, accretion rate have not exceeded 0.1 m per year, except in the north and east where the rate is 0.3 m per year. The average net mean rate of erosion for the entire country is varies from 0.2 to 0.35 m per year. The major causes for depletion of island's coastal resources are concentration of population in coastal areas, prawn farming practices and collection of non edible aquarium species.
Chronology
of Major Events leading to Environment Protection & Sustainable
Development, during the last two decades. |
1981 |
Establishment of the Central
Environment Authority in 1981, under the National Environment
Act of 1980 |
1982 |
Initiation of the development
of the National Conservation Strategy |
1988 |
The National Conservation Strategy
was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers |
1990 |
A separate cabinet ministry
was created for the subject of environment |
1991 |
An Environmental
Action Plan was prepared with assistance from the World
Bank. 1992: The 1 st National Environment Action Plan (NEAP)
was prepared by combining the NCS and EAP, which laid
out the agenda for environmental activities in the country
for the period 1992-1996.
|
1995 |
2 nd National Environmental
Action Plan (NEAP) was prepared for the period of 1995
- 1998 |
1998 |
3 rd
National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP 1998 - 2001)
was prepared |
2003 |
Caring
For The Environment 2003 - 2007, Path to Sustainable Development, the successor
of NEAP 1998 - 2001 was published |
2003 |
National Environmental Policy
was published |
Key Legislations
• National Environment
Act, 1980 ,
amended in 1988 and 2000: provisions for initiating pollution
prevention measures and Environment Impact Assessments.
• Soil
Conservation Act, 1951, amended in 1953, 1981 and 1996 :
provisions for control and mitigation of soil erosion, protection
of soils from floods and designating, regulating and protecting
erosion prone areas.
• Flora and Fauna
Protection Ordinance, 1907, amended 1966, 1979, 1982 and 1988:
provisions for protection of flora and wildlife.
• Water
Resources Act, 1994: provisions
for integrated planning and conservation of water resources.
• Coast
Conservation Act, 1981, amended in 1988 and 1997 :
provisions for conservation activities within the coastal zone.
• Marine
Pollution Prevention Act, 1981
• Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
Act, 1996
• Mines and Mineral Act, 1992
• National
Heritage and wilderness Act, 1988
• Forest Ordinance,
1945, amended in 1966 and 1988
• Plant Protection
Act, 1999
• Customs Ordinance, 1869
• Poisons,
Opium and Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, 1929
• Town
and Country Planning Ordinance, 1946
• Water Resource
Board Act, 1964
• Industrial Development Act,
1969
• National Water supply and
Drainage Board Law, 1974
• Maritime Zone Law, 1976
• The Constitution
(Article 27) , 1978: Assigns
the Government the broad responsibilities to "protect, preserve
and improve the environment for the benefit of the community."
• Control
of Pesticides Act, 1980
