The first meeting of the KITAKYUSHU initiative
network.
On 20-21 November 2001
ENVIRONMENT-RELATED STUDY IN
SRI LANKA (COLOMBO)
The paper presented by:
Engineer Jayantha A. Guruge
(M.Sc. Eng.(Moscow) M.Sc.(Eng.) Birmingham, MIE (Sri Lanka), Chartered Engineer.
Colombo Municipal Council
Sri Lanka
ENVIRONMENT-RELATED STUDY IN
SRI LANKA (COLOMBO)
Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean off the southern Indian Coast with a total land area of about 66,000 Sq.Km.. The estimated population of the country in 1999 was about 18 million, with the population density 278 person per Sq.Km.. Nearly 7-% o the people live in rural areas and are engaged in agriculture activities. Being a tropical island, the mean temperature remains high (27 C) with minimal variation month of the years. The major proportion of annual rainfall is received during the south-west (June-August) and north-east (November-January) monsoons. Based on the annual rainfall distribution patters, the country is divided into three agro-ecological zones, namely, wet, dry and intermediate. The wet zone receives more than 2500 mm rain per annum, mainly during the south west monsoon, and the dry zone which occupies more than 70 percent of the land area, receives less than 1500 mm rain annually, mostly through the unpredictable north east monsoon.
Approximately 51 percent of the 18 million population are males and 49 percent are females. Demographic indicator has shown improvements over the years. The crude birth rate had dropped from 36.8 (per 1000 population) in 1931-1940 to 19.1 in 1999 and crude death rate had dropped from 23.0 to 4.8 during same period. Maternal death rate and the infant mortality rate were 0.3 (per 1000 live birth) and 16 (per 1000 live birth) respectively in 1997. The life expectancy at birth, in 1999 was 72 for males and females.
As in most other developing countries, the age structure of the Sri Lankan population continued to be bottom heavy with a relative high birth rate and low death rate for the last several years. At present 35 percent of the population are under 14 years of age. The economically active age category (165-65 yr.) continues at 60.5 percent of the population, while 4.3 percent are in the age group of above 55 yr.. Accordingly, the child dependence, which is calculated as ration of child population (0-15) to economically active population, continue to remain at 61 percent, and the demographic dependency ration remained unchanged at 72 percent with increase of the population.
Although Sri Lanka in one of the poorest countries in the world with an average per capita income of US $ 826 (1998) and ranked 24th from the bottom of the poorest countries. In Sri Lankan agriculture economy, peasant sector employees more than 80% of rural population. Paddy is the preferred crop,(857,000 ha.) where farmers cultivate paddy lands is less than 2 ha. extent.
Plantation crops are cultivated in large holdings and produced primarily for exports. The extent of the land under tea, rubber and coconut as at 1996 was 219,000ha, 180,000ha and 1,028,562ha respectively. Although the total production and exports not decreased considerably in recent years, the share of export earning from plantations crops in the total export earnings has been reducing gradually.
COLOMBO- THE CAPITAL
The city of Colombo is the commercial capital of Sri Lanka having predominantly agriculture economy which has extended towards industrialization, in the recent past, in the Western Province where the city of Colombo is located. The economy is very much dependant on the import and export activities and the harbor in Colombo is the main seaport of the country. The development and the expansion of the city in the past and present can be liked to the port related activities.
The city of Colombo is governed by a Municipal Council which is the premier local authority in the island and is the oldest in the island. It is also one of the oldest in south Asia. The extent of the municipality is 3731 ha. and the resident population is around 700,000 according to the recent national census. The capital of Sri-Lanka is now reaching over one million inhabitants together with the 700,000 residents and 500,000 floating population. There are about 42000 slums and shanties within the City limits of Colombo. It is estimated that 52% of the city population, are living in these slum and shanty areas which are known as “Gardens”. Prioritizing problems of these gardens are lacking of main human basic needs of food, shelter, clean water and health facilities. The impact on these families is catastrophic, and is trapping them in a vicious circle of poverty and ill health. Few percentages of people fall into this category, because of the war situation in the northern part of the country.
A principal objective of the environmental Management Strategy is to guide plans and policies to allow for the sustainable development of the Colombo Urban Area (CUA). Sustainable development is a concept widely discussed today and has many different shades of meaning. It is important for this study to define what sustainability man mean in an urban area, examine why it is desirable, and define what specific implications the concept has for the Colombo Environmental Management Strategy (EMS).
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN COLOMBO URBAN AREA.
THE MEANING OF SUSTAINABILITY
Historically, one of the principal tasks of governments has been to provide for the health and welfare of citizens. In the modern era, this task has become equated with a concept of growth and development has required the increasing use of natural resources. The lack of resources was seen as the only real impediment to sustained growth. In recent years, as world populations swelled and the consumption of resources grew astronomically, the secondary effects of resource use, such as pollution, have come to be seen as limits in themselves. The use of coal and oil has literally fuelled a global social revolution. The continuing availability and distribution of these resources has dominated world politics for most of this century. However, the effects of burning fossil fuels, such as smog and acid rain, are now seen as perhaps grater limiting factors then supply and distribution. Similarly, limits to the use of other resources, such as wood, are beginning to be seen not just in the availability of forests to harvest, but in effects once considered secondary, such as soil loss. Clearly, if the environment in which development occurs is degraded or damaged, people ultimately do not achieve any net gain. The meaning of sustainability, therefore, must now include the maintenance of a health environment. In addition, in a shrinking world, ‘environment’ also means the global environment.
Until very recently, the global environmental effects of the development process, such as ozone depletion and climate change were virtually ignored. However, in the past half century or so environmental problems that crossed national boundaries were observed. Damaging acid rain in Scandinavia was traced to smokestack emissions in Britain. Ironically, this was caused by attempts to reduce local pollution in Britain’s industrial regions by raising heights. This was a vivid demonstration of the fact that environmental effects do not respect political boundaries. Air pollution has a direct effect on the health of the people exposed to it in Colombo. But there is also a regional and global effects. The global effects may not be immediately experienced by Colombo residents, but they are measurable and ultimately may also be felt at the local level through such phenomena as sea level rise and climate change. Many similar examples can now be seen throughout the world. It is the growing realization of the inter-conceitedness of development and environmental processes worldwide that is a driving force in the evolution of a sustainable development ethic.
GOALS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Although axiomatic in ecology, inter-conceitedness seemed an abstract idea until the world began experiencing the effects of widespread pollution, climate change and other global phenomena. With tangible problems to deal with, attitudes are changing – it has now been recognized in world forums, by most state governments and in a growing body of international agreements and treaties, that all people have a common interest in protecting the global environment and that this means specific actions and responsibilities on the part of individual countries. The concept of sustainable development has been one of the responses to the global environmental deterioration. The goal of sustainability is to allow human communities to grow and thrive without causing irreversible harm to ecological processes. Implicit in the idea of sustainability is the idea that actions may have to be taken by governments for the benefit of others beyond their jurisdiction and there is a growing recognition that what is good environmental policy for the world is usually also good for individual nations. Sri Lanka has been in among the leaders in developing countries with its National environmental Policy, and other actions to protect both the local and world environment. Both local and global considerations will also be a part of the EMS. However, while the goal of sustainability may be simply stated, no modern human community has yet attained such a goal, or indeed, knows exactly what it implies. It is the task of this study to charge a course towards the goal and explore what is reasonable for a city such as Colombo to attain with the given time frame.
ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN COLOMBO URBAN AREA
From an ecological perspective, ‘sustainability’ implies that the on-going processes that sustain life must continue to function within a developed area. Within a city, this may sound lime a contradiction in terms since cities have historically been seen as the opposite of a natural environment. But however built-up a city may became, ecological processes continue to operate. Without them cities would be unlivable. Indeed, the extent to which they function may be considered a measure of a city’s livability. Natural processes operate in Colombo. The abundant rainfall within the region (together with the attendant dry periods), is a part of the hydrological cycle, as are the canals and rivers, the paddy fields, the drainage systems, groundwater, soil moisture, evaporation and evapotranspiration. A sewer system may be an engineering artifact, but it also is a part of the hydrological cycle even if, biologically, it is much degraded compared to the streams it replaced. Many other natural processes are also represented in the city. To develop a strategy of sustainability, these processes must first be identified and understood, and most importantly, the extent to which processes have been removed, manipulated or disturbed must be clearly documented.