Category: News

Days after Tamil Nadu fishermen protested Sri Lanka’s efforts to build an artificial reef off Delft island, west of Jaffna peninsula, authorities defended the move “aimed at enhancing fish breeding”.

Last week, Sri Lanka’s Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, with the assistance of Navy, launched a project, dropping around 20 discarded buses into the sea off Delft, as was earlier done in other parts of the island nation, including the eastern Trincomalee district, officials said.

“Many countries, including India, have in the past created artificial reefs to facilitate fish spawning. Old train carriages were used in the US, for instance,” Cabinet Minister for Fisheries Douglas Devananda, who represents Jaffna district in parliament, told The Hindu. The move was backed by research undertaken by Sri Lanka’s National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), he said.

“By objecting to an initiative in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters, Tamil Nadu fisher leaders have only exposed themselves as parties interested in fishing illegally in the Palk Strait,” he said, referring to the long-persisting Palk Bay fisheries conflict.

Persisting problem

Scores of Tamil fishermen living in the war-affected northern and eastern districts of Sri Lanka have, for over a decade now, been protesting Tamil Nadu fishermen’s use of destructive bottom trawlers along their coast, severely impacting the marine ecosystem and their post-war livelihoods. Despite ongoing bilateral discussions and several rounds of talks between fishermen of both countries, Tamil Nadu fishermen are yet to meet northern Sri Lankan fishermen’s consistent demand that they stop bottom-trawling in their seas. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu fishermen have accused the Sri Lankan Navy of attacking and killing fishermen — allegations that the Sri Lankan side denies.

Meanwhile, members of the All Mechanised Boat Fishermen Association, held a protest in Rameswaram last week, urging Sri Lanka to stop dropping “iron scrap” into the sea, since would “affect” marine ecology in the Palk Strait, and also “damage” their own boats and nets.

In a tweet indicating Sri Lanka sees its recent initiative also as a deterrent to bottom-trawling, State Minister of Fisheries Kanchana Wijesekera said while the artificial reef would boost fish spawning, “it will also act as a shield against bottom line trawling conducted illegally by the #Indian Fishermen”.

It is not only the government that defended the move, but also Jaffna-based fisher cooperatives. “This initiative is aimed at helping our livelihoods by increasing fish production, and that is why we have welcomed it. We condemn certain sections of fisher leaders in Tamil Nadu opposing the move,” said Annalingam Annarasa, leader of the federation of fisher cooperative societies in Jaffna.

Sri Lanka among 36 countries abstained yesterday from United Nations General Assembly resolution on arms embargo on Myanmar.

The resolution was adopted with 119 countries voting in favour only one member state, Belarus voting against it.

Sri Lanka among the 36 countries with China, Russia and India abstained from the resolution.

In a rare move, the UN general assembly has condemned Myanmar’s military coup and called for an arms embargo against the country in the resolution demonstrating widespread global opposition to the junta and demanding the restoration of the country’s democratic transition, Associated Press reported.

Following yesterday’s (19) circulation of images allegedly depicting Army personnel forcing people who violated the travel restrictions to kneel and raise their hands in Eravur, the Army personnel alleged to have been involved have been removed from their duties, Sri Lanka Army said in a statement today (20).

The statement detailed that the instructions to remove said Army personnel from their duties were conducted through directives issued by the Chief of Defence Staff and Commander of the Army, General Shavendra Silva.

“An initial Military Police investigation has already commenced after certain photos went viral depicting an alleged harassment, meted out on a group of civilians in one corner of a street in the Eravur area. The Officer-in Charge was also moved out with immediate effect,” Sri Lanka Army said.

Accordingly, it was noted that upon completion of thorough investigations, the Army would adopt the strictest disciplinary action against all errant Army personnel.

A UN team of oil spill and chemical experts, provided by the European Union (EU), is working with the Sri Lankan Government to assess the impact on the environment caused by the MV X-press Pearl disaster, the UN in Sri Lanka announced.

The team from the UN, France and Italy is a collaboration between the humanitarian arm of the European Union (EU ECHO/ERCC) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) / Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Joint Environment Unit.

An independent UN report on the incident will be produced with key findings and recommendations on short-term response measures and longer-term recovery planning and submitted to the Government.

The three experts are Dr. Stephane Le Floch from the France National Oil Response and Research Centre (CEDRE) who is a specialist in oil spill response and contingency planning, Dr. Camille La Croix also from CEDRE specializing in marine litter pollution and Mr. Luigi Alcaro from the Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA, Environment Ministry) who specializes in environmental impact assessment of oil and hazardous noxious substances spills in the marine environment. The team is led by Mr. Hassan Partow from UNEPs Resilience to Disasters and Conflicts Global Support Branch (Ecosystems Division).

The team is providing technical advisory support to the Sri Lankan experts on oil spill contingency planning, clean-up operations and environmental impact assessment, drawing on international best practice and lessons learned from similar incidents. They will work closely with Sri Lankan counterparts from Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), Ministry of Environment, Central Environmental Authority (CEA), Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) and a host of other government agencies.

“The UN is coordinating international efforts and mobilizing partners to support Sri Lanka in addressing the disaster of the MV X-press Pearl, based on a request by the Government. An environmental emergency of this nature causes significant damage to the planet by the release of hazardous substances into the ecosystem, this in turn threatens lives and livelihoods of the population in the coastal areas. Our efforts are intended to support assessment of the damage, recovery efforts and ensure prevention of such disasters in the future’, UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer-Hamdy said.

“The EU’s civil protection policy is one of the very practical facets of EU solidarity. It underscores the increasing importance of a collaborative and integrated approach to disaster management. Therefore, I’m pleased to announce that the EU, in collaboration with the UN, is able to deploy environmental emergency experts to support Sri Lanka in addressing, and more importantly limiting, the impact of the MV X-press Pearl disaster,” Thorsten Bargfrede, Chargé d’affaires at the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives said.

The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) / Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Joint Environment Unit is the global mechanism for responding to environmental emergencies. Established in 1994, the UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit has been involved in responding to over 150 environmental catastrophes over the past 25 years. A significant number of these disasters have involved oil spill incidents including most recently in the Bahamas and Solomon Islands in 2019. The UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit draws on a large pool of partner institutions to deploy experts, and in the case of Sri Lanka is grateful for the generous support mobilized by the European Union.

The European Union (EU) Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) acts as a coordination hub with the 27 Member States of the EU. It was activated on request of the Sri Lankan Government to mobilize support in addressing the MV X-press Pearl incident. In addition, satellite images were provided through the European Union Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to detect potential oil spills. A donation of EUR 200,000 will also be provided by the humanitarian arm of the European Union (EU ECHO) for protective equipment used in cleaning operations and to assist fishermen who have lost their livelihoods.

The Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) urges the President to continue the current travel restrictions without interruptions.

The Association mentioned this in a letter addressed to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in response to the government’s recent decision to relax the island-wide travel restrictions for two days from June 21.

The SLMA says that it foresees that the release of the current lockdown even for a few days will lead to the uncontrolled free movement of people and thereby leading to an ‘alarming ‘ increase in transmission, with the rapid spread of the new Delta variant found among the community.

‘The epidemic will thereby escalate to an unprecedented level causing increasing numbers of cases and unacceptable mortality on a scale that would completely overwhelm the health system’, the letter read.

The eventual ease of lockdown will have to be carefully phased on a district basis, grounded on real-time data at the district level rather than in the country as a whole, SLMA stated.

SLMA says that an ‘exit strategy’, which is currently under development, will be handed over to the government during the course of this week.

Thereby, SLMA urges the government to continue with the current lockdown measures uninterrupted, during this crucial moment, as lifting the lockdown even for a few days would take the country back to the major epidemic situation that prevailed in April this year.