Illegal sand mining underway in Batticalao despite repeated interventions

An illegal sandmining site in Batticalao. 

Large-scale illegal sand mining continues to cause serious environmental destruction across Batticaloa, despite repeated complaints, District Coordinating Committee decisions, ministerial instructions and joint inspections, Batticalao district MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam alleged today  

Raising the issue in the Parliament, the MP said this is not a new problem. It continued under successive governments and continues under the NPP Government. “Rivers, agricultural lands and environmentally sensitive areas have already suffered from illegal and uncontrolled extraction, while the system that allows these activities to continue appears largely unchanged,”

The irony is that in Batticaloa, the Chairman of the District Coordinating Committee is himself the Minister responsible for the subject of mining, the MP charged.  Despite having responsibility for the subject and chairing the main district-level coordinating body, repeated interventions have still failed to bring the situation under lasting control.

A disturbing pattern can also be observed. As District Coordinating Committee meetings approach and scrutiny increases, sand mining activities appear to reduce. Once the meetings are over, they gradually begin again.

If illegal mining can be reduced when a District Coordinating Committee meeting is approaching, why cannot that same level of enforcement be maintained throughout the year?, the MP asked.

The Minister has directed joint inspections and greater coordination among the relevant authorities. Several decisions have been taken. Yet these interventions have not produced a permanent solution. This demonstrates that the problem goes much deeper than issuing another instruction or conducting another inspection.

Batticaloa is also still living with the environmental destruction caused by mining during the previous regime.

Those who were granted mining permits were required to rehabilitate the areas after extraction and take measures to minimise the environmental damage. In many places, this never happened.

Large areas of excavated land have simply been abandoned. These areas now pose environmental and public safety hazards, disrupt natural drainage, contribute to flooding and create other environmental problems for surrounding communities.