Entire Badulla under earth slip danger

The latest maps developed by the National Building Research Organisation on a scale of 1:10, 000 show more than 80 percent of the entire region of the Badulla District was under the risk of earth-slips, Badulla District Secretary Nimal Abesiri said today.

“It also reveals 6, 000 families and 160, 000 building constructions in the area facing the risk of earth slips,” Abesiri said.

Mr Abesiri said the volume of dynamites exploded in the district in a single year surpassed the volume of dynamites exploded during the 30 year-war.

“The magnitude of the impact of the explosion of thousands of dynamites on a range of mountain is more destructive and far exceeds the impact of the explosion on a lonely single rock,” h said.

“But no one bothered to see this from the angle of nature but all continue to extract stone, sand and earth from this area to earn money,”

“To have a more clear picture of the geology of the area we need to understand the need large 1:10, 000 scale maps. We asked such maps from the NBRO. With the help of these maps we were able to observe the nature of the rural areas more clearly,” he said.

“Our observation also reveals that we need still larger scale maps of 1:2,500 to study some areas like Rilpola and the Budulla Town with more density of population.

“We must understand that protection of mountains in Badulla is indispensable for all of us as entire Sri Lanka depends on its stability,” he said. (Palitha Ariyawansa - Badulla)