Opinion

Listen to heart-cry of the ocean - EDITORIAL

21 Sep 2015 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

hose were the days when people could peacefully sit on Sri Lanka’s golden beaches and sing with the well-known Nina and Fredrick the beautiful song, “Listen to the ocean, echoes of a million seashells; forever it’s in motion, moving to a rhythmic, unwritten music that plays eternally.”
Over the past few decades a selfish and greedy world has virtually destroyed this beauty and harmony. Last Saturday was the International Coastal Clean-up Day. To mark this, President Maithripala Sirisena and Megapolis and Western Province Development Minister Champika Ranawaka participated in a coastal cleanup campaign at the Galle Face. According to the Marine Environment Protection Authority, 24 per cent of Sri Lanka’s total land area is considered coastal habitat.

Around 4.6 million people of Sri Lanka’s population live along the country’s coastal belt which is around 1,700 square kilometers. Due to selfishness and greed, negligence or ignorance, the country’s coastal belt is at the risk of being destroyed. Experts say, that it takes a staggering 450 years for a plastic bottle to decompose while it takes a million years for a glass bottle to degrade. The national programme, under the theme ‘a super beach for Sri Lanka’ will create awareness among the people on protecting Sri Lanka’s beaches. In line with the main programme, the coastal belt of the Western Province including the Mattakkuliya, Crows Island, Mount Lavinia, Panadura and Kalutara beaches were cleaned up. The objective of the programme is to make people aware of the urgent need to curb and gradually stop ocean pollution which has reached catastrophic proportions with sea levels rising due to higher temperatures and thousands of rare species of marine life being destroyed.
Though a Sri Lankan estimate of beach or ocean pollution has probably not been made, an international group has done so. The facts and figures are staggering. Ocean Conservancy’s Chief Andreas Merkl has said in a report that through the 2014 international coastal cleanup more than 560,000 volunteers in 91 countries around the world removed more than 16 million pounds of trash along 13,000 miles of beaches and
inland waterways.

According to this movement the main items collected on the beaches are 2,248,065 Cigarette Butts, 1,376,133 food wrappers 988,965 plastic beverage bottles, 811,871 bottle caps, 489,968 plastic bags, 485,204 grocery bags, 396,121 beverage bottles (glass), 382,608 beverage cans, 376,479 plastic cups and plates. Scandalous and shameful. What is happening in all those countries is happening in Sri Lanka also. While the Tourist Board and security authorities need to take preventive action, the people themselves should realise what harm we are doing to the precious beaches and oceans by negligence if not carefree recklessness. Even though we may have Yahapalanaya government we cannot and should not expect government officials to do everything because often they do not. What is more important is for the sovereign people of this country to become aware of the growing crisis and see the need to carry out their duties and responsibilities.
Our golden beaches and oceans with thousands of varieties of marine life still surviving are a precious treasures but they are not endless. Let us listen to the heart cry or swansong of the ocean and act fast to save it and thereby save ourselves.

Opinion

Listen to heart-cry of the ocean - EDITORIAL

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