News
Little concern for sea erosion in Kandakuliya
The beaches around Kandakuliya in Kalpitiya, are being eroded by the sea. The 200-sq metre area, home to over 500 fisher families is now in danger of being swamped by the sea. The families are in a quandary as to what will become of them with the sea threatening to swallow their homes and disrupt their economy.
Plans to develop tourism in the area too have been put on hold.
What is surprising however is the apathy of state officials who show no interest in tackling the problem
Lucian D. Perera an area resident and owner of a 5 acre plot of land, said he had lost nearly an acre of land over the past three years to erosion.
He added that with the price of land rising to Rs. 100 lakhs per acre, many persons had sold their lands. He said he did not wish to sell his land as it had belonged to his family for generations. Much of the land had been sold to foreigners who wanted to develop tourism in the area he said. However these lands had now been lost to the sea.
Thirty-seven-year-old Lakshman Fernando said the damming of one side some years ago had accelerated the process of erosion. He claimed he had lost nearly 500 metres of land to sea erosion and it had cost him around Rs. 3,500 to refill part of the eroded area.
He added that if the present trend continued unchecked soon there would be no beaches, even the villages would soon disappear he said. An engineer attached to the Coast Conservation Department when contacted said the issue was being studied and cameras had been set up to collect data on sea erosion.
He said data on the problem would be available by 2013.
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