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Dikovita fishing industry in troubled waters
At Dikovita in Wattala the dredging of sand has severely affected the lives of fishermen in the area, and they are demanding that this be stopped.
"Stop the dredging," say fishermen whose livelihoods have been hit
The sand excavation has been going on for more than five years for the development project related to the Port City, and has continued since then.
The area’s fisherfolk this week staged a protest demanding that the government address the issue.
“As a result of the dredging activities in the Dikovita area marine life has been destroyed and how are we going to survive without fish,” said Sunil Ananda (54) who has been engaged in the fish industry for 40 years.
For the Elakanda, Hendala and Pamunuwa fisherfolk the main livelihood is the fisheries industry.
The fisherman said their nets had been damaged because of the machines used for sand mining.
“Earlier we were able to catch good fish but now there are only fish such as ‘karello.” We don’t go to the deep sea. We go for fishing in the shallow water. The excavations are mainly done in that area,” he said.
“We have not received any compensation that was promised by the government. There are more than 300 families living in the area. We used to catch many squid in months like June to August but this time the catch has dropped,” Mr Ananda.
Lal Nishshanka
Sunil Ananda
Another fisherman Vimukshi Shehan (27) said “We were provided a compensation of Rs 65,000 but it was only once. Thus the loss is much more. They have started excavating recently again. Authorities requested us to be more patient for two weeks and also the minister had promised to stop the excavation”
Hendala and Pamunugama Joint Fisheries Collective Union President Lal Nishshanka (59) said 675 acres of the sea bed had been destroyed as a result of the excavation.
“Even though they mentioned they are taking the sand from 10km, it is deeper than that. Along with this coastline erosion takes place. Earlier it took only one hour to reach Galle Face via Mattakkuliya estuary now it takes more than two and half hours. So we have to spend five hours now,” he said.
The Environment Conservation Trust Spokesman Sajeewa Chamikara said heavy sand mining related to various development projects over the years had caused havoc along the coast.
“Not only does this development project pose harm in economic terms but it also threatens the livelihood of the fishing community, the marine ecosystem and coastal belt,” he said.
The spokesman said millions of cubic metres of sand were pumped from the sea for development projects during the past few years.
The sand was used earlier for the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway development project and later for the Port City project. Now they were using it for Land reclamation and development projects, he said.
He said the major environmental impact of sand mining was coastal erosion. The restriction of sediment flow increases flooding from the sea and changes the water quality to the detriment of the aquatic fauna and habitats.
However if this continued and a proper ecosystem was not implemented it would have a direct impact on the Southwest Monsoon and later it would result in floods in the Kelani river area.
Mounds of dredged sand. Pix by Priyanka Samaraweera
“We wanted to stop the sand mining started for the Port City and we struggled a lot. But this is what happened in the end,” he said.
Land Development Corporation Chairman M.R.W. De Zoysa said the development project was initiated in 2017 and at the moment it had now been halted due to a technical issue that occurred with the contractors. After sorting out the issue the project would be started again. Also the promised adequate compensation would be provided by the end of this month, he promised.