President instructs waste containers to be shipped back

President Maithripala Sirisena has instructed the Central Environment Authority (CEA) to re-ship the consignments of waste lying at the Colombo Port and the Hayleys Free Zone (HFZ) back to its place of origin.

These instructions had been issued after the CEA had submitted a report containing findings of the containers to the President, CEA Director-General Hemantha Jayasinghe said.

However, he noted that the Customs Department has been instructed to inform the UK-based company which had exported 111 waste containers, to arrange to have them removed. These containers are currently lying at the Colombo Port.

Mr Jayasinghe pointed out that the environment authority could not intervene in this matter since the foreign company had not obtained clearance from the CEA to ship the containers at the Colombo Port.

He explained that according to the BASEL convention which has been signed by both Sri Lanka and UK, a foreign company should obtain an environment protection license from the CEA and also receive its clearance prior to shipping.

However, this had not taken place in this instance, he noted.

The CEA Director-General also said that they have written to the BASEL Secretariat informing them of this matter as well. The BASEL convention has been signed by 187 countries to control the movements of hazardous waste between countries.

(Reporting by Damith Wickramasekara)

Related story

Hayleys ordered to re-ship controversial cargo by Aug. 12

CEA, BOI to take legal action against Hayleys over import of waste : SOC Chairman