Sri Lanka It's Happening

December 16, 2004

At a recent ceremony the president pledged to make colombo a garden city. A garden city is what Colombo once was and will never be again. President's latest comments can be intepreted as the tolling of the bells for the last of the trees that line Colombos tree.

The president of Sri Lanka usually does the opposite of what she says and says the opposite of what she does, after all she came to power ten years ago promising to abolish the executive presidency.

During those 10 years, the Bellanwilla Marshes, an important area for birds just south of the city limits were filled up and bird nests were replaced with concrete houses (that get flooded easily).

It was the current president who set out to build a presidential palace near Jayawardanapura, another important area for bird. After large parts of the santurary were filled up the project ran out of funds. All that remains now are empty wastelands where once use to be a wetland and thousands of birds.

The other half of the marsh was handed over to another developer to build a golf course. Couple of inches of rain and the golf course (under construction) get's submerged. What do you expect it's build in marsh after all. After the rains, the earth movers come out to make the canals that sorround the golf course a bit deeper and doing good job of killing off the fish that have survived this heavy onslaught.

All that pales into comparision with the governments relentless march towards coal power. How long will the concrete jungle survive against acid rain?

Posted by raditha at December 16, 2004 2:23 PM