Sri Lanka It's Happening

January 17, 2005

Fishermen want to go back the sea. Hotel owners want to open their doors to tourists again. Ordinary people want to rebuild their houses. Unfortunately none of these people can do what they want to do because of the government insisting that no new buildings can be put up with in 300m from the coastline.

It is not clear whether this has been passed into law. It is not even clear wether this so called buffer zone is to be 300 meters or 100Meters, different ministers are saying different things. That of course is typical of this government of chaos, confusion and contradictions.

What this decree has done is to cause a severe dent in people's confidence. They are unsure whether they will be forcibly relocated if they rebuild their houses and move back in. It was reported in the papers that hotel projects worth 30 billion Rupees have been put on hold. These are new projects and not reconstruction work. Can the country afford such loses?