CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt) Ltd, the Chinese company handling the Colombo Port City Project, has agreed to the dredging conditions set by the Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department (CC&CRMD).
"The company has also agreed to the other 70 conditions set out by the environmental approval document," authoritative government sources told the Daily News yesterday.
The environmental approval for the Port City has been granted by CC&CRMD under strict conditions that no dredging will be done in Site 1 of the designated
areas which came under the Supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment (SEIA).
The area which is a total of 46,000 square metres has been declared a no-go zone by the government and all dredging movements will be tracked by Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and all records would have to be made available to the CC&CRMD.
The SEIA which was published in December 2015 had indicated that there were some fishing grounds in this area and with the public outcry by NGO groups, the government had decided to consider this option. The project has now been given the environmental approval and dredging will be done from Site 2 which is 5 km away from the coastline.
The approval has been given by the CC&CRMD which is the project approving agency, after studying the Environmental Impact Assessment report of April 2011 and the Supplementary Environmental Impact Assessment report (SEIA) of 2015 and taking into consideration public comments. The conditions also stated that modern dredging methods should be applied to minimise the amount of suspended sediment released to the sensitive marine environment such as reefs, hard bottom areas located in the vicinity of the dredging site as indicated in the SEIA report, and that all precautionary measures should be taken to minimise overflow of extracted sand and other contaminant from machinery and vessels.
It said in the environmental approval given that sand dredging activities should be avoided in areas close to reef habitats, spawning areas, breeding areas and areas that are more sensitive and productive as well as sites having unique habitats, or threatened or endangered species.
According to the conditions, any additional extracted sand for reclamation should be obtained from the existing sand extraction site allocated to the Sri Lankan Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLLRDC) as proposed and identified by the Project Proponent.
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