Special projects / programs

Details

Presidential Environment Awards

The government of Sri Lanka is progressing towards Blue Green economic initiatives to maintain clean & green environment.In the process, participation of Industries, institutions, organizations, schools and the general public are identified as important stakeholdersto entrust the conservation & protection of the environment.

In line with this effort, The Central Environmental Authority has organized the Presidential Environment Awards Programme to reward and appreciate the individuals, institutions, organizations and industrial activities which have made unique contribution to the enhancement &maintenance of the quality of environment while sustaining their active involvement in the long run for clean and green production.

Eligible Sri Lankan citizens or institutions or organizations can forward their applications as candidates, to consider them in this Presidential Environment Awards Programme. Evaluation of industries for Presidential Environment Awards is carried out by the Environmental Pollution Control Unit.

The Project for Monitoring of the Water Quality of Major Water Bodies in Sri Lanka

This technical cooperation project is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)and commenced in the year 2015. The project was designed to carry out twenty-six major activities to strengthen enforcement capacity of CEA and its regional branch offices and water quality managementin the Kelani river basin.

The project has four major thrust areas to achieve the project purposes by ;

1)  Introducing water body categorization and preparation of ambient water quality standard according to water user classes.

2)  Strengthening water quality analysis capacity of laboratory

3) Strengthening enforcement capacity of the targeted counterpart organizations on water quality monitoring by means of improving inspection, developing pollution sources inventory (PSI), promoting Environmental Protection License (EPL)

4) Developing and efficiently using information management system of the water quality

With the lessons learnt CEA hopes to implement monitoring programmes in other major water bodies with the intention of classifying them according to the ambient water quality standards.

National Green Reporting System

National Green Reporting System is a practice of measuring, disclosing and being accountable to internal and external stakeholders for organizational performance towards the goal of sustainable development. Green Reporting is an effective communication tool for transmission of information on environment sustainability performance of industries to international and local communities. The National Green Reporting System comprises of indicators encompassing environmental, economic & social aspects and five (05) reporting Tiers / Levels for entities that are interest to be associated with the system.

As the Green reports for the evaluation are expected from all over the country from the manufacturing and service sector, the Ministry of Environment established the National Green Reporting System in 2012.

Central Environmental Authority (CEA) has been recognized as an external agency/ a third party as well as a member of the National Green Reporting Steering Committee. In the future the CEA will be able to verify and evaluate the green reports submitted by the manufacturing and service sector.

Waste water Discharge Fee System (WDF)

Like most countries, Sri Lanka has adopted a traditional command and control (CAC) approach to environmental protection and management.

Also the present wastewater discharge standards are concentration based and not in quantity of pollutants and wastewater volume. Therefore the pollution load released into the environment and the excessive use of water resources could not be controlled to maintain the ambient environmental quality along with the present CAC approach.

WDF which is on economic incentive mechanisms that encourage firms to internalize the cost of pollution and provide them an incentive to minimize the generation of wastewater and /or treat what is generated appropriately.

This approach gives the regulated community the flexibility to meet environmental criteria or standards in the most cost-effective manner and encourages them to use resources more productively. It also allows for the adoption of the polluter pays principle, which holds an industry or entity must pay for using the environment as a sink for its pollution.

The main benefits of introducing pollution charge scheme would come from improved economic efficiency through a change to a market based system from the present administrative enforcement type of system. This is a more equitable scheme for the heavy polluters paying a higher fee than a lighter polluter. This scheme would benefit both entrepreneurs as well as authorities by encouraging the entrepreneurs to adopt cleaner production technology, recycling wastewater and facilitate enforcement.

This WDF system has been developed and re structured the procedures by the CEA to apply for selected high polluting industrial categories. The proposed draft of the above regulation expected to be released sooner.

On line water quality monitoring system along Kelani river

The Kelani river is an important source of drinking water which provide 70% of drinking water needs in Metro Colombo area. According to recent surveys, there are about 78 high and medium polluting industries are located along Kelani river. Therefore, the protection of such waters use for human consumption is identified as a priority need considering the human health and existence of biodiversity.

The industrial discharges along the Kelani river, waste dumping sites and nonpoint sources such as urban runoff have become major pollution contributors. Unexpected problems and damages are caused to surrounding biodiversity and general public due to discharge of effluents and or unauthorized dumping of waste material.

Recorded pollution incidents emphasized that the monthly or random monitoring of the river could not cater or not an acceptable solution for the accidents which are directly involved with the river eco system.

With the intention of avoiding future disaster and damages to the river water quality, on line monitoring data could be used to take immediate actions by concerned authorities to prevent and control the damages. Therefore, online river water quality monitoring is identified as an essential component in protecting water bodies used for human consumption. Therefore CEA proposed to establish online water quality monitoring stations along Kelani river at 03 crucial points with public private partnership.   

As the first stage, online water quality monitoring station is installed at Ambatale water intake.  The CEA wishes to establish the same system close to Seethawake Export Processing Zone with the intention of monitoring the water quality variation in 02 different points.

Collaborative Study on “Improving Industrial Waste and Wastewater Management in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka”

The Water Environment Partnership in Asia Programme (WEPA) initiated by the Ministry of Environment Japan is aimed to promote good governance in water environment, share experience and disseminate good practices in water management. Fourteen Asian countries have been enrolled as member s for the program and is actively engaged in various environment management and pollution control programmes.

The Central Environmental Authority is the focal point of this programme since 2013. Under WEPA Action programme for 2017 , a project was conducted on improving industrial waste and wastewater management in Gampaha district which aimed to prevent ground water pollution in Sri Lanka.

Under this project, thirteen wastewater generating industries were selected in Gampaha district considering the wastewater quantity, effluent quality based on industrial activities, hazardous waste generation and also complaints received from neighborhood. Monitoring inspections were carried out in selected industries and further, discharged treated wastewater sampling were conducted and analyzed.

Ninety six water sampling sources (dug well) were selected considering location of respective industry, land use, nearby water sources, drainage pattern of the area and ground water flow and collected water samples in four intervals and nine water level and temperature data loggers were placed in selected wells to check the water level and temperature.

Considering the results of the study; actions have been taken to take a policy decision on siting of industries, take precautionary measures against pollution caused by selected industries in the study area and to continue ground water monitoring activities Island wide.