National Environmental Levy bill, Adaptation Fund and politics!

Hemantha Withanage Executive Director, Centre for Environmental Justice

Alas! Global climate politics is finally at home.The much controversial Environmental Conservation levy bill just passed without a debate in Sri Lanka Parliament. According to Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka the Bill is based on the polluter pays principle. While the tax itself not justified in the Bill, the question remains why the levy charged for electronic items, phone bills and electricity bills for the climate adaptation Fund. (Full Story)

Say no to Colombo garbage!

The saga of unending recyclomania and more stinking city garbage dumps

By Hemantha Withanage

At last, polythene products thinner than 20 microns are to be banned. But manufacturers started producing 21 microns polythene sheets and bags adding more volumes of plastic to the environment. What can we do now?

I don’t claim Colombo is the most polluted city in Asia. But, while many cities are becoming more environmentally friendly Colombo is moving in the other direction. Sri Lankan city limits are marked with stinking garbage dumps. Without sign boards anyone can know one is entering the city.

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Sethusamudram project: Who looks after Sri Lanka's interests?

Hemantha Withanage

Executive Director, Environmental Scientist, Centre for Environmental Justice

The Construction of Sethusamudram, Ship Canal by the Indian government has become a controversial issue among the environmental groups in India and Sri Lanka. Unfortunately the Sri Lankan Government's position has not been made clear to the public yet. It was reported that the Indian government has suggested to the Sri Lankan Government that this canal could be used as a barrier to the terrorist movements. That could be a reason for the silence of the Sri Lankan Government.

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GM Food labeling assures freedom of choice

Hemantha Withanage

A ll food items that contain Genetically Modified ingredients will carry a prominent sticker in near future informing that the product contains GM materials, giving the consumer the freedom of choice. This is a requirement under the regulations made by the Minister of Healthcare and Nutrition under section 32 of the Food Act No. 26 of 1980 published in Gazette Extra-ordinary 1456/22 dated 2006 August 03 . Defaulters of this law will have to face a six-month jail term or a Rs. 10,000 fine or both. These regulations shall come into operation on 1st January 2007.

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Tropical Forest Conservation Act and Ecological debt

Appeared in The Island, Colombo http://www.island.lk October 01, 2003

By Hemantha Withanage
Environmental Scientist

The Sri Lankan government is planning to sign an agreement, under the US Tropical Forestry Conservation act, to bind Sri Lanka's forests for external debt, soon. Under this arrangement those forests will in future be managed by a committee comprising representatives from the US government, International NGOs other than local representatives. Would this be a question of sovereignty too?

Like any other developing country, Sri Lanka receives loans and grants from both multilateral and bilateral agencies, such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the IMF, USAID and the JBIC. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka’s foreign debt continues to increase.

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Upper Kotmale Who is Right?

By Hemantha Withanage and Charmini Kodithuwakku

Originally appeared in Dailymirror in 2002

It's indeed a shame that Sri Lanka's most acclaimed natural waterfalls in the hill country will cease to exist soon, all in the name of development. The chronology of events on Upper Kotmale Hydropower project would raise so many questions rather than provide answers. The most important question of all, is whether justice was served to protect the greater interest of the public and the future generation in our country? If the approval process was carefully studied, then it would be an insight to the vicious cycle of approving a project even if it may contain disastrous consequences to the environment and society. Sri Lankan energy policy contains disastrous consequences to the environment and society. The policy caters to promote hydropower, as the CEB vehemently believes that it is the cheapest source to generate energy.

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WHO OWNS THE RAIN?

Originally appeared in FOE Newsletter in 2001

Water Privatization in Sri Lanka

The dictionary describes water as colourless, tasteless and odourless - its most important property being its ability to dissolve other substances. We in South Africa do not see water that way. For us water is a basic human right, water is the origin of all things - the giver of life. Poet Mazisi Kunene in "Water Is Born All Peoples of the Earth". Water is a valuable resource, vital to human life. Water is owned by the commons. South African water policy states that "There shall be no ownership of water but only a right (for environmental and basic human needs) or an authorization for its use. … Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient water." Today however, in many countries, including Sri Lanka, access to clean water has become very scarce due to human attempts to control and manage this natural resource.

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Gullivers, Lilliputians and GM Food

by Hemantha Withanage

Appered in Biotechnology and Development Monitor NO48, December 2001,

In April 2001, the Sri Lanka Health Department, on the advice of its Food Advisory Committee, gazetted restrictions on the importation of genetically modified (GM) foods. Twenty-one products including a wide range of soy products (flour, textured vegetarian proteins, TVPs); corn products (flour, cereals); fresh tomatoes and processed tomato products; cheese, bakers yeast, beet sugar and microbiological cultures were mentioned.

The Sri Lankan Government annpounced that imports of food would have to be accompanied a certificate issued by an accredited laboratory confirming they did not contain GM ingredients. The Controller of Imports directed banks to warn their clients of these restrictions and to include them in letters of credit. These measures provoked immediate reaction from US government representatives and the WTO which resulted in the Sri Lankan government withdrawing the legislation.

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Sri Lankan Struggle for keeping water public

Hemantha Withanage[1]

Water is a right! Water is a ‘common resources’. No one seems to confront this. However, ‘right to water’ means that everybody gets access to ‘free access to water’ is something that people engage in a debate. This debate is endless. However, how to manage water is a question that everybody is trying to answer.

Meanwhile, International Financial institutions powered by the water corporations are moving to engage making water a commodity. Manila water is run by a private corporation. Jakarta is same. However, despite the Asian Development Bank’s and World Bank’s strong pressure to adopt ‘privatisation friendly water policy’, Sri Lankan water is still remaining in the public hand. This is so far because of the civil society struggle for keeping water public.

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ADB’s Future Strategy: Would It Really Matter to the Poor?

Hemantha Withanage[1] and Ronald Masayda[2]

NGO Forum on ADB

September 2007

Introduction

The initial implementation review of and the multi-stakeholder consultations on the Asian Development Bank’s Long Term Strategy Framework (LTSF) bear close scrutiny and watching for instructive insights on the accomplishments or failings of the Bank’s anti-poverty agenda in the first five years. It is also important to carefully monitor and observe how the results of this review exercise would affect the Bank’s poverty reduction directions, priorities and activities in the next 10 years.

The ADB says the basic premise for the LTSF review are attributable to the changing regional and global trends to wit: unprecedented high rates of growth, global capital flows into the region, the co-existence of high rates of savings along with the need for high investment rates, and significant adverse environmental implications associated with the high growth rates. The undertaking, therefore, should give pause to the Bank to assess whether its over-all prognosis of a poverty-free region by 2015 is indeed reachable and realistic.

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Keeping Poverty Alive Beyond 2020

A Personal View Eminent Persons Group Report

The recent report of the Eminent Persons Group to the ADB President entitled, “Towards a New Asian Development Bank in a New Asia,” is worth reading if only for the rosy future it paints for the peoples of Asia and the Pacific come 2020. As the Bank enters its fifth decade of existence and amid increasingly cutthroat competition from other lending institutions that threatens its “preeminence as a regional bank,” the Report prescribes new directions and approaches for the ADB. These are promoting inclusive growth; facilitating environmentally sustainable growth; and promoting regional (and global) integration.

In so doing the Bank, whose development model has created both so-called millions of beneficiaries and countless unwitting human victims and incalculable environmental harm in a number of Asia-Pacific nations, would preserve its raison d’etre; thus avoid becoming an anachronism in our rapidly-evolving and developing region.

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Four Decades of the Asian Development Bank

The Asian Development Bank had its beginnings when it held its inaugural Annual Meeting in November 1966 in Tokyo. Its next Annual Meeting was then held in Manila in April 1968. In 1966, the Bank was owned by 40 regional and 16 non-regional member countries. Currently, it is owned by 48 regional and 19 non-regional ones. Its authorized capital stock of US$1.1 billion increased to US$48 billion in 1999 then to US$50 billion in 2006. Moreover, the annual budget is US$42 million in 1966 which increased to US$7.97 billion on 2007.

From its founding up to 31 December 2005, the ADB has approved US$84.6 billion of Ordinary Capital Resources (OCR) loans. In 2005 alone, it approved loans from OCR totaling US$4.4 billion (US$4.0 billion in 2004), which included US$536 million (US$293 million in 2004) for private sector borrowers. On the other hand, outstanding loans from the Asian Development Fund (ADF), which is the largest Special Fund, amounted to US$20.2 billion as of 31 December 2005.

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Aren’t they loud enough?

Hemantha Withanage
Executive Director, NGO Forum on ADB

Around four thousand people rally against the Asian Development Bank during its 39th Annual Meeting held in Hyderabad in May 2006. They uttered “We can survive without ADB.”

Most people join the rally was for safeguarding safeguards. The civil society demanded “No to Displacement,” “Respect indigenous rights,” “Stop destructive development,” “ADB Quit India,” “ADB Out of Water and Power,” “Make ADB accountable to the People,” “Our lives and resources are more important to us than your dams. Stop taking them away from us,” “Better off without the ADB,” “ADB- compensates KJDRP affected people in Bangladesh,” “Junk ADB to stop degradation and metabolism of nature and society,” “ADB Hands off our water our health our forest, our livelihood, our environment.” The civil society even rephrased ADB as “Anti-democratic Destructive Burden.” Meanwhile Greenpeace demanded: “ADB Quit Coal” and said Climate change! Party is over.” The affected people of Mae Moh coal power plant in Thailand offered a bowl of coal to the ADB president during his meeting with the civil society.

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Accountability Mechanism: A jailbird of bureaucracy

Hemantha Withanage
Executive Director, NGO Forum on ADB

Asian Development Bank proudly presented its new accountability mechanism as the medicine for its project-related disputes in 2003. When presenting, former ADB President Tadao Chino said, “I am confident that with support from all stakeholders, the Accountability Mechanism will satisfy their demand that ADB address the complaints of project-affected people on the ground and establish a transparent process that will increase ADB’s accountability.”

Theoretically, it provides mediation through the Special Project Facilitator (SPF) and a verdict on the violation of ADB policies through the Compliance Review Panel (CRP). But after two years of its existence, has it delivered any solutions to people’s issues?

The recent CRP monitoring report on STDP, which was issued in July 2006, shows that the ADB management and the Road Development Authority have not complied with most of the remedial action proposed by the CRP report issued in July 2005. Said report was a response to the complaints made by project affected people.

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