Aloysius Hettiarachchi

As a senior citizen concerned with the statement made by the chairmen of the CEB and the request for comments on the EIA of the Galle Harbour extension project, I thought of giving my two cents worth in this forum.

I have viewed the credentials of the current chairman who has had many years of experience in this field including in the CEB. It is the CEB engineers themselves who prevented the implementation of alterative energy projects for selfish reasons and we all suffered as a result. Now it seems they want to implement projects that were line up including the costly wind power towers. Lots of water has passed under the bridge since them and other counties have started abandoning the wind power towers as they are costly to maintain and therefore the unit rates are high. Therefore, I ask the authorities not to sign agreement with investors who will want to tie the citizens for long term power supply agreements. Solar power is becoming so cheap and available in abondance. In places like California, they do nt know what to do with excess power. In the US they are developing high speed electric trains. In Pakistan (our elder brother) the ordinary citizens are producing solar and that country has become 75% self-sufficient in electrical power. Few years ago, I have seen videos the locals mounted solar panels on helium ballons to supply power to households. Chinese companies have started making Perovskite solar panels by printing them like printing news paper complete with backing. They can be just pasted on a vehicle or any structure without framing. I believe this scenario should be evaluated before embarking on mega projects that had been lined up. The project that has been signed with Adani should be cancelled without tying us up with India on a long-term basis.

It seems the extension of Galle harbour is going to be implemented in a hurry. The Galle Fort built by Portuguese and the Dutch is already in the hands of one community. There was a talk of a yacht making project with the funding from Saudi. Are they the ones going to fund this as well. If so, it is a case of conflict of interest. So, is the suggestion to get Indians involved in Trinco oil Tank farm. Some of our officials do not have an iota of integrity. I am sure they are aware about the long-term implication of such projects on national security and sovereignty.