Generating clamour
In an unprecedented lawsuit filed against the government of Sri Lanka by five infants aged between two-and-a-half months and two years, the Supreme Court recently ordered the operators of a private power plant to close down its generators from 10 pm to six am. The petition filed by the infants' parents in February, had accused a diesel-powered electricity generating plant of causing excessive noise and air pollution through exhalation of fumes, dust and vibrations.
The polluting power plant is situated in the residential area of Etul Kotte just outside Colombo city. It is operated by a private company, Koolair Ventures Power (Pvt) Ltd, and it feeds the national grid under an agreement with the Ceylon Electricity Board, the national power supplier. The residents of Etul Kotte complained that they couldn't sleep during day or night because of the reverberating noise of generators.
The petitioners had accused the government of failing to protect their fundamental right to equal treatment. They alleged that they had been singled out for inhuman and degrading treatment. With the enforcement of emergency regulations because of ethnic insurgency in the northeast, all environmental laws in the country have been declared null and void. This means that the people of Sri Lanka cannot seek legal redress on the basis of environmental laws. To fulfil its power requirements, the country is supplementing its excessive reliance on hydropower with thermal power generation through diesel and gas turbines.
The noise levels of the Koolair plant are way above those permitted by the law. The permitted noise levels are 60 decibels during the day and 50 at night. But measurements taken by the Central Environmental Authority, the government's pollution regulating body and the Environmental Foundation Ltd, a public interest law firm dedicated to the protection of environment, show noise levels to be between 70-100 decibels even during night.