It is called Promise, it is financed by the European Union and 30 countries participate, including India as the main partner. With a duration of four years, the objective is to reduce marine pollution from small and medium-sized local companies that do not have funds to implement circular economy policies. Due to microplastics, fish stocks in Sri Lanka have gone from 300,000 to 53,000 tonnes.
Colombo () – In the coming days, an international project involving 30 countries will be launched, the aim of which is to reduce plastic waste from shipping and fishing in the Lakshadweep Sea (also known as the Laccadive Sea). which bathes the southern tip of India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Funded by the European Union through the Switch Asia mechanism, the project “Prevention of Marine Litter in the Lakshadweep Sea” (Promise) will have Sri Lanka as a partner country and India as a lead country. Various government institutions and organizations related to the world of tourism will participate.
Chaminda Bandara and Rasith Malalasekera, environmental activists, told that “Sri Lanka has steadily increased imports of plastic, with more than 500,000 metric tons of virgin plastic per year, seriously straining the national waste management system. According to available data, 1.59 million tonnes of plastic waste is mismanaged in Sri Lanka every year, with almost half ending up in canals, rivers and the Indian Ocean, severely affecting marine ecosystems.”
However, they continue, “currently only 33% of all plastic waste is collected, and of this only 3% is recycled throughout the country. Small collectors and recyclers find it difficult to comply with environmental guidelines and generate added value due to the high investments required to adopt and implement circular economy strategies. The Sri Lankan government has introduced measures to reduce plastic pollution and improve waste management, including an extended producer responsibility scheme to minimize the use of plastics. Microplastic pollution is the main cause of the rapid decline in fish stocks along the Sri Lankan coasts, which have fallen from 300,000 to 53,000 tonnes.”
Sources from the Sri Lanka Marine Environment Protection Authority clarified that “Promise is a four-year project (starting in 2020 and ending in 2024) that promotes sustainable consumption and production by small and medium-sized enterprises. The project aims to prevent waste from land-based sources from being dumped into the sea and address many short- and long-term maritime issues.
Already in December the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had also launched a five-year project in Sri Lanka and the Maldives to reduce single-use plastic “by reducing the industrial use of plastics and improving integrated management practices of solid waste in the two countries,” commented marine biologists Nimali Senanayake and Randesh Gamlath. “USAID will enlist the assistance of the private sector, NGOs, and communities to reduce, reuse, and recycle plastic products that threaten health and the environment environment of the Sri Lankans. A truckload of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute, totaling around 11 million tons per year. It is a major problem that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.”
According to Jenny Correia Nunes, head of cooperation of the EU delegation in Sri Lanka and the Maldives, “although marine pollution is a problem that does not respect borders, to carry out a green transition and keep the seas clean we must consider national solutions, especially considering that Sri Lanka’s economy is highly dependent on its marine and coastal environment”.
