Pearl of a judgement for pearl of contention

X-PRESS Pearl, the pearl of contention (https://www.ft.lk/ columns/Our-X-Press-Pearl-of-contention/4-719880), is back in the news with Sri Lanka’s highest court issuing a stern, far-reaching judgement — a 361-page document! The Supreme Court has given a landmark ruling for a fundamental rights case raised by three petitioners and has awarded compensation that sets a record and has multiple precedents.

- By Prof. Ajith de Alwis

Clear and firm judgment on ‘who was responsible’ is welcome. A whole series of activities has been initiated by the decree, with the courts keeping oversight on how matters are proceeding.

X-Press Pearl abused our marine waters, coastal areas, and skies above us and seriously affected our marine biodiversity, and we dubbed the accident the world’s worst (in terms of chemicals and polymers lost), which, incidentally, courts have refrained from exactly stating as such. The X-Press Pearl disaster should not have happened, and the errors leading to this disastrous outcome could have been easily addressed and the event averted had been made clear. I believe significant indifference and failure to understand potential consequences led to this situation. Personally, as a member of the Environmental Damage Assessment team appointed by MEPA, I was aware of the challenges in discharging that task.

Two reports were issued assessing the environmental damage, and in the second, the total added up to $ 6.48 billion. It should be stated that the environmental damage in this second report still did not cover the persistent environmental damage from plastic nurdles and the more significant pyrogenic waste plastics, micro and nano plastics, so specific to this event. Facing the challenges, one of the most interesting in our line of service was the ignoring of Sri Lankans who were really contributing, considering the issue more as a national cause.

Indifference from majority of quarters