Toxin water in Kelani river
CEA mulls legal action against company-(CEA is not published company name )
Disna Mudalige
Legal action will be taken against a leading private carbonated beverage manufacturing plant in Kaduwela if the company is found guilty of polluting the Kelani river, Central Environmental Authority Chairman Prof Lal Mervin Dharmasiri told the Daily News yesterday.
He said the cause of oil mixing with water in the Kelani River on Monday, was due to an explosion at the plant during construction carried out by a private contractor.
Prof. Dharmasiri said the CEA would take legal action to recover the damage from the company.
He noted a special discussion in this regard would be held with National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWS&DB) officials shortly.
He added that samples of water were collected by four CEA officials dispatched to the location on Monday and laboratory tests confirmed that diesel was mixed to the water of Kelani river, the main source of drinking water to the Colombo District.
He said the Ambathale Water Treatment Plant had been affected by the incident.
NWS&DB General Manager Ranjith Balasuriya said the water supply from Kelani river which was restricted following the incident returned to normalcy. “We detected the contamination of oil around 6.00 a.m. on Monday and the pumping of water was stopped immediately. We distributed the water stored in our tanks during that period. We informed the CEA and the Police to investigate the incident.
There after immediate steps were taken to fix the oil leak and we resumed pumping of water by 3.30 p.m. on Monday. We carried out tests continuously to determine the water quality. The rain and release of water from Lakshapana helped to ease the situation. We request the consumers not to panic over this incident,” he said.
The water supply to Colombo, Dehiwela, Mount Lavinia and Kotte Municipal Council areas were restricted on Monday due to oil contamination in the Kelani River.
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