Environmental effects of sand mining in Kelani River, Sri Lanka

Uthpala Wijemanna

Rivers are complex natural systems, which responsible for the natural balance or equilibrium by water discharging, and sediments depositing. So that river sand mining is directly affected to the natural equilibrium. It has estimated that the annual sand requirement of the country is nearly eight million cubic meters and it is growing at an annual rate of 10 per cent.

Kelani River can be considered as a one of the major rivers in Sri Lanka, which is badly affected by sand mining activities. Sand from the Kelani River has been used for many building purposes, and also extensively to cover telecommunication and other infrastructure networks in recent years.

Over-mining of Kelani river causes many problems like salination of Colombo's drinking water due to the intrusion of sea water into the river, collapse of river bank, loss of river land. It is difficult to totally ban sand mining practices in Kelani River, because many people living near the river is totally depending on this job and also there should be an alternative for the construction sector. So that the best way is minimizing the over mining the river or introduce the alternative to the river sand.