Message from Beirut – Are we planting a bomb in the Colombo port ?
The world is shocked by the recent tremendous explosion in Lebanon claiming the lives of some 135 people and hundreds more grievously injured. In addition to the Billions of dollars’ worth of property damage. This blast estimated to be as powerful as a Richter Scale 3.5 earth quake, has resulted in the total destruction of the Beirut harbor. This is reportedly the lifeline for the entire Lebanon, already battered by decades of strife. The immediate impact on maintaining the day to day needs for the life of the citizens as well as the long term impact by the loss of the harbor can only be conjectured.
We in Sri Lanka, perhaps due to the preoccupation with the general election, which no doubt has swept all other issues out of sight, have given scant attention to this tragedy. Perhaps the fact that only 8 Sri Lankans were directly affected by injuries did not warrant much attention of the media too.
But it is very important to realize that this tragedy has delivered a very important and timely message to us in Sri Lanka.
Needless to say, a commercial harbor is the epicenter of most economic activities being the gateway for all exports as well as for the essential imports. While we are fortunate to have the recently developed Hambantota Harbor and several smaller harbors the pivotal role played by the Colombo harbor in the above context cannot be denied.
Therefore the strategic importance of the Colombo harbor behooves us to ensure its safety at all costs, which must be paramount in planning any projects which could be of detrimental impact on this responsibility.
Under these circumstances, many of the Sri Lankans would not be aware of a most dangerous proposal that is on the cards, to use the Colombo harbor to anchor a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU). This is the central facility required if we are to diversify the sources of energy for power generation, which the CEB has been touting for, ever since their attempts to expand the coal power generation was proven unviable by the PUCSL.
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Message from Beirut