Safety Issues in hazardous waste Management in Heavy Industries

Safety Issues in hazardous waste Management in Heavy Industries 

Sri Lanka was having an agricultural based economy before the emergence of market economy which was first introduced in the year 1977. The market economy helped the country to attract more industries which were nationally based and internationally owned.

Some of the industries introduced to the country were high electricity consumption industries (than 1 MW) also known as heavy industries (HI); such as iron scarp smelting (collection of scrap and melting them into furnace oil) Generating thermal power and manufacturing asbestos cement sheets. Although the above industries are vital for the economic growth of a nation, the hazardous waste (HW) generated by these HI were injurious to health. Hazardous waste could result in an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illnesses. And also HW has been identified as a source which poses a substantial damage to the natural and built environment in a country. There are various types of HW such as heavy metals (such as Chromium, Cadmium and Nickel) Asbestos fiber waste, sludge from water treatment plants, slag from smelting factories and used oil were generated from heavy industries.

Sri Lanka (SL) did not have adequate and appropriate law and regulations to control HW until the year 1992. During this period an irreversible damage might have happened to the human life, animals or environment. As per the regulation introduced under the National Environmental Act No 47 of 1980 it is mandatory to obtain license to manage and dispose HW. Although the regulations had been gazette by Central Environmental Authority (CEA) stating improper disposal of HW is an offense, the existence of suitably licensed places to do the final disposal of HW remains problematic in SL.

With the present day tax benefits and concessions awarded by the Board of Investments (BOI) of SL, a large number of HI have been established in the country. Therefore an intervention of research personnel is essential to find out whether there are adequate and legitimate final disposal facilities for HW are available in SL to sustain its present day volume.

“What are the existing Hazardous Waste Management Practices in Sri Lankan Heavy Industries and what factors have an impact over those practices?”

 This focuses on identifying the existing hazardous waste management practices in the HW generating HI of SL. It will also look at the factors which have a positive or negative influence over the execution of those practices. While the market economy helps to boost the economy of a country, it intern will attract heavy industries which will generate various types of waste including Hazardous Waste as a result of their production process. Hazardous Wastes are always injurious to health and create adverse environmental effects.

Problems created by hazardous waste contamination can be controlled / managed by disposing them in a proper way in a suitable / technically constructed Hazardous waste disposal facility.

Sri Lanka does not have adequate facilities to dispose Hazardous Waste generated by Industries (Director – Provincial Environmental Authority –NWP). By the meantime the government of Sri Lanka had introduced stringent laws and regulations compiling industrialists on proper disposal of Hazardous waste.

Those industrialists are facing big problem due to unavailability of suitable hazardous waste disposal facilities while the law threatens them to dispose of hazardous waste in proper manner.