President emphasises public’s prime responsibility to protect environment

President Maithripala Sirisena says it is the prime responsibility of the public, including the politicians, public servants and school children to protect the environment.

At present the developed countries in the world, who once destroyed the environment utilising modern technology to achieve their development goals, have come forward to take the leadership to protect the environment for the survival of human beings.

Today, mankind suffers from the results of destroying nature. The President said that adding worse health situations, polluted air has deprived the right to life of human beings. He made these remarks participating in the Environment Conference held in Ratnapura on Thursday.

Subsequent to this inaugural conference on environment in Ratnapura similar conferences will be held in different parts of the country.

During the event the President recalled the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris last January and said that according to the decisions taken at the Paris conference an environmental charter has been prepared.

President Sirisena said the world leaders who participated at the United Nations Climate Change Conference will meet again in New York, USA to sign that charter and he said the invitation in this regard has been extended by the UN.

The President said that when small countries like us signed agreements to protect the environment the powerful countries in the world who give advice to us didn’t sign those agreements and as a result of that at present they have to carry oxygen bags with them.

In an era like this it is the prime responsibility of the public, including the politicians, public servants and school children to protect the environment, he said.

“The subject of the environment is a topic of moral. The pioneer environmentalist in the world is our Gautama Buddha and the importance of the environment is taught by the other religious philosophies too,” the President said.

Expressing his views regarding the illegal gem-mining in the Ratnapura district, he said that those who are involved in this are not only destroying mother earth but also the people’s right to life.

The President said that in the future as a Government it will pay firm attention in this regard.

He presented awards to the persons who committed themselves to protect the environment.

The President also presented an award to Heshan Munasinghe, a student from Sivali Central College in Ratnapura, who made a special speech on protecting the environment.

He symbolically handed over scholarships to school children marking the 110 scholarships to school students by the Gem and Jewellery Authority.

Also 450 waste bins were distributed among the religious places and state institutions in the Ratnapura district.

People’s representatives including, Minister John Seneviratne, Thalatha Athukorala, Sabaragamuwa Governor, Marshal Perera, Chief Minister of Sabaragamuwa Province, Maheepala Herath, Deputy Ministers Karunaratne Paranavithana, Dunesh Gankanda, Sumedha G. Jayasena, Secretary for the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment, Udaya R. Seneviratne, Divisional Secretary, Ratnapura Bandula Harischandra, public servants and many others participated in the event.

President Maithripala Sirisena after participating in the Environment Conference visited the Saman Devalaya in Ratnapura.