• Shrinking public beaches, unassessed mineral exploration, land-based pollution top concerns raised by officials, environmentalists
• State agencies outline enforcement drives and new monitoring systems, but admit shortages of machinery, staff, funding
• Civil society warns of unchecked mining, privatised shores as State officials defend regulated development
• Officials pledge demolitions, digital boundaries, and climate-resilient fisheries, while key legal reforms await approval
• Erosion, pollution, climate change are reshaping coast faster than laws and institutions can respond
• Environmentalists, State officials agree coast is under severe pressure, but differ on how to protect it

Sri Lanka’s coastline is facing a convergence of threats – from the privatisation of public beaches and unassessed mineral exploration to land-based pollution, invasive species, sea level rise, and climate-driven shifts in fish stocks – senior State officials and environmental organisations said at a national forum held in Battaramulla on Tuesday (29 September). 

The National Policy Forum on Marine and Coastal Issues 2026, organised by the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW), the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), and Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) at Waters Edge, brought together the heads of the Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management and the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA); the Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources; and civil society representatives.

While the officials outlined enforcement drives, legal amendments, and new monitoring systems, their presentations also exposed persistent gaps: a shortage of heavy machinery for emergency coastal works, permit approvals that take years, delayed Treasury funding for satellite surveillance, and pending Cabinet approval for amendments to the country’s marine pollution law.

Differences also emerged between civil society and the State on how mineral exploration along the northern and eastern coasts should be assessed.

Public beaches becoming private spaces

CEJ Chairman Hemantha Withanage told the forum that the country’s coastal regions were under severe ecological and social pressure, with threats ranging from restricted public access to hasty mineral exploration.

Among the most pressing social concerns, he opined, was the rapid loss of public space along the coast. “In Sri Lanka, public beaches are rapidly shifting into private spaces,” Withanage noted, explaining that even where beaches were not strictly private, extensive private developments and illegal encroachments blocked public access to the shoreline in many areas.

He added that coastal pollution and environmental degradation were worsening alongside these access restrictions. Plastic waste originating from both local and foreign sources continued to accumulate across beaches, he said, while human activities were drastically altering natural river mouths and estuaries, including that of the Kalu Ganga.

Mineral exploration without strategic assessment

Withanage identified the extensive allocation of land for mineral exploration along the northern and eastern coastlines as a critical threat. Large areas across the Eastern and Northern Provinces, he said, had been assigned for mineral exploration, extending into sensitive ecosystems, beaches, and protected areas such as the sand dunes in Panama.

Although mining permits had so far been issued for only a couple of locations, Withanage stressed that vast areas had already been opened up for exploration without proper evaluation. “These allocations were made without conducting a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA),” he stated, cautioning that the absence of a prior strategic assessment posed a severe threat to coastal ecosystems at this moment.

‘If we fail, the country fails’

Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Director General Prof. Terney Pradeep Kumara said that his primary duty was to state clearly what the department was doing and the actual challenges it faced, “rather than relying on half-truths or distorted information on social media”.

“The Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management is the frontline environmental guardian protecting our motherland’s coast. If we fail, the country fails, and we lose our land,” he said.

Erosion, flooding and rising seas

Prof. Kumara said Sri Lanka faced severe coastal hazards, including tsunamis, storm surges, coastal flooding, tropical cyclones, and coastal erosion. Recent weather anomalies, he noted, had caused flooding in which entire villages were slowly drowning due to high sea levels and cyclones. 

He observed that during recent floods, over 15 metres of water had flooded areas such as Kandy, yet few discussed the massive volume of water and damage pumped into the sea. Severe coastal erosion was being experienced along the east coast due to poorly planned harbours, as well as along the western coast and in Puttalam, he said.

According to Prof. Kumara, sea level rise projections indicated an additional 60 cm rise by 2100, which would submerge coastal stretches in Wellawatte, southern Colombo, and further south. Saltwater intrusion is already severely affecting areas such as Ja-Ela, Malwana, and Kalutara as well as the Attanagalu Oya, while increasing rip currents and strong surf waves on open beaches such as Mirissa present extreme hazards to inexperienced swimmers.

Invasive species, dead reefs and destructive fishing

Biological threats, Prof. Kumara said, included prolific invasive species such as lionfish, which consume 200 to 300 small fry during a single feeding, and massive sea urchin outbreaks in Trincomalee. He listed stray dogs and crocodiles among invasive species in coastal waters.

Ecosystem degradation was severe, he said, noting that Pigeon Island, Bar Reef, and Silavathurai featured dead coral reefs with no fish. Land-based solid waste heavily impacts beaches such as Negombo, where stopping daily cleaning for just two days leads to massive accumulations of rubbish.

He also pointed to oil-based pollution, such as a major oil spill from a Single Point Mooring (SPM), and chemical pollution from disasters such as the X-Press Pearl. Physical destruction, he said, included the clearing of mangrove forests and the removal of large coral structures at Pasikuda to facilitate tourist bathing.

Overexploitation and unsustainable fisheries remain major issues. Prof. Kumara noted that iconic species such as the humphead wrasse, which could generate millions of dollars in long-term tourism revenue, were being killed for a mere Rs. 10,000. Dynamite fishing, he said, caused millisecond energy releases that destroyed coral pinnacles and historic shipwrecks such as the British Sergeant, turning vibrant marine habitats into massacres.

Mandate and the three pillars

The department’s main task, Prof. Kumara said, was to establish healthy coasts and thriving communities grounded in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He argued that true sustainability relied on balancing three equal pillars – environmental, social, and economic – and that “focusing solely on environmental conservation keeps the country and its people poor”.

Under the Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Act No.57 of 1981, amended in 2011, the department’s jurisdiction extends 2 km seaward from the low water mark, 300 m landward from the Permanent Vegetation Line (PVL), and 2 km into lagoons and estuaries. Its work is guided by the five-year Coastal Zone and Coastal Resource Management Plan (2024–2029).

A machinery shortage and a sand mining ban

Prof. Kumara said that the department’s Coastal Development Division was shifting away from hard revetments towards offshore breakwaters and groynes to preserve coastal ecosystems, tourism, and fisheries. It has carried out sand enrichment projects and emergency erosion interventions where houses collapsed overnight.

However, he said, the department operated with a severe shortage of heavy machinery, relying on only five functional machines for 30–40 emergency cases a year, although it was acquiring three new machines this year and 10 more next year.

To protect shorelines, the department has completely banned approvals for sea sand mining across all sectors, including religious organisations, schools, defence, and Government agencies. Prof. Kumara pointed out that beaches were legally declared public property. The department has designated new protected areas such as the Panama sand dunes and Marawila, established a marine laboratory in Trincomalee, and initiated a programme to develop 100 beach and leisure parks, completing 41 sites in 2025.

The department is also executing a Rs. 100 million project to rectify the cut-open Kalutara estuary mouth, which Prof. Kumara said was intended to halt severe island erosion and to balance the needs of flood control, agriculture, and tourism.

Setbacks and demolitions

To protect lives and coastal investments, the department enforces coastal setback zones measured from the PVL. These consist of a reservation zone of 10–20 m in which no construction is permitted and a restricted zone requiring advisory council approval.

Prof. Kumara said that over 2,500 illegal permanent structures stood on reservation land. The department is executing a three-stage demolition strategy: first removing all illegal beach structures seaward of the vegetation line, then temporary structures on reservation land, and finally permanent illegal structures. He said that over 160 structures were demolished in 2025 and over 200 by 2026. 

Splitting the beach with hotels

To manage beach commercialisation, Prof. Kumara said that the department had proposed allocating one-third of beach space for hotel lounge beds for a fee, while reserving two-thirds for the public. 

It supports regulated high-end tourism infrastructure, including floating decks and site-specific water villas. To prevent damage to beaches from three-wheelers and motorcycles, it is installing physical bollards across beach access roads and promoting environmentally friendly, sandy access paths.

He listed the department’s main operational challenges as transitioning an unregulated coastal belt into a regulated system, personal threats against officials, shortages of skilled personnel, and permit approvals that took two to three years compared with weeks in competing nations. The department, he said, was digitising its permit systems and moving from reactive to proactive management.

Questions on ownership, boundaries and enforcement

Responding to questions from participants, Prof. Kumara explained that under current legal principles, land lost to coastal erosion became public beach property managed by the State. 

However, the ownership of land that later accretes – in some cases giving property owners up to 200 m of additional land after a decade – remains legally ambiguous. He said that the department was drafting amendments to the Coast Conservation Act to establish clear statutory guidelines on accreted coastal land.

Asked about property owners moving or tampering with physical reservation boundary posts, Prof. Kumara said that the department had launched a beach digitisation project around six months before the forum. Physical markers are being replaced with GPS coordinates, high-resolution satellite imagery, drone surveys, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) mapping to establish fixed and legally defensible digital beach boundaries. 

On allegations of selective demolitions of restaurants along the western and southern coasts, Prof. Kumara rejected claims of political bias, stating that demolitions followed strict legal criteria without political interference, personal favours, or exceptions for friends or prominent local figures. 

He attributed unfinished demolitions in some stretches to operational cut-off times – citing a day on which officials reached 7 p.m. after clearing more than 80 structures – or to pending legal clearances, adding that the remaining illegal structures would be removed once cleared. 

Recent presidential directives prioritising the removal of long-standing illegal structures along southern beaches had, he said, prompted widespread voluntary compliance and clean-ups by local operators.

Explaining why setback lines had been reduced from 20 m to 10 m in certain commercial and tourism zones, he pointed to land-use realities: on small private plots of 10–20 perches, a rigid 20 m setback combined with inland road reservations left owners with no buildable land.

Regulated mining and the assessment debate

Responding directly to concerns over mineral exploration licences in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, including areas near the Panama sand dunes, Prof. Kumara argued against blanket preservation bans. 

Holding back national mineral resources while other nations extracted theirs or developed synthetic alternatives, he said, risked keeping Sri Lanka economically disadvantaged. While strict preservation applies to protected zones such as Panama and Marawila, he maintained that scientifically regulated sand and mineral extraction should be permitted in selected, ecologically suitable locations under strict agency guidelines.

On proposals for water villas – and concerns over ecological damage of the kind seen at Pigeon Island – he said that such structures would not be permitted indiscriminately along open coastlines, but would be restricted to environmentally suitable “pocket beaches,” such as selected calm waters near Jaffna or Pasikuda. 

Capturing high-value international tourism through controlled, premium infrastructure, he argued, would prevent unregulated squatter developments from occupying sensitive beaches and generating far worse pollution.

Prof. Kumara acknowledged that SEAs provided comprehensive data on cumulative impacts, but said they could take up to five years to complete. To prevent what he described as developmental paralysis, he advocated expedited and efficient Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) processes combined with rigorous post-approval monitoring.

Addressing a participant’s point that exploding sea urchin populations may be native species responding to the overfishing of their natural predators, rather than true invasives, he said that whether an organism acted as an invasive threat depended on site-specific population density and local ecosystem disruption. Because ecological dynamics varied considerably between regions, he said, coastal management could not rely on blanket nationwide rules, and instead required site-specific Special Area Management (SAM) plans.

Land-based pollution the primary driver

MEPA Chairman Dr. Samantha Gunasekara told the forum that while maritime accidents and shipping traffic frequently drew media attention, land-based human activities were the primary driver of marine degradation in Sri Lanka. He said that human activities accounted for 90% of marine pollution.

He explained that Sri Lanka’s 103 river basins all drained into the sea, creating a continuous conduit for inland waste to reach coastal waters. The country produces approximately 250,000 MT of plastic annually, of which, according to Dr. Gunasekara, more than 90% ultimately ends up in the sea.

He noted that MEPA was the only institution in the country with environmental enforcement powers extending beyond the 24-nautical mile boundary, up to the 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Kelani River at the top of the list

Pollutants travelled from households, commercial markets, agricultural land, and tourism infrastructure into national waterways, Dr. Gunasekara said. 

He identified the Kelani River as the single largest contributor to marine pollution in Sri Lanka, carrying hundreds of metric tonnes of municipal and industrial waste into the sea after heavy rainfall, followed by the Mahaweli River, which washed polythene, silt, and organic matter into coastal ecosystems.

Major pollutant categories, he said, included solid plastics, untreated sewage from housing complexes and hotels, industrial effluents, urban storm water, and construction debris dumped along beaches.

Dr. Gunasekara accused local authorities of serious negligence, citing a sensitive wetland adjacent to a coastal beach where, despite repeated complaints, waste – including hospital waste – had been dumped using municipal vehicles. Such dumping, he said, was “completely prohibited and unethical,” and demonstrated the irresponsibility of local authorities.

Waste washing in from neighbouring countries

Sri Lanka also receives large quantities of foreign marine debris, particularly in the Northern and North Western Provinces during the southwest monsoon from May to September, according to Dr. Gunasekara. This includes plastics, as well as hospital and sanitary waste and waste from ritual practices.

While World Bank studies estimate that 70–80% of ocean plastic is land-derived via rivers, regional currents create distinct transboundary dynamics along different coastlines. The eastern coast takes part in a two-way exchange of marine litter with Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Myanmar depending on the monsoon, while the northern and northwestern coasts receive heavy volumes of waste from India. 

Local current patterns, however, meant that very little Sri Lankan waste travelled back towards Indian waters, he said.

Fisheries harbours and coastal vegetation

MEPA has established a National Marine Resources Conservation Week around a seven-day action framework covering seabed clean-ups, fisheries harbours, mangrove restoration, coastal vegetation protection, community education, climate awareness, and international reporting.

Dr. Gunasekara singled out two habitats requiring urgent intervention. Fisheries harbours, he said, were among the most polluted areas in the country, littered with discarded fibreglass, ghost nets, nylon ropes, and foam. Coastal vegetation, meanwhile, is the most critically threatened habitat type in Sri Lanka. 

“The most critical habitat type in our country is coastal vegetation, but nobody cares,” he said, identifying the stretch from Kelaniya to the Bentota River as facing the largest number of threats.

He contrasted systematic clean-up initiatives with what he described as unscientific drives, in which organisers collected waste and photographed it for social media but left the bags without properly disposing of them. As a result, he said: “This data doesn’t go to the international databases.”

Clearing decades of waste from the northern islands

In the northern islands, including Delft, Nainativu, and Analaitivu, plastic waste had accumulated unaddressed for 20–30 years, Dr. Gunasekara said. Following the MSC Elsa 3 maritime incident, MEPA established a partnership with the MSC shipping line to mobilise local communities to clean coastal areas.

According to Dr. Gunasekara, 1,910 local workers have been deployed daily from the north to Galle, working six days a week for six hours a day. Between September and June, they removed 746 MT of plastic waste. Of this, 8 MT of PET bottles were sent for upcycling into yarn for future T-shirt production, intended to generate a sustainable local employment fund.

Agrochemicals and crocodiles in the Kelani

Dr. Gunasekara said that agricultural runoff heavily contaminated river basins due to the excessive use of synthetic inputs, with chemical fertilisers applied at about 10 times the required rate and insecticides and fungicides at seven to eight times the requirement.

He added that illegal night-time dumping of poultry processing waste into waterways, including the Kelani River, was causing severe eutrophication and algal blooms. This organic wasteload, he said, had contributed to a surge in the crocodile population in the Kelani River. Referring to a recent question in Parliament on removing crocodiles from the river, he said the root cause – the abundance of food from night-time dumping – had not been addressed.

Fibreglass bricks and satellite surveillance

Dr. Gunasekara outlined MEPA’s broader strategy of technological monitoring and circular economy models. The authority is working with private firms to grind discarded vessel fibreglass into paving bricks and asphalt road mixtures.

A past pilot satellite programme supported by the French Government identified illegal discharges from vessels – estimating that around 500,000 litres of waste oil were dumped by passing vessels each month – and recovered Rs. 75 million in fines. MEPA has requested Treasury approval to fund an onshore satellite ground station for real-time monitoring.

Dr. Gunasekara said that a Cabinet-approved 24-hour mobile monitoring network, Ocean Watch, would connect national, provincial, and district committees and allow direct public reporting of incidents. 

MEPA’s six strategic imperatives, he said, were preventing pollution at source, strengthening integrated waste management, establishing continuous environmental monitoring, improving inter-agency enforcement, empowering coastal communities, and adopting a circular economy framework based on reducing, reusing, recycling, and recovering.

MSC Elsa 3 claim and pending legal reform

Asked about legal action and compensation under Section 7B of the Marine Pollution Prevention Act No.35 of 2008, Dr. Gunasekara said that formal documentation had been submitted to the Attorney General’s Department on time. A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with the vessel’s Protection and Indemnity Club (P&I Club) and the final claim must be submitted within a statutory two-year window.

A multidisciplinary expert committee, comprising university scientists, wildlife and forest experts, legal counsel, sociologists, and environmental economists, was completing the formal damage assessment, he said. According to Dr. Gunasekara, the P&I Club has expressed satisfaction with the clean-up visits from the north to Galle and is prepared to pay the amount sought, which he said would not be an unusual sum.

On the satellite monitoring system, he said the initial French grant period had ended. The French Ambassador, whom he said he had spoken to on several occasions, had indicated willingness to proceed, but had said it was up to the Sri Lankan Government. Implementation remains pending Treasury approval for a local ground receiving station.

Draft amendments to the Marine Pollution Prevention Act, addressing legal gaps and inter-agency delegation, had been submitted for Cabinet approval, Dr. Gunasekara said, adding that MEPA was ready to proceed as soon as approval was granted.

A fishing sector dependent on the sea

Ministry of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Secretary Dr. Kolitha Kamal Jinadasa presented the ministry’s strategy titled ‘Building Climate-Resilient and Sustainable Marine and Coastal World in Sri Lanka,’ stressing the need to shift from reactive disaster recovery to a structured, science-based management framework.

According to 2025 data, 85% of Sri Lanka’s fish comes from the sea, including coastal and deep-sea fisheries. The marine fishing fleet stands at nearly 52,600 vessels, compared with about 8,000 in inland fisheries. 

Dr. Jinadasa noted that the sector comprised approximately 5,000 multi-day vessels and around 45,000 smaller craft, and operated primarily as a livelihood-driven sector rather than a large-scale industrial enterprise. As a result, he said, the ministry carried a major responsibility in balancing food security, the welfare of coastal communities, and complex socio-political conditions.

Longer trips, flooded shrimp farms

The ministry categorises climate impacts across three sectors: coastal fisheries, offshore and deep-sea fisheries, and freshwater aquaculture. Coastal fisheries, Dr. Jinadasa said, were exposed to rough seas, storm surges, coastal erosion, sea level rise, and the degradation of harbour infrastructure.

In offshore and deep-sea fisheries, ocean warming and changing fish distribution have significantly extended fishing trips. “When you talk to fishermen, they say that previously they would return within a week or two, but now trips can last up to 45 days or two months. That means our production and distribution patterns have changed,” he said, adding that this directly affected costs and profitability.

Freshwater aquaculture, he said, was vulnerable to both extreme rainfall and severe drought. “Last time, in the North Western Province, nearly 75–80% of our shrimp farms were affected due to the flood, and now we are facing difficulty due to drought in areas like Hambantota and Kataragama,” he said, noting that declining water levels had driven mortality rates up.

Higher temperatures at dry-zone Government hatcheries, such as Inginiyagala and Udawalawe, have also disrupted breeding conditions for species such as Indian carp.

‘Resilience by design’

Dr. Jinadasa said that financial payouts after climate shocks did not build long-term security. “We cannot simply rebuild. We must rebuild the sectors in a different way. What is our plan for resilience by design?” he asked. 

Under the ministry’s agenda for 2026–2031, he said, mandatory life jackets, technical vessel safety standards, and new pension and insurance schemes would be introduced for small-scale fishers, ornamental fish collectors, and divers. Non-selective gear such as beach seines and ring nets will be phased out, while larger longline vessels of over 22 m, equipped with freezing and super-freezing facilities, will be licensed.

The ministry also plans to move away from extensive ‘culture-capture’ stocking in reservoirs towards intensive cage culture, deploying 500 cages across 20 reservoirs in the Eastern Province. Battery-operated propulsion systems are being tested on small coastal craft, beginning with pilot programmes on islands such as Delft.

Digital monitoring and stock assessments

Dr. Jinadasa said that the ministry was operating a Shrimp Industry Information System, under which real-time data submission by farm operators was mandatory for licence renewal. Rs. 100 million has been allocated to finalise a real-time fishing ground forecasting system that will deliver weather and ocean updates directly to fishers via the Dialog app and the BlueTracker app.

The ministry is partnering with the Sri Lanka Navy and the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) to carry out comprehensive marine stock assessments before issuing new harvesting licences, and is expanding Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) requirements across multi-day and commercial craft to enforce sustainable harvest limits.

A five-year mandate

Concluding his address, Dr. Jinadasa outlined the three policy directions the ministry had submitted to the National Planning Department for the next five years: managing fisheries according to changes in the climate and ecosystem; transforming aquaculture into a climate-resilient source of protein; and investing in people, science, technology, and infrastructure.

“Climate resilience is not a project within fisheries; climate resilience must become the way we manage fisheries,” he said.