• Ministry secures Cabinet approval to buy heavy machinery for stone groynes to counter shoreline erosion 

Illegal structures on coastal land have been identified, cases have been filed, and notices to remove them have been issued, while the removal of fisher families from occupied beach lands requires a humane approach, including alternative housing, according to Environment Minister Dr. Dammika Patabendi. 

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, the Minister said that action against illegal structures on the coast was already under way. “The illegal structures have been identified, cases have been filed, appeals are being considered, and we have informed them to remove the structures,” he said. “Those processes are going on.” 

He emphasised, however, that recovering occupied beach lands from fisher families required humane relocation rather than forced displacement. “There is no way to just remove the fisherfolk, because we can only accomplish this by providing them with alternative housing in other locations,” Patabendi said. “However, we have identified those areas.” 

According to the Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management, over 2,500 unauthorised constructions have been identified along the island’s coastal zone, and the authorities are demolishing illegal structures to enforce coastal regulations and redevelop beaches for tourism. Under Sri Lankan coastal law, permanent or unauthorised construction is strictly prohibited within 10–25 metres of the shoreline. 

The Ministry of Environment is also accelerating shoreline protection initiatives. To counter severe shoreline erosion, the Coast Conservation Department is carrying out major engineering interventions, including the flagship Kalutara Calido Beach Protection Project, which uses stone groynes to stabilise the beach strip. 

However, coastal engineering projects face severe machinery shortages caused by marine conditions, with private contractors routinely refusing to lease their machinery for coastal works. 

To overcome this bottleneck, the ministry has secured Cabinet authorisation to purchase dedicated heavy machinery for constructing stone groynes. 

“The main issue here is having to work directly with seawater,” the Minister explained. “Heavy machinery deteriorates rapidly. The private sector does not provide their equipment for this work due to saltwater damage risks. However, we obtained the necessary approvals recently to purchase the required machinery.” 

The Minister said that the ministry was also leading what it described as the largest marine debris cleanup campaign in the nation’s history, launched after maritime incidents involving vessels off the Kerala coast. Massive volumes of debris and plastic drifted across ocean currents onto Sri Lankan shorelines, from the northern islands down to the western coast. 

The Kerala coast experienced a major maritime emergency involving the MV Wan Hai 503, a Singapore-flagged container vessel that caught fire and suffered explosions off the coast of Kannur/Kozhikode on 9 June 2025. The MSC Elsa 3, also off Kerala, likewise sparked environmental concerns and local fishing bans. 

Sri Lanka denied entry to the burning MV Wan Hai 503 following an underdeck explosion off the Indian coast, citing severe environmental risks. Fearing a repeat of the catastrophic 2021 X-Press Pearl disaster, Sri Lankan authorities rejected requests to tow the listing ship into the Hambantota International Port. 

Debris and chemical pollution from the nearby sinking of the MSC Elsa 3 later began washing onto Sri Lanka’s northern shores, threatening vital marine ecosystems and local fisheries. 

In response, the ministry organised an extensive removal operation that collected approximately 686–700 MT of marine waste, including 23 MT of PET bottles alone. 

The cleanup had been carried out without the use of public funds, the Minister said. The ministry negotiated with the shipping companies to secure nearly Rs. 400–500 million in initial compensation. These funds were used to pay local workers daily wages of between Rs. 3,000 and 4,000 to clean the affected shorelines. 

The Minister said that the cleanup programme was still ongoing and that its second phase would begin next year. He added that the companies had agreed to pay further compensation.