Mr. Lakshman Jayakody, then an opposition MP, wrote this article for The Island on January 1, 1993. With the controversy on the exploitation of the Eppawela deposits heating up, those who are opposed to the decision to allow a foreign multinational to embark on a project involving massive environmental despoliation and other ill effects say that the arguments adduced then continue to hold good today too.

The Government's proposed joint venture for the exploitation and export of the Eppawala phosphates is a very disturbing development. If we allow this despoliation, we ourselves not to speak of posterity, shall be left with a colossal waste dump into which the gigantic scale of operations of Multi National Companies will convert the once beautiful land.

Sri Lanka is a very small country, very poor in mineral resources. Therefore, it is all the more incumbent on our Governments to formulate mineral development policies with the long-term national interests in mind.

The backbone of our economy had been, and will remain in the immediate foreseeable future, in agriculture the cultivation of food crops for our increasing population and of plantation crops for export.

Analysis
It is true that a beginning has to be made towards a change in this economic pattern.... But analysis will reveal that in spite of much vaunted industrial growth, and export oriented industrial growth at that, there has been no substantial change towards a more balanced agricultural industrial economic pattern.

The expansion is in segments which have no potential for continued or sustained production and growth ie the manufacture of articles which do not have a large or lasting demand and in the garment industry which is liable to be wiped out at a moment's notice when importing countries feel their interests threatened.

There has been no development in the major sectors of industry - metallurgical chemical, electrical heavy engineering, machine tools automotive and light industries let alone the most important industry today the electronics industry.

It is in this perspective that we must look at the Government proposal to exploit and export the meagre mineral resources to be found in this country.

Food is one of the basic needs of society and economic planners and Governments should plan to assure the nation of an adequate food supply at affordable prices. We are far from being self-sufficient in our food supplies.

Over one million tonnes of rice, wheat, flour, and sugar is imported annually. Just how vital a secure food supply is m ay be judged from the fact that even Japan the foremost economic power in the world today has taken all measures to ensure protection for its staple food, rice by banning imports altogether subsidising rice production.

We are in an even more vulnerable position . We do not export the products of industry to purchase food. We do it with the money earned by other agricultural sectors, like tea, rubber and coconut plantations.

Basic
The use of fertilizer is basic to improved agricultural techniques. Without the artificial N.P.K. Fertilizers the production of rice, tea rubber etc would plummet to dismal depths. It is therefore axiomatic that fertilizers should be available at reasonable prices or at even heavily subsidised prices.

An attempt was made by the SLFP Government to seek a solution to this problem. Of the three main fertilizers none was being produced locally. Nitrogen, Phosphate and Pottasium fertilizers all had to be imported.

The controversial fertilizer factory was commissioned to manufacture urea. Japan can import oil from ten thousand miles away manufacture it into urea and send it several thousands of miles to Sri Lanka, but the economic pundits decreed that the Sapugaskande plant was uneconomic and no one had th' nerve to say 'nay'.

Eppawala Phosphates were a lucky discovery and were soon being used for the manufacture of phosphatic fertilizers. The deposits of apatite in the region is said to be about 60 million tonnes sufficient to meet our needs for more than a century to come. We are free of the old brand of colonialism but the shackles of neo colonialism are very warmly welcomed by this Government.

The proposed joint venture will be in the classic rubber economy pattern. The proposals is to strip mine and export. A resource which wisely exploited may suffice for crucial food production and export agriculture sectors for the next century will be pillaged in just a decade or two what happened to Nauru Island will happen to Eppawala.

There the phopatic rock was strip mined and exported. While it lasted the local population supplied the labour. In less than two decades the entire island was devastated stripped bare of its vegetation and soil and the inhabitants faced starvation. A colossal rescue package sponsored by the United Nations and financed by the United States had not solved the problem. The islanders have to be re-settled elsewhere.

The choice is simply this. Do we invite a multinational plundering combined to devastate the land, turn it into a waste dump and take away a natural resource.

Or do we, by wise and moderate exploitation, ensure that this vital fertilizer remains available to our farmers and plantations for a century.

What benefits will accrue to the country for a decade or a decade and a half, there will be a nominal flow of foreign exchange to the country which will be more than counter balanced by the invisible out flow of royalties dividends and what not.

A cosy coterie round the ruling clique will slash a few more billions away in secret foreign accounts and few more billions will swell the black money pool.

Bleed
For a century after this, the country will bleed to import the fertilizer or the food it could have home grown. Can we afford this outflow of foreign exchange? Diammonium phosphate is selling in India at SI Rs. 16000 per tonne. Can we afford to pay this price for a century to come? The choice is clear.