Yak(h)apalanaya news

Surprisingly, the country which is about to cancel a 1.5billion dollar artificial island mega project on the basis of marine environmental concerns,  is now in the process of constructing  petroleum product pipelines piercing through the heart of heavily populated suburban dwellers settlement according to the news released by the responsible  Ministry of Power and Energy in Sri Lanka. (News Report is attached below)

These photographs attached to the press report show that some of these pipe lines pass through the narrow front gardens and even through inhabitant’s living rooms. The minister Pa. Cha. Ranawake who is in charge of Ministry of Power and Energy is proclaimed to be an electrical engineer and one wonders whether his paper qualification even worth the paper it’s printed on, if he can blatantly and unashamedly ignore the risk associated with the highly inflammable and toxic petroleum product lines constructed through living rooms of inhabitants as shown in the ministry’s press release.

According to the well-established international standards, the primary objectives of pipeline-related land use measures are to reduce the risk of damaging the pipelines by keeping human activity away from their immediate vicinity and to minimize the exposure of those living and working near a transmission pipeline in the event of an accident. Jurisdiction over land use matters traditionally rests with local governments, which results in wide variations in practices. However, most local governments do not address pipeline issues; when they do, they have few or no data on which to base land use regulations.However, It is up to the operator and the Ministry to provide necessary protection minimizing or mitigating hazards and risks to the public, pipeline workers, and the environment.

Pipeline failures can occur for a variety of reasons, including corrosion, environmentally-assisted cracking, equipment failure, material defects, environmental incidents (such as landslides and washouts) and human interference (such as being hit by heavy machinery).

Nigeria is one of the few countries that hasn’t got sufficient safety standards in place like in Sri Lanka. The following fatal accidents were reported in Nigeria within the last 20 years

• 1998: At Jesse in the Niger Deltain Nigeria, a petroleum pipeline exploded killing about 200 villagers, some of whom were scavenging gasoline. The worst of several similar incidents in this country.^[15] (October 18, 1998)
• 2000: Another pipeline explosion near the town of Jesse killed about 250 villagers.^[15](July 10, 2000)
• 2000: At least 100 villagers died when a ruptured pipeline exploded in Warri.^[15](July 16, 2000)
• 2000: A leaking pipeline caught fire near the fishing village of Ebutenear Lagos, killing at least 60 people.^[15] (November 30, 2000)
• 2003: A pipeline punctured by thieves exploded and killed 125 villagers near Umuahia, Abia State.^[15](June 19, 2003)
• 2004: A pipeline punctured by thieves exploded and killed dozens of people in Lagos State.^[15](September 17, 2004)
• 2006: An oil pipeline punctured by thieves exploded and killed 150 people at the Atlas Creek Islandin Lagos State.^[16] (May 12, 2006)
• 2006: A vandalised oil pipeline explodedin Lagos. Up to 500 people may have been killed.^[17] (December 26, 2006)

Feasibility of developing risk-informed guidance that could be used in making land use related decisions as one means of minimizing or mitigating hazards and risks to the public, pipeline workers, and the environment due to future hazardous liquids and petroleum product transmission pipelines. In assessing the feasibility of such an approach, the ministry should consider such factors as existing or proposed land use and zoning practices; competing needs of compatible uses, reallocation of land for effected dwellers including multiple uses of rights-of-way; pipeline design, age, diameter, pressurization, and burial depth; and the commodity transported. The Ministry should  also consider the various hazards posed by transmission pipelines to life, property, and the environment in the vicinity of these pipelines, as well as the need to balance pipeline safety and environmental resource conservation issues (e.g., preservation of trees and habitat) in pipeline rights-of-way (recognizing operators’ regulatory obligations to patrol rights-of-way, including inspection by air and land).

කොළඹ වරායේ සිට කොළොන්නාව දක්වා ඉන්ධන ප්‍රවාහනය කරනු ලබන භූගත නල පද්ධතියේ කඩිනම් අළුත්වැඩියා කටයුතු ඇරඹේ.

මාධ්‍ය අංශය
විදුලිබල හා බලශක්ති අමාත්‍යාංශය

කොළඹ වරායේ සිට කොලොන්නාව තෙල් ගබඩා සංකීර්ණය වෙත ඉන්ධන ප්‍රවාහනය කරනු ලබන, සී.පී.එස්.ටී.එල්. ආයතනය සතු, වසර 45 ක් පමණ පැරණි  භූගත නල පද්ධතිය මේ වනවිට දැඩි ලෙස අබලන් වී ඇති අතර ඒ තුළින් තෙල් කාන්දුවීම හේතුවෙන්  විවිධ අවස්ථා වලදී තෙල් සංස්ථාවට විවිධ ගැටළුවලට මුහුණ දීමට සිදුවී ඇත.

මෙම භූගත නල පද්ධතිය තුළින් තෙල් කාන්දුවිමෙන් සිදුවන අපතේයාම සහ නල පද්ධතියේ අළුත්වැඩියා කටයුතු සිදුකිරීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් විදුලිබල හා බලශක්ති අමාත්‍ය පාඨලී චම්පික රණවක මැතිතුමාගේ විශේෂ අවධානය යොමුවූ අතර එතුමාගේ උපදෙස් පරිදි, සී.පී.එස්.ටී.එල්. ආයතනය ආයතනයේ සභාපති රොෂාන් ගුණවර්ධන මහතාගේ උපදේශකත්වය මත, එම ආයතනයේ සේවකයින්ගේ සෘජු  දායකත්වයෙන් මෙම භූගත නල පද්ධතියේ අළුත්වැඩියා කටයුතු මෙසේ සිදුකිරීමට පියවර ගෙන තිබේ.

ඒ අනුව එහි පළමු අදියර වශයෙන් මෙම නල මාර්ගයේ බ්ලූමැන්ඩල් ප්‍රදේශයේ ඇති මීටර් 100 ක පමණ දිගින් යුත් කොටසක් කපා ඉවනත්කර ඒ සඳහා අළුත් නල පද්ධතියක් එළිමේ කටයුතු සිදුකර, එම නලය පවතින නලයට සම්බන්ධ කිරීම, අද (04) පෙරවරුවේ මහවත්ත ප්‍රදේශයේදී සිදු කරන ලදී.