Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2019-06-04

Declaration of the Ma Oya Environmental Sensitive Reserve to solve the environmental issues in the Dankotuwa area

- A large number of environmental issues have been arisen in Dankotuwa area due to weather and climatic changes as well as improper clay mining in that area. As a remedial measure, it has been proposed to declare a strip of sufficient width on either side of Ma Oya Catchment area as an Environmental Sensitive Reserve. As such, the proposal made by H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment, to declare the part belonging to the North Western Province in the Reserve under the Environment Statute No.12 of 1990 and the part belonging to the Western Province under the National Environment (Amendment) Act, No.47 of 1980 as the Ma Oya Environmental Sensitive Reserve, was approved by the Cabinet.