Prime Minister’s message:

On 05th of June every year, World Environment Day is celebrated across the globe to highlight the importance of environmental conservation.

The environment, critical to the existence both living and non-living things on earth, must be preserved at all times and everywhere without restraint.

We have experienced severe natural hazards and disasters in the recent past as a result of urbanization, inadequate development projects, destruction of natural resources, and switching from an environmentally friendly, traditional lifestyle to a more complex lifestyle with many requirements.

As a nation and as individuals, we can actively take part in addressing environmental challenges by changing our attitudes and even through small gestures that show our inborn respect for nature. Careful consumption of natural resources, proper dumping of waste, tree plantation and environmentally friendly gardening, and polythene and plastic reuse are just some of the measures that we can take in our day to day lives, to protect the environment.

The theme for 2018 is beating plastic pollution. In Sri Lanka we announced a ban on polythene that took effect from 1st of September 2017 in a bid to find a sustainable solution to solid waste management. Furthermore, we need to introduce and promote biologically degradable polythene and plastic, at the same time as encouraging small and medium scale entrepreneurs to producing more environmentally friendly alternatives to polythene.

As humans, we are bound to protect our environment. We are a product of our environment and the demise of the environment would be commensurate with our own demise. Therefore, on World Environment Day we shall commit ourselves to the protection of our ubiquitous partner, the environment.

Ranil Wickremesinghe
Prime Minister