Sri Lanka’s environmentalists will be launching countrywide protests and awareness campaigns against the environmental destruction being caused by the mega luxury Araliya hotel owned by business tycoon Dudley Sirisena, President Sirisena’s brother, in the Unawatuna area.
In addition to the damage already caused to fauna and exotic flora along with the glamorous corals and marine creatures, a serious impact of pollution on water streams is now evident due to the plan of releasing 60% of waste water after treatment to the sea on completion of the project, they claimed.
The location is also a very rare site that can be used for research work on continental drift. The adverse impact of the hotel project is a threat to this “hot- spot” with biological diversity, ecologists claimed.
The use of heavy machinery at the hotel site has exerted an impact on the deep-rooted soil layer and it will be fast deteriorating resulting sea erosion generating a possibility of future landslide in the entire zone including Unawatuna and globally renowned Rumassala sanctuary.
Ignoring the protests of residents and environmentalists, Dudley Sirisena’s Araliya Group has completed the construction work of the luxury Araliya hotel and it is scheduled to be opened this year.
Araliya Group is set to double its hotel room range to 1,014 rooms with the launching of Araliya Unawatuna and Araliya Red in Nuwara Eliya this year, Dudley Sirisena boasted at a media conference recently.
Araliya Group currently owns and manages 500-600 hotel rooms in Polonaruwa, Nuwara Eliya and Galle districts, he said.
Environmentalists claim that President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Minister of Environment at present, has turned a blind eye and allowed his brother to build a massive 16 story edifice for a hotel complex that impacts the natural habitat in the area including the Rumassala Sanctuary.
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