Sri Lanka’s licensing tiers do not match pollution risk. A pollution index, built through an ongoing RIA, will rank prescribed activities by risk to support fairer reform.
Sri Lanka’s Environmental Protection License (EPL) system is a key instrument for controlling industrial pollution under the National Environmental Act, No. 47 of 1980, and its protection and quality regulations. Gazette No. 2264/18 sorts 199 prescribed activities into four tiers (Parts A to D), but these do not reflect pollution risk. Activities with high pollution potential, such as toxic and scheduled waste facilities, incinerators, explosives manufacturing and bulk petroleum storage, sit in Part B, a lower tier than instant tea and coffee processing, which is in Part A beside oil refineries. Vehicle emission testing centers and hydro and wind plants of 3 MW or more are also in Part B. Iron and steel mills carry no scale threshold, and catch-all entries rely on wastewater volume alone, so concentrated pollution can fall into lower tiers or escape control. The Central Environmental Authority is conducting a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to precise this. A pollution index is being formulated to rank activities by risk, using pollutant intensity, scale, risk management and use of limited resources, to place each in the right tier. Work underway includes consultations, analysis of 2022-2026 licensing, monitoring and enforcement data, benchmarking against India, the EU and Malaysia, and cost-benefit analysis before a revised Gazette is proposed. This presentation shares the approach, early lessons and how a risk index can make licensing fairer and more credible.
H. L. Kamal Priyantha is the Deputy Director General (Environment Protection) at Sri Lanka's Central Environmental Authority, leading pollution control regulation and the EPL system.