Abstract:
The swift industrial development in Sri Lanka, amidst such rapid
industrialisation, has produced a long-lasting economic growth along with severe
environmental degradation, the most apparent of these being industrial water
pollution. The discharge of effluents from textile, rubber processing and tanneries
to rivers and water resources has led to ecological degradation, depletion of
biodiversity and increased health hazards for water-based communities. Despite
the existence of statutory instruments such as the National Environmental Act,
this article asserts that Sri Lanka’s environmental management regime continues
to be based on anthropocentrism by treating nature as a resource under the control
of human beings for their own purpose rather than valuing it in its own right and
deserving of independent legal recognition and protection. This anthropocentric,
curative approach has been structurally unable to prevent environmental damage
or to secure ecosystemic restoration. Building upon ecocentric legal theory, this
article develops the Rights of Nature as a reframing of environmental law
regulation. The Rights of Nature approach breaks down the property paradigm of
nature and acknowledges that ecosystems are rights-bearing entities with the right
to exist, flourish, regenerate, and be restored. Operations which provide legal
personality to natural entities reframe environmental harm as a transgression of
ecological rights, instead of just an infringement on human interests and
consequently enhance the enforceability and access to justice. Methodologically,
the article engages in doctrinal and comparative legal analysis, focusing on Sri
Lanka’s legislative regime, juridical responses and key industrial water pollution
incidents such as the Rathupaswala drinking water crisis, Kelani River diesel spill
and Chunnakam groundwater contamination. These accounts of domestic failings
are then measured against international examples of Rights of Nature, specifically
Ecuador’s constitutional recognition of the rights of nature, New Zealand’s legal
personhood model to the Whanganui River, and India’s judicial recognition of the
legal personhood of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers The article maintains that
embedding Rights of Nature within Sri Lanka’s legal system through
constitutional interpretation, statutory reform and judicial creativity provides a
principled ecocentric solution to industrial water pollution. It argues that
harmonizing human and ecological rights is particularly important for forging
environmental justice, sustainable development, and lasting water security in Sri
Lanka.
