Yearbook 2017
Sri Lanka. According to
Countryaah.com, hundreds of Sri Lankans demonstrated in
January to stop a deal between Sri Lanka and state-owned
Chinese company China Merchants Port Holdings. The agreement
involved a Chinese industrial zone in the port of Hambantota
that China would pay to establish. During the protests,
clashes occurred between protesters and police in which one
person died and about 40 were injured.
In the capital Colombo, 21 people were killed in April
when a 91-meter high dump tip collapsed after it started
burning in it. 145 small houses were buried in the rubbish
dumps. One of the survivors told the media how he heard a
massive sound like thunderstorms when the garbage dump
collapsed. Then the tiles in his house were crushed and
dirty water seeped in.
More than 200 people were reported to have died and more
than 100 people were missing following heavy monsoon rains
in May. The rains, which caused landslides and heavy
flooding, forced more than half a million residents to flee
their homes. The weather mainly affected the country's
eastern and western parts and is said to have been the worst
in Sri Lanka since 2003. As a result of the rain, an intense
dengue fever epidemic that in July had caused 300 deaths and
infected more than 100,000 people, according to Sri Lanka's
health department.
In July, the agreement between Sri Lanka and Chinese
state-owned China Merchants Port Holdings was finalized -
despite strong protests from residents as well as trade
unions and opposition supporters. The agreement means that
China, for the equivalent of US $ 1.1 billion, will have the
right to lease and operate the port of Hambantota for 99
years. In addition, 70% of the revenue will go to China. Sri
Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the deal
would offer Sri Lanka 100,000 new jobs. In addition, the
country's acute foreign debt would be reduced. According to
the Reuters news agency, Sri Lanka had a foreign debt of US
$ 26.52 billion in March. But critics in both Sri Lanka and
the US, India and Japan expressed fear that the port could
be used for military purposes in the future as well.
In August, the country's foreign minister Ravi
Karunanayake resigned after he was suspected of a bond
fraud.
The government announced in September that a large
cannabis cultivation of 40 hectares would be allowed in the
country. The annual production was estimated at 25 tonnes
and would be protected by the military. Cannabis is
prohibited from smoking and holding in Sri Lanka, but is
used as an ingredient in the manufacture of traditional
medicine. Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said in a
statement that the decision was made after naturalists
complained that the quality of the drug could be poor when
it was obtained through courts after police seizures.
According to the media, any surplus of cannabis would be
sold to the US market.
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