Despite a Supreme Court order obtained in 2006 by the Mihisara Foundation, an environmental organisation in Bangadeniya in Chilaw, preventing the mining of sand in the Deduru Oya, illegal sand miners have begun destroying the Deduru Oya ecosystem again.
The Deduru Oya, which originates in the Matale hills and runs into the sea in Chilaw is the main source of water that mostly contributes to irrigation in the Puttalam and Kurunegala districts. The river basin mostly falls into the intermediate zone of the country. It is also a beautiful river which adds colour to nature. But incessant illegal sand mining for years on end has ruined the Deduru Oya aquatic ecosystem, deepened the river bed, eroded the river bank and river delta, lowered ground water levels, threatened water security and wrecked livelihoods of the people living in the Deduru Oya fertile river basin.
Owing to this excessive illegal river sand mining, sea water has also begun to flow upstream up to 10 kilometres resulting in well water in close proximity to the river gradually becoming salty.
According to environmental organisations and concerned citizen naturalists, large scale illegal river sand mining is said to have resumed along the banks of the Deduru Oya and on some fertile lands adjacent to the river. It is said that tractors and tipper trucks are being used indiscriminately for mining and transportation of sand on the sly. This wanton destruction to nature in defiance of the previous Supreme Court order has even led to clashes between unscrupulous sand miners and villagers.
Environmentalists and nature lovers say it is a matter for a great regret that several police stations in the Kurunegala district - Nikaweratiya, Rasnayakapura, Kobeigane, Bingiriya and Pallama, Arachchikattuwa, Chilaw in the Puttalam district have turned a blind eye to this serious environmental damage without abiding by the Supreme Court order.