Major international project to tackle marine litter near Sri Lanka

A major international project that will help reduce marine plastic litter from maritime transport and fishing sectors is up for a successful start, after getting 30 countries including Sri Lanka on board.

Sri Lanka has joined the Initiative as a partner country while India joined as a Lead partner country.

Solutions have been sought to tackle marine litter in the Lakshadweep Sea between Sri Lanka, Maldives and India.

As part of the ‘Prevention of Marine Litter in the Lakshadweep Sea’ (PROMISE) project, funded by the European Union (EU) through the SWITCH-Asia Programme. Government institutions, academia, NGOs, international development organizations and tourism industry associations gathered in Colombo for a policy roundtable discussion recently.

The PROMISE project has organized a series of policy roundtable meetings to look at solutions to tackle marine litter in the Lakshadweep Sea between Sri Lanka, Maldives and India.

This was a follow-up meeting to the first policy roundtable meeting held last year. The second policy roundtable meeting focused on policy benchmarking and discussion around adaptation to challenges and gaps in the Sri Lankan context, followed by the design and development of policy prototype solutions.

The Head of Cooperation from the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Mrs. Jenny Correia Nunes, delivered the keynote speech emphasizing that “while marine pollution is a transboundary issue, we need also to look at national solutions, considering that the economy of Sri Lanka depends substantially on its marine and coastal environments.”

The EU has been a driving force globally to achieve climate neutrality, and the PROMISE project can help the economies of Sri Lanka, Maldives and India to make a green transition and keep our seas clean.”

PROMISE is a 4-year project (2020-2024) supported by the European Union (EU) under the SWITCH-Asia Programme.

It promotes sustainable consumption and production in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The project activities target tourism clusters located along the Lakshadweep shorelines in the Maldives, Sri Lanka and India.

It aims to prevent the leakage of wastes from land-based sources into the Lakshadweep Sea. The project is implemented by the Maldives National University (MNU), in collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, the National Cleaner Production Centre, the Energy and Resources Institute, STENUM Asia, and adelphi research.