Oil Pipeline Places Over 400 Families Under Threat

• CMC to discuss evacuation

By Indika Sri Aravinda

The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) is to evacuate over 400 families who are living above an oil pipeline located between the Colombo port and the Kollonawa oil refinery.
The move follows concerns for their safety in the eventuality of a fire breaking out within the pipeline, which was recently damaged.
Secretary of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) National Workers Union, Ananda Palitha, told The Sunday Leader that there are families living within a distance of 3 km above the 5 km long pipeline.
He said that there is no system in place to immediately extinguish a fire if it breaks out in the oil pipeline which was built in 1960.
Palitha said that 468 families in Bloemendhal Road, Thotalanga, Mahawatha and Orugodawatte are living just above the oil pipeline and if the pipeline explodes they will be directly affected. He also said that in some areas lamposts have been planted above the pipeline which adds a  risk factor to both the families in the area and the oil pipeline as well.
CMC Deputy Mayor Titus Perera told The Sunday Leader that a meeting will be held with the families tomorrow (Monday) to address the situation and discuss a possible evacuation.
Meanwhile Deputy Minister of Petroleum Resources Sarala Gunawardena said that the families living above the pipeline are staying there illegally.