quake fouls jhelum: Concerns are being raised over truckloads of debris generated by the October 2005 earthquake being dumped daily into the Jhelum river in Pakistan. Environmentalists say the waste contains many chemicals, which are polluting the waters of the river, disturbing its local ecosystem and threatening aquatic life. Since agriculture and livestock depend on the river water, there is a high risk of the pollutants entering the food chain and ultimately exposing people to the toxic chemicals. The dumping of debris would also increase sedimentation of waters behind the Mangla Dam built across the Jhelum.

Regulating gm food products: After five years of haggling over regulations to control the import of genetically modified (gm) food, the Sri Lankan government is now in the final stages of formulating laws that would impose strict labelling rules on such food. The business community has long been demanding reasonable and practical regulations