• Kimbulapitiya manufacturers find the festive season profitable

While the cry of the Asian koel notifies us of the arrival of the Avurudu season, it is often the lighting of firecrackers that today signal the dawning of an auspicious time during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. Despite safety warnings about explosives and awareness about air and noise pollution, especially about how these affect animals, people associate firecrackers with celebrations and so, the practice continues.

Most of Sri Lanka’s firecrackers originate from a village called Kimbulapitiya, where men and women, their hands stained silver, work with gunpowder to make firecrackers of all shapes and forms. The Daily Morning Brunch recently paid Kimbulapitiya a visit, where we had the opportunity to speak to firecracker manufacturers about the challenges faced by the industry and how it is doing post-economic-crisis.

A licence to misuse

Firecracker manufacturers are issued a licence to purchase gunpowder, but according to Kimbulapitiya’s firecracker makers, this licence is often misused. Unfortunately, this is ‘encouraged’ by authorities who do not follow-up on manufacturers’ use of the explosive material issued to them. 

There are about 225 gunpowder licence holders for the production of fireworks in the Gampaha District, and among them are a group of licence-holders who do not produce fireworks but, due to political affiliations, have licences. Anyone can buy gun powder from them, which should be brought to the attention of the authorities, the manufacturers said.

Fires caused by the production and storage of firecrackers in places that do not meet the minimum space requirements for safe storage, as well as in residential homes have continued to cause loss of life and destruction to property, but the manufacturers we spoke to claimed that authorities were reluctant to stop these dangerous activities or enforce the law.

High costs lead to low quality

Suren Fernando, a traditional firecracker manufacturer, shared his views with us, saying that there is a higher demand for firecrackers and other products during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year compared to other festive seasons. This is because all Sri Lankans join in the celebrations. In addition to this, many families light crackers to mark auspicious times that call for the performance of various rituals.

“Due to the lack of timely supply of the required material, production could not be carried out continuously. And only 50% of the gunpowder quota was obtained,” he said.

It was also pointed out that due to low quality production, the sound of crackers was dull and the length of a ‘bambara chakra’ short. “A barrel of aluminium can be used to make 90,000-100,000 high-quality ‘nila kuuru’ or sparklers. But due to the increase in aluminium prices, people make 220,000 sparklers out of a barrel. It is important to introduce proper regulations and standards to this industry,” he urged.

High demand

Newton Fernando, another traditional fireworks manufacturer, said that during the economic crisis, the depreciation of the rupee led to the price of Potassium perchlorate, which is required for fireworks or ‘ahas kuuru’, increasing from Rs. 10,000 a barrel to Rs. 40,000. “Despite it being said that the economic crisis has ended and that the country is out of bankruptcy, the price of Potassium perchlorate hasn’t dropped,” Fernando said.

Despite this, business was good. Fernando said: “There is a good demand. Vendors are coming to us to purchase products. Stocks are not piling up and sales are good.”

Another fireworks manufacturer, Shammi Fernando, stated that he received sufficient raw materials and had not stockpiled the fireworks he made. “The demand is high and sales are high during this festive season,” he said.

Translated by Shailendree Wickrama Adittiya

(The writer is based in Negombo and contributes to the web-based platform, ‘NegomboToday’)