Matt Bevan

I'm Matt Bevan, and this is If You're Listening.

If You're Listening

In November 2010, a big opening ceremony was held in Sri Lanka.

There were dozens of drummers, dancers and government officials present.

It was a real party atmosphere, which was surprising given where the event was being held.

But despite very recent catastrophes, the folks there were clearly very excited about the future.

Not only was Sri Lanka spending billions of dollars on new infrastructure, it was also trying to win a bid against Australia to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Hambantota.

The trouble was they were facing quite a handicap.

I'm afraid I've never heard of Hambantoka, so I had to look it up on the map.

It's not surprising the Australian officials who were also trying to bid for the Commonwealth Games hadn't heard of Hambantota.

It was a city of only around 50,000 people, and yet there was this massive effort to put it on the map, primarily because it was the hometown of the sitting Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The president was dumping enormous funds into the city, building an international airport there and an enormous artificial shipping port, dug using enormous machinery out of a patch of coastal farmland.

That's what the big party was about.

The inauguration of this new harbour on President Rajapaksa's 65th birthday.

The thing is, though, the harbour wasn't actually ready.

There was an enormous rock sitting in the mouth of the port, just beneath the surface of the water.

Thankfully, they discovered the rock with an underwater survey before any large ships learnt about it the very, very hard way.

But there was also another elephant in the room, literally.

Wild elephants, which had historically grazed in the area and were unperturbed by the large fences, regularly trampled through the port area looking for food.

As in much of the world, an exploding population of humans has created a war with nature.