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by Shirajiv Sirimane

Unawatuna Beach has been categorised as the best beach in the world by the Discovery TV Channel recently. Unawatuna has come first from a survey of ten 'best beaches'.

Situated 75 miles from Colombo the Discovery program also highlighted the beach, Stilt fishing, corals, and the village life in the surrounding area.

The beaches included popular ones in United States and in Maldives.

Tourism in Unawatuna kicked off in the late 1970s and the first big hotel to be put up was the Unawatuna Beach Resort in 1980. According to the Manager of the Hotel Gimantha Jayasuriya tourism in the area has now picked up mainly due to the large beach.

"The main attraction in the Unawatuna beach is the fact that it is very calm and therefore swimming is possible even during the monsoon. During week end the beach is full of Sri Lankans.

Manager Jayasuriya said that the authorities must be more concerned about the clearing of garbage in the area. "This is done haphazardly and it is high time that the authorities seriously start thinking about this." he said.

A. Weeasinghe, a resident of the area said that the main road to Unawatuna is in a very sad state and this too should be looked in to. "The Wella Devalya is a popular place of interest and during poya days there is a big traffic jam in the road leading to the temple. He also said that since the road is so narrow only light vehicles are allowed. Police post

"When pilgrims or groups visit the beach they are forced to park their buses at the Galle Road and walk nearly a mile to the sea carrying their belongings. Beach boys also frequent the area rising security concerns for tourists. A mask maker M. Somasiri who was in business for the past 8 years says that Beach boys are also a problem. "The solution to overcome this is to have a police post in the area," he said.

Shani Bandara, a Hotel executive in Unawatuna said that the area had been already known the world over for their beach. "The Discovery program has once again endorsed it and with the peace returning to Sri Lanka we will have a very good season this year," she said.

Meanwhile legendary science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke who had been even highlighting Unawatuna in his books had said in a press release that it is high time that the authorities concentrate on the road to the Unawatuna beach. Following is the text of this release.

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