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Action on illegal constructions sans sanitary facilities by local bodies

by Florence Wickramage

Local authorities are adopting strict measures on illegal constructions without sanitary facilities along the Kelani river under the Kelani River Pavithra Ganga Programme initiated by the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry, Minister Rukman Senanayake told the Daily News yesterday.

Several improvements are visible since the launching of the programme which includes removal of saw dust dumps and diverting several domestic sewage direct inputs to the river.

Thirteen local authorities, the Central Environment Authority, the Western Provincial Council in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and other stake holders are involved in the programme.

The special National Steering Committee which is directing and coordinating the programme have identified six major areas as relevant to the pollution of the Kelani River. These are Solid Waste Management, Urban Development and River Bank Erosion, Sewage Disposal, Water Supply and Drainage, Industrial Pollution and Natural Disaster Management. The Committee has obtained this first hand information through an observation tour it undertook beginning at the river mouth and sailing upstream up to Avissawella.

The tour has also revealed the shocking status of pollution in a number of places of the river which damages have been caused by ad hoc buildings and by unauthorized settlements dumping solid waste and discharging domestic sewage into the river.

In the meantime arrangements are under way to make political administrations aware regarding the facilitation of implementation of activities in the work plan by addressing issues which have not been resolved so far, Minister Senanayake said.

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