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| Wednesday, 9 July 2003 |
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Ground Realities : Making waste-the Lankan way by Tharuka Dissanaike It would seem inauspicious to begin this column on a dirty note- but it has to be done. Garbage is not everyone's favourite topic, but it's certainly everyone's problem. Today, I discovered a new dump. Right at the northern entrance to Colombo city, a few hundred yards before proud billboards welcome travelers to the City of Colombo. By the side of the roundabout which leads the Negombo and Kandy highways on to the New Kelani Bridge, a pile of vegetable waste, old salmon tins and wet newspaper lay decomposing. Just the kind of thing you want to see on a Monday morning, to be sure. One often wonders whether local authorities have some age old vengeance against the Tourist Board. Or explain otherwise, why a majority of local bodies choose roadsides, and that too in the most frequently traveled routes, to dispose garbage. Disposing, in many cases, means merely dumping the waste (all kinds of it) on a flat open land, in full view of all passers-by. A very good example is Trincomallee. With peace, Trinco's garbage collection has grown by leaps and tons- and where else would they choose to put this waste, but en route to Nilaweli, the best beach resort in all of Eastern Province, arguably the whole country. Tourists (and locals too) must surely enjoy the sight of millions of sili sili bags flying across the thorny scrub and dogs, cats and crows scrounging around the few-acre wide dump on the roadside. But never mind the tourist traveler, what if you are one of the unlucky people forced to live or work in the vicinity of a pile of garbage? The constant nauseating smell (try walking down Thotalanga), the flies, the mosquitoes, rats and rodents, stray dogs (and cats), crows carrying bits and pieces only to drop them on roofs, water tanks and gardens... What if the Municipal or Urban Council garbage pile is soiling your water supply ( Hatton, take note) and your children are suffering from inexplicable diseases all the time...Whom do you blame? Who can be held responsible for messing up your water, your health and peace of mind (surely peace is not on the agenda if your neighbourhood stinks of rotting vegetables all the time)? It is quite easy to blame local authorities. What is scary though, is that many of them have no idea how to clean up their own act. This was amply demonstrated when 11 of the biggest Municipalities in the country were hauled before the Court of Appeal early June and given six weeks to submit to Court, detailed reports of the manner in which they plan to dispose of garbage in a way that will not constitute a public nuisance and a national problem. This case was filed by the Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) initially in 2001 against the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) for not exercising its mandate to force local authorities to adopt more people-friendly methods of garbage disposal. Despite the country's historical lack of organized garbage disposal, there is enough legislation already in the books to support it. According to the National Environmental Act, anyone discharging, depositing or emitting waste into the environment must get prior approval from the CEA in the form of an Environment Protection License. Otherwise the act of waste dumping is considered an offence. The country also has an impressive plan for Solid Waste Management, prepared in 1999, that too has been reduced to an academic exercise. So the PILF asked the Court that the CEA be ordered to use the teeth given to them to bring errant local authorities to book. In Court, however, the CEA pleaded that its attempts to enforce regulations in the Environmental Act are met with stoic non-cooperation from the local authorities. In July 2001, the CEA was directed by Court to issue notice on all the local authorities in Sri Lanka, except those in the North and East, to abide by the regulations, threatening legal action if they do not comply. By July 2002, a large majority of local authorities had complied with the directive and submitted their plans for more environmentally-friendly modes of waste disposal. But the 11 Municipal Councils, among them some of the biggest and most influential, who failed to comply with the CEA directive were then made respondents to the case and the mayors had to present themselves in court to explain their position. What transpired is that many large Municipalities, this includes among others Colombo, Dehiwala-Mt. Lavinia, Kotte, Kandy, Badulla, and Negombo have very little idea what to do with the garbage that is collected daily. There are some isolated projects where garbage is sorted at the dump and recycling and compost making is being tried out. But by far these are exceptions and not the rule. Some years ago the Colombo Municipality was well on the way to introducing household-level garage sorting which would make recycling easy but this too fell by the wayside. While waiting for the State agencies to get their act together, and clean up the mess, there are many things that the public can do to reduce the menace of garbage. Garbage is created. It is created by us. By households, factories, shops, markets and hospitals. Being conscious of the waste generated by each of us as we go about our daily business is a first step towards creating less waste- and then, reducing the load for the local authorities to clear up. * Try to use as few 'sili sili' bags as possible * Reuse the bags you HAVE to use * Invest in a composting barrel * Buy refillable and reusable bottles and containers for drinks, detergents and food items. * Use recycled toilet paper * Buy few disposable products as possible (avoid cans, plastic cups and fizzy drinks in throw-away bottles). |
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