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by Ravi Perera

Colombo just happens. People work, play, laugh and mourn with very little guidance from a centre. A tinkering shop over a public foot path, a loud game of cricket down a residential lane, a musical show at a busy junction that will keep the entire neighbourhood awake all night or a long funeral procession which blocks traffic for hours will not raise even an eye brow in our city.

A person coming from a more regulated and disciplined culture will be surprised at our ready acceptance of these infringements. But that is how Colombo works!

Our capital city now has a population close to two million. Greater Colombo has expanded to suburbs once considered way out like Battaramulla, Hokandara, Modera and Bellanwila.It was not planned.

Garbage dumping continues relentlessly

Over crowding in the city forced it to spread out. In this fast-expanding city most people live along narrow and rutty roads with little amenities. Connections for basic requirements such as electricity, water and telephone take incredibly long. Poor sanitation and drainage breeds flies during the day and mosquitoes in the night.

Uncontrolled and haphazard development has turned Colombo into a confusing mass of buildings and a maze of dusty and dirty streets. The city roads are obviously inadequate and there is absolutely no thought given to the need for public parking. Road names and signs on many streets have just disappeared. Bad paving and maintenance creates a lot of dust and puddles when it rains. The noise from the cacophony of car horns of nervy drivers, blazing radios of friendly neighbours and musical minded Kotthu makers makes sleep almost impossible until late night.

Yet for all this, Colombo is a very beautiful city. Many well-traveled persons vote it the most livable city in the sub continent. Situated by the beautifully blue Indian ocean, blessed with several lakes and many flowing canals, small rises in the geography that break the monotony of flatness and the considerable number of parks that have survived the degradations of development give it a character very few other cities in the region have. Colombo is also quite green and relatively clean. And as cities in the Indian sub continent go it is not too big and therefore more easily managed.

But these are natural blessings and not our achievements. On that score obviously there is much to be done.

Granted, the city management has many demands to meet with its inadequate income base. But there are things we can do with small investments that can enhance the quality of the city and make it more livable.

Foremost among our priorities should be to preserve, improve and increase the "lungs" of the city. By this I mean that we should protect our parks, open areas and trees.

Many of the park areas in the city have been encroached on. Marshy lands, which are home to a lot of native fauna and flora, are being filled up relentlessly. We have seen schools, flats and other utilities built on them. Some public parks have been turned into private sports stadiums to which the public no longer has access. There are indeed very few places where a Colombo man can take his family for a walk today.

There is the once beautiful Municipal Cricket Ground right in front of St Bridget's Convent. It used to have an iron fence and often when we drove past a cricket match was in progress and was visible through the fence. It was indeed a pleasure to observe the game for that fleeting moment.

There were of course many spectators at these matches. Now this ground is covered with an ugly brick wall and I am told is earmarked for a cultural center. Surely we don't need more buildings in this beautiful part of the city! We need more parks and recreational areas for the city deweller. It cannot be that difficult for the Municipality to find a club that wants to use the grounds for sports and recreation on a long-term lease. It is an ideal place to have facilities for rugby, hockey, cricket, swimming, tennis, a practice range for golf etc.

In our youth the Colts Grounds down Park Road was where we played softball cricket .We would pitch our wickets in front of one of the large trees that surrendered it and mark the bowling crease inside the ground with rubber slippers. We played till it was too dark to see the ball and then fortified ourselves with a portello from the club before reluctantly going home to do our homework! Our youthful cricketing efforts should not be dismissed lightly; two of the lads who wielded the willow with us, Sidat Wettimuny and Priyanka Seneviratne went on to represent their country at the game. The Colts at the time was a beautiful, friendly and open park.

Who ever is in charge of this ground now is obviously not a lover of trees and has chopped down most of the magnificent trees that surrounded it. They are also busy building an ugly wall around the grounds. A few years back the Municipality took over a part of the ground adjacent to the Isipathana/Park Road junction and built some tatty flats for its own engineers.

The users of the park by way of compensation are given a display of the washed laundry from these flats and occasionally some loud music when walking by! These flats took away most of the park area not covered by the cricket ground. So, between an insensitive and selfish Municipality and a ground management of a somewhat limited aesthetic sense a beautiful open park has been turned into a boxed in piece of green. I am in awe of the way developed countries manage their city parks.

The Hyde Park in London and the Central Park in New York among other thousands of parks in these countries are essential viewing for all our clueless park managers. These have very minimum buildings and no walls. In a hot tropical country we need open spaces as opposed to the walled in sports stadiums that most of our parks are fast becoming.

It is also evident that most of our recreational parks are concentrated in and around Colombo 5 and 7.There are hardly any open areas in places like Kotahena, Borella and Mattakkuliya.

The Vihara Maha Devi Park, the tree lined Reid Avenue and Green Path are a pride to the city. These broad tree lined roads were designed and made during the colonial times and are what city roads in a tropical country should be. Typically, we have not been able to make roads of this quality since but have renamed quite a few of the old roads.

The marine drive is probably the best thing that has happened to Colombo for a long time. It gives us a beautiful drive along the beach, however short it may be at present.

But typically, there is no provision for public parking along this road. As the road becomes busier it will be necessary for there to be parking especially for those who use the beach. We should learn from the deficiencies of the Galle road when designing new thoroughfares.

Another feature that can immensely enhance the value of the Marine Drive would be a bicycle/walking track alongside the road preferably on the seaside. This is a standard feature of roads in developed countries especially when they are in an area close to a beach. Roads and other infrastructure must be made user friendly and contribute towards the totality of services available in a city.

Walking along the Marine Drive it was very disappointing to observe the amount of man made rubbish that has accumulated between a famous restaurant in Wellewatte and the sandy beach. I do not know who is responsible for the garbage but surely these business concerns can become good corporate citizens and help dispose of it. As it is, it is a health hazard to the neighbours as well as the diners at this restaurant.

Our canal banks are also potential recreation/utility areas. Joggers and walkers who now have only a few places in the city to exercise can use walking tracks built along these canals.

No city will sparkle unless its citizens take pride in it. The amount of garbage that is deposited by the citizens of Colombo in our streets and parks is truly appalling. Monday morning at the Galle Face Green will show the callousness of the city dwellers when it comes to polluting a public place. As long as the garbage is deposited outside ones residence it does not seem to bother them.

City wardens who strictly enforce a no litter policy with on the spot fines, especially in public places, can soon bring a change in the public attitude. This exercise can be quite effectively carried out in places like the Galle Face Green, the Zoo, Fort Bus Stand and Railway Station and the big market places. Of course, the wardens will need security and there should be plenty of garbage bins!

These are a few of the ideas that our city fathers could consider in their efforts to develop Colombo's infrastructure and livability. A city is not just a lot of buildings and traffic. It is a culture. Colombo's culture must have arts, sports, recreation, colour and vibrancy. We must also encourage our citizens to be environment conscious and be concerned about the city.

Colombo should be a place we are proud to live in.

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