Colombo - our capital city

L.M. Samarasinghe

FLOATING MARKET: If you write to a non Sri Lankan friend living abroad and convey the message that during the recent heavy rains in Colombo several persons died by drowning in the streets and if that person has seen the floating Market in Bangkok he would surely think that we too have floating markets in Colombo.

The floating market in Bangkok is an interesting tourist attraction. A fairly large size river has been converted to a street. On the two banks of the river are shops, eating houses, petrol stations and all other activities that you have in any street.

They have street lamps too to facilitate movement and business by night, traffic consists only of rowing boats and motor boats constantly moving up and down carrying people engaged in buying and selling and also tourists enjoying this interesting floating operation. The floating market is about 30 miles long and there could be death by drowning if any body tried to move in the wrong way.

But to have deaths by drowning in the streets of Colombo would be quite difficult for any one who had not seen Colombo during that time of floods to understand how there could be death by drowning in the streets.

This was of course an unavoidable indication to the extremely bad and inefficient management of the resources in and around Colombo, our capital city. The British Administration had taken very good care in building this city originally. The roads were all meant for the carts because we did not have motor vehicles during the early period.

Many of the roads had been paved with cut stone bricks and later on the roads were macadamized and tarred.

The drains were well constructed below the level of the road surface with iron gratings to receive the water during rain storms. The British Administration had got the engineers to construct drains below the level of the road surface and the street did not get flooded during times of rain.

When the ground was being dug to lay the foundation for the Liberty Plaza building at Kollupitiya they found the underground tunnel that carried the water from the underground drains. That was closed up because the city administration was not interested in restoring the underground system of drains to carry the storm water without causing problems to the people.

About two years ago it was seen how the underground drain system at the Eye Hospital junction was being closed up and today the road surface at that point gets flooded even after a slight shower and pedestrians and people wanting to board buses undergo much inconvenience.

The British Administration had built pavements for the convenience of the pedestrians on many of the city roads, particularly the Olcott Mawatha (Norris Road) Main Street and many other roads in Pettah, Fort area, Maradana, Borella, Kollupitiya, Bambalapitiya, Wellawatta and most other areas. But what has happened to the pavements in some of the busiest areas?

The pavements in these areas have been taken over by the pavement hawkers and pedestrians have to compete with vehicles in using the road surface. Some pavement hawkers have even built a roof over their business point in some places causing terrible inconvenience to pedestrians.

In the case of the Main Street the pavement on one side has been completely captured by the buildings adjoining the pavement and anybody could see the destruction of the pavement and the inconvenience to the people who need to walk there.

Did the city administration permit those constructions or have their officers forgotten the existence of those facilities which were originally intended for the convenience of customers and others who need pavements to walk on and not get injured by moving vehicles.

The low lying marshy lands on the eastern side of the city took in the extra surface water during times of heavy rain and the roads remained comfortable to the road users. There were no floods on city roads.

The low lying marshy lands have been filled up by various groups and buildings have come up on most of these lands. Those marshy lands, belonged to Government and it is difficult to understand how the relevant authorities did not see the damages that would result after the filling of these marshy lands.

The city authorities need to approve the construction of these buildings on the filled up lands and they did not foresee the results of such filling up and constructions. The floods that we now have are the results of these unwise and damaging actions taken by the city authorities and the lack of foresight and sense of responsibility on the part of all relevant authorities.

There are several water courses that flow across the city land at different parts. The cities in other countries have utilised these water courses for the advantage of the city and the people therein.

In Paris the Water courses are the city lungs. They are maintained very carefully and tired people come to rest and relax on the seats and benches kept on the banks of these water courses. They grow flowers in suitable locations and people come with their children and relax on these most attractive places.

The sheets of water there in are extremely clean and emanate no repulsive smells. The city authorities take all necessary measures to make these water courses the city lungs and they provide much satisfaction and pleasure to everyone.

To cite another example from the East, the water courses in Bangkok are being utilised for transportation of people. In Motor boats people are constantly moving around along the water courses.

They are maintained reasonably well and serve as an asset to the people and the city. What about the Water courses in Colombo? There are several water courses that go past most parts of the city and during days of the British administration the water course were utilised for transportation of people by canoes or small boats.

It has been said that around 1930 you could travel from Maradana to Wellawatta for a boat fee of two "thuttus" (three cents) This shows that right things did take place even here during a certain period in the past.

What is the position today? The water courses in Colombo have been taken over by the unauthorised shanty dwellers who have constructed their shanty dwellings on the banks on both sides.

The water is highly polluted and the shanty dwellers throw in the dirt and all much into the water and the water remains black and produce an offensive smell all the time.

The appearance of these water sheets is an eyesore and a disgrace to the city. The city authorities have not shown any interest in maintaining these water courses to the advantage of the city dwellers.

There are shanties in every Municipal Ward in Colombo, no action has been taken to control the spread of the shanties. If the city authorities are interested those shanty dwellers could be settled in regular premises at suitable locations.

Prior to 1956 Vanathamulla was a pleasing greenery with a stream running in the centre. There were the quarters of the Prison Department on one side and the Oval ground on the other side. At that time there were no shanties there at all. Some politicians gave the new look to Vanathamulla and today it has almost become the underworld headquarters. Several of the houses have more than one floor and the entire area is very congested.

The population of Colombo is about a million people and 50% of them live in the shanties. Some of the shanty dwellers are well known underworld operators and they are often harnessed for dirty jobs by interested parties particularly in the political groups.

When half the population of a city live in unauthorised shanties the prevailing situation would positively be extremely bad. It is well known that certain gangs from the underworld control the night life of the Colombo streets.

In Beijing the Capital of China there are no unauthorised residents at all. A regular city dweller could invite any of his relatives to visit him. But after the visit they are expected to get back to their base and not hang around in the city.

This is a very strict rule. In Tokyo the Capital of Japan people could visit eating houses or Cinemas and other regular places by night. But nobody could be doing nothing in the streets. If anyone is seen in the street doing nothing he would surely be lockedup.

These would appear to be simple matters. But they speak volumes for the high sense of responsibility on the part of city authorities.

Colombo is known for other peculiarities. This is comparatively a small city covering an area of about 15 square miles. Within the city there are about eight lakhs of vehicles during the day, according to Police reports. It is impossible to contain all these vehicles on the city roads.

The movement of vehicles is very slow. A long time is taken to cover a short distance particularly by bus. Colombo is supposed to have almost all the makes of vehicles in the world. The atmosphere is highly polluted. The air that the people breathe in is most unclean. Other countries adopt various rules to keep down the number of vehicles on the city roads.

The garbage problem is becoming more and more unmanageable. There are many mounds of garbage in every ward and on many streets. The city authorities engage contractors to transport these mounds of garbage from one place to another. There has not been an attempt to find a more acceptable solution to the problem.

In order to find a solution to this problem there need to be cooperation and understanding between the householders, the city authorities and the central government. Let us see how this problem is being attended to in a bigger city in the U.S.A. to Los Angeles in California.

The City Corporation engages various agents who visit the households on a certain day in the week. Each household gets five large plastic bags and the house owner puts all the perishable waste matter into one bag. The wastepaper, plastic and polythene material, glass and tin are all put into different bags.

In each house there would be five different bags to be handed over to the vehicle of the collecting agent on the appointed day. If two or more items have been put into one bag that bag would not be taken over by the collecting agent.

The collecting agent hands over all the bags with the perishable items to the fertilizer making factory, the paper bags are given to the paper recycling factory, the polythene and plastic bags to the recycling place, the glass bags to the glass factory and the tin bags to the tin making factory.

This could easily be organized here too if there is a will to do so. In Colombo too there are some private places where they collect these waste items separately for recycling purposes. The city authorities should educate themselves on this major problem and do what is needed to recycle what could be recycled and produce manure using the perishable waste material. This could give them very good income too.

It is also important that the householders need to be educated on how to cooperate with the city authorities in this connection. It must be made an offence to throw a bag with mixed waste material on the road side.

Instant fines should be imposed on anyone found indulging in this offensive exercise. This is not a difficult task. But some determination on the part of the city authority is essential. What is today an offensive eyesore could be made into a profit creating exercise that would ensure a clean city that could give satisfaction to the people.