CEA to fight Bloemendhal stench

CHAMIKARA WEERASINGHE

The Central Environment Authority is looking at ways of dealing with the acute stench emanating from the garbage mountain at Bloemendhal Road despite matters pertaining to garbage handling is the sole responsibility of the CMC.

The Director General of Central Environment Authority, Pasan Gunasena yesterday said, they are looking into the possibilities, technicalities, the technologies, and various ways and means to address this problem of the stench.

He was responding to a Daily News inquiry into the collapse of the garbage mountain at Bloemendhal Road damaging several shanty houses, while posing an immediate environmental threat in the vicinity.

As pointed out by the CMC sources, the garbage pile at Bloemendhal Road is 80 feet tall. According to the CEA Director General this is posing a major health hazard to the people living in the area. He said they have directed the Colombo Municipal Council under its Environmental Act to maintain the Bloemendhal waste site without harming the environment.

However, he said, “we are also aware of the problems faced by the Colombo Municipal Council in handling this task.”

”After considering the situation, the CEA has decided to assist the CMC to resolve the Bloemendhal waste problem,” he said.

Asked if there was a possibility to manage the garbage by way of using garbage recycling techniques, Gunasena said , “the problem has gone too far over a long period of time that there would be no “on site” solution to the matter.”

”It definitely needs an alternative and a separate site to mange the garbage inflow,” he added.

Asked why the Bloemendhal problem has prolonged without being addressed by those responsible for waste disposals and safer environment, Gunasena said, “the people who live in the peripheries of Colombo has been shouting , ‘ Kolamba Kunu Apata Epa ‘ (‘We don’t need garbage from Colombo’). But the fact remains that even their garbage, that is the garbage from the suburbs are also brought to Colombo.”

”Besides, millions of people, who are not residents in Colombo, come to the city everyday,” he stressed. “They are also responsible for generating a considerable amount of waste in Colombo. And they are not tax payers of the city,” he explained.

”Whenever a project is contemplated to address the waste disposal problems in the city, there are pressure groups of the environment lobby bent on opposing these moves. Thus various proposals to address this issue has been still born,” he explained.