Garbage, garbage everywhere
Lakshmi DE SILVA
Garbage heaps like small hills all over the Colombo city are
polluting the environment. Garbage dumps on Bodhiraja Mawatha Pettah,
near Manning Market Pettah, Jampettah street, along Maradana Road,
Pickerings Road Kotahena, Grandpass and many other places in Colombo
were climbing higher and higher during the past week after the Supreme
Court ruling not to dump any more garbage on the huge Bloemendhal
garbage hill.
Colombo Municipal Council did not have a proper garbage removal
scheme though 700 tons of garbage were collected from the city daily.
This was the situation for several years and now it had become an
explosive issue, Colombo Municipal Commissioner Badrani Jayawardene
said. During the past the CMC paid two companies to clear the city's
garbage at Rs. 832.16 and around Rs. 600 per ton respectively. Annually
Rs. 250 million had been paid for garbage disposal but the company
contracted to produce fertilizer did not produce any carbonic
fertilizer, she said.
Though there was a garbage dumping site at Madampitiya, Colombo 15
during the past, the CMC could not use that site now even in an
emergency situation to dump 200 tons of garage since there were
unauthorised buildings put up on the site. The residents oppose anyone
bringing garbage the Commissioner said.
The Supreme Court had given directions not to dump garbage at
Karadiyana or Bloemendhal Road but to use a new land at Mahara owned by
the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. Even former Western Province Chief
Minister Reginald Cooray had many opportunities to solve this problem
when several proposals came in for the entire Western Province. But he
too did not solve it.
In one instance there was an American company which brought a
proposal for Rs. 9.5 billion to dispose the garbage while a Sri Lankan
entrepreneur too proposed a project to dispose it for Rs. 1.5 billion
per year he said.
The CMC Opposition Leader Vasudeva Nanayakkara said the Supreme Court
ruling had suspended the monopoly of the company that breached the
peoples fundamental rights and brought health hazards to them.
Also the Supreme Court instructed the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to
allot a land from Mahara for garbage dumping, he noted.
|
