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Tuesday, 24 August 2010

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Government flats nobody’s concern

It is hardly surprising that a majority of dengue cases have been detected in Government flats. These flats as is evident to anyone is in a perennially neglected and unkempt state. The responsibility has to be borne by both the State and the flat dwellers themselves. It appears that the State’s responsibility ends with the building of the flats. Their maintenance and upkeep it seems is not its concern. This despite the regular payments made by these flat dwellers to the Government. It is correct to state that the authorities have by and large neglected these flats leaving the tenants to their own devises after taking possession.

Today new structures have been built into these flats by some of the dwellers that have caused the blockage of sewerage and free flow of rainwater prompting Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa to order the demolition of these structures.

The congestion in these flats and the lack of proper amenities have also made them fertile ground for the breeding of diseases.

According to a news item in our inside pages yesterday the highest number of dengue cases have been reported from ill maintained Government flats in Colombo with uncleaned gutters and downpipes. This despite the frenetic efforts of the CMC to rid the city of the dengue threat. If only it had cleared the foul environment surrounding these flats half of its battle would have been won. Because most of these flats are a veritable eyesore with garbage strewn entrances, muddy conditions and heavy overgrowth creating a happy hunting ground for the dengue mosquito. How these conditions escaped the eye of the CMC is a mystery.

There is also vice such as the sale of drugs within the confines of these flats which have become the regular hang outs of undesirable and anti-social elements who threaten the peace loving flat dwellers. The Government should consider establishing a well-manned Police post in the vicinity of the larger flats to combat this menace.

With the increasing congestion in the city of Colombo and shrinking land space, Government flats started to mushroom at a rapid pace catering largely to the lower, middle class segments mostly comprising blue collar workers and their families.

A majority of them were able to obtain these flats by working for politicians. Even today most of these flat dwellers in the City are supporters of former Housing Ministers Pieter Keuneman and President Premadasa. They also form a substantial bloc vote for the party of such politicians. There was also a big demand for these flats due chiefly to the convenience of being in proximity to the schools and work places.

Be that as it may with the passage of time the flats went to pot with neglect and nobody it seemed cared.

It appears that they are of nobody’s concern going by their grimy facades, musty atmosphere and the general state of decay and neglect. The occupants seem resigned to this state and do not appear to be interested from what is evident.

With the city bursting at the seams compounded by the fresh migrations from the North and East the Government will soon have to face the challenge of proving housing in the city which is already confronted with shrinking land space.

The expanding shanties in the city that are coming up at a rapid pace mostly on State land is bound to further dwindle land space. The Government has started a program to resettle shanty dwellers in alternate sites by building flats.

Hopefully they too would not resemble the situation in the existing flats in the city where the rot set in long ago contributing not only to breeding of diseases such as dengue but also being centres of vice and anti-social activity.

With plans afoot to make Colombo a model city the Government should factor in the large army of flat dwellers. Ideally new flats should be constructed or the present ones given a good facelift and made pleasing to the eye. Apartment style dwellings like in other countries would be the best solution.

Steps are also needed to uplift the conditions of the many tenement schemes that dot the city landscape.

Today these schemes lack even some of the basic amenities such as water and proper toilet facilities. They are also havens for vice and criminal activities which naturally thrive under conditions of congestion and poverty.

The authorities should ponder deep on how to tackle the emerging housing problem and come up with wholesome solutions that would not only deal with congestion but also make Colombo the Garden City it was once known to be.

Geothermal energy development

Initiating a challenging geophysical field program:

The temperatures of hot springs are known to be much higher at greater depths. The reason for the occurrence of hot springs can be due to normal heat flow within the earth or due to the presence of Hot Dry Rock (HDR). A hot dry rock is created when hot magama from the interior of the earth intrudes into the earth's outer layer, also known as the crust. If the event is generally less than 500 million years old, it will still be anomalously hot due to the decay of radioactive material within.

Full Story

On slaves, enslavement and emancipation

If you take all the issues that the world should concern itself with, they will add up to more than 365. At the rate we are screwing up things around us and each other, we would soon have to set aside hours and minutes and might even celebrate/commemorate a World Anti Book-Burning Minute at the 19th minute of the 8th hour of the 29th day of June.

Full Story

Brooding over GSP+?

EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) is a trade arrangement by which EU provides preferential access to the EU market covering 120 countries in the Union to 176 developing countries in the form of reduced tariff for three years at a time, encompassing (1) the standard GSP on over 6,200 tariff lines, (2) the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance and (3) The Everything But Arms (EBA) by which it provides duty free, quota free access to all products for the 39 Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

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