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| Sunday, 12 February 2006 |
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Choosing your favourite garbage handler Light Refractions by Lucien Rajakarunanayake If there is one thing that epitomises local government in this country today it is the accumulation of garbage, and the failure of the local bodies, from high budget municipalities, to urban councils and pradesheeya sabhas to deal with the ever growing problem of garbage collection and removal. While several in the garbage heap of politics are said to be vying to take the top sewer seat in the country that of Mayor of Colombo from the UNP, there are persons with lesser known images of waste collection seeking the nomination for top dirty positions from other parties too. Among these contenders of the UNP, two stand out for their sheer brazen approach to politics. One, a former city father with mastery of politics of the cunning served the late President Premadasa as his closest confidante; the other comes dragging the rubbish heap of Sri Lanka Cricket. Both of them, despite a reputation for good organising capability, jointly led the UNP to defeat in the North Central Province at the recent Presidential Election, but are keen to grab the great mountain of garbage that the Colombo Municipal Council has become. The others from the Green Garbage camp are a former Mayor of Colombo and the present Deputy Mayor, neither of them having displayed the remotest capacity or ability to keep Colombo a clean city. Significantly, it is the UNP's Green Jumbos who controlled the municipalities of Colombo, Dehiwela-Mt. Lavinia, Moratuwa, and also Kotte, for the past several years, when none of these councils were able to think out a plan to tackle the garbage problems in the areas under their authority whether jointly or severally. All they did was wallow in the increased garbage of local government politics, not only in the area of waste collection and removal, but also in other areas of the garbage of corruption pervading our local authorities today. Whether they come from the UNP, the SLFP and its allies including or excluding the JVP; or the JVP by itself, garbage, sanitation and public health will be problems they cannot escape both before and after elections. Before the elections they should tell the voters what clear plans they have for garbage collection and disposal, other than outdated dumping in a filthy landfill, polluting a bird sanctuary or clogging up the wetlands so necessary for drainage. After the elections they will have to demonstrate courage to carry out modern and scientific plans for waste disposal, which do not adversely affect the environment and can also make use of the tons of available garbage as sources of energy and fertiliser. Waste disposal is not the only issue that spreads its stink all through our local government system, if system it can be called today. There is also the great attraction of the garbage that changes hands in granting permits for building construction, and the even more filthy lucre given in exchange for Certificates of Conformity for buildings that do not conform to most requirements of urban construction. There is a whole lot of dirt to play around within the grant of market tenders, especially for the meat industry. There is dirt in contracts to build drains never capable of carrying away storm water during a heavy shower, and more dirt involved in the construction of roads invariably washed away after two or three such showers. But, who cares for all that when there is the certainty of dirty buckshee getting into one's pockets, and at the end of a term in local government makes a person much richer that when he or she began."City Fathers" especially in Colombo and Kandy, will have to turn their attention to cleaning up the stink holes known as dog pounds, where dogs are regularly put to cruel death in a country where each day begins with "pirith chanting" and preaching of "pancha seela" on every FM waveband available. They will have to stop turning a blind eye to the cruelty to animals practised in the name of public health, where too the garbage of corruption plays a big role in preventing the passage of new laws to control dog population growth in a humane way. The piles of garbage all along urban streets, the clogged drains breeding disease carrying mosquitoes and the brazen digging up and blocking of roads for political meetings of whatever colour, are all symbols of the huge mountain of garbage that local government has become today. The dirt is so thick there is more than a touch of the farce in the media that frequently reports about the garbage crisis, paying more attention to the garbage dealers seeking a perch atop the piles of dirty green garbage that our municipalities have become, rather than focus on the issue of garbage and the elections. It is up to the political parties to nominate the cleanest or at least
the least of the dirty for election, and up to the people to choose only
those who come as close to clean as possible. The time is nigh for you to
choose your garbage handler. |
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