Jana Sevana Condominium Management Program:

Facelift for long neglected city flats

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

High rise buildings with their huge walls covered with plants, their roots fixed into the walls soaked with rain water; spilling sewers from every housing unit inside the shelter are not unusual scenes for people living in Maligawatte, Dematagoda, Slave Island, Colombo North and other parts of the city of Colombo.

Garbage thrown out of these flats and scattered all around is embarrassing for the people who pass these flats on a daily basis. It's not that people who live in the condominiums are aliens or uncivilised people but that they are indifferent to their environment. The flats have been neglected by the authorities for more than a decade.

Sometimes these people also receive the treatment meted out to unauthorised city dwellers though they live in housing units constructed by the Housing Department and the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA). The condomenums were built in the post independent era as a solution to the increasing demand for housing in Colombo.

Some of the flats built by the NHDA are an unwelcome sight in Colombo and are getting a face lift with the new development projects.

Multistoried housing units constructed in and around Colombo amounted to nearly 149,000 in 155 housing schemes generally described as low rise condominiums. The most significant of these state built schemes are the Maligawatte flats, Soysapura flats, Serpentine, Bolamesawatte, Veluwanarama, Siridhamma Mawatha, Ketawalamulla, Dias Place, Dissanayake watte, Forbes Lane, Gunasinghepura, Maulanawatte, Newham Square, St. James Street, Sangaraja Mawatha, Vipulasena Mawatha, Steuart Street, Sucharitha Mawatha and Bambalapitiya flats.

Government servants, low-income earners and shanty dwellers have been the beneficiaries of such state sponsored projects.

These housing units generally comprised two bedrooms, sitting room, dining hall, kitchen, toilet and a common balcony the front and at the rear. The construction of these flats were under the building regulations in operation under the then existing statutes.

Fast deteriorating

Annesley Perera, the owner of a housing unit at the 'D' block of the Maligawatte flats says that the situation of these flats are fast deteriorating. No attention has been paid by the authorities for the past 20 years.

"I moved to my house at Maligawatte in March 1973. The situation was much better during the first two to three decades. We had a very clean atmosphere around our flats those days. But things are moving from bad to worse as there is no mechanism to monitor the unauthorised construction and other irregularities," he said.

He said that people who have organised themselves in some blocks could keep their blocks to certain standards with the formation of Svadipatya Kamituwa with the contribution made from each and every housing unit owner in the flats to a common fund.

"In our block we used to collect Rs. 500 from each housing unit to keep the block clean. But these things are not happening in other blocks and things are becoming much worse in those blocks," he said.

According to officials the maintenance of these old condominiums, the common amenities and common elements was entrusted with the Common Amenities Board (CAB). The key objective was to keep the state owned low rise apartments in a good and serviceable state by maintaining the common amenities and the common elements of such units.

CAB carried out the task assigned to them by its clients (mainly the NHDA) without the relevant architectural plans and drawings detailing out the common amenities and common elements. Non availability of regulations under the CAB law was also one of the causes for the bad state of affairs in the maintenance of these apartments.

With the abolition of the CAB due to the lack of power vested with it to monitor the process and other reasons brought these housing schemes to a pathetic state.

According to Annesley Perera the situation in the government flats are getting worse as many people add unauthorised structures and expand their houses ignoring the sewer lines, water lines and various other common amenities servicing the entire scheme.

"We are not in a position to clean up drains and even sewer lines when they get blocked due to these unauthorised structures as they have been constructed covering all the drainage lines, sewer lines," he added.

On the other hand people used to rent out rooms keeping only one room and the kitchen for the use of the owner, creating yet another problem.

"The owners of the house have facilities to put their garbage out but those who are living in rented rooms do not have a place to dump their garbage and they throw the garbage out of their windows to the streets making the entire area a garbage dumping site," he said.

Relieved

Perera said that they were relieved by the fact that the Housing Ministry has come up with a program to renovate these flats after their long neglect.

"We are happy to see that something is happening. We see that the program is slowly progressing in our block in Maligawatte. We are ready to support the program as we are the direct beneficiaries," he said.

According to Secretary, Ministry of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities Gotabaya Jayaratna, the Housing Ministry under the directive of Minister Wimal Weerawansa will focus attention on improving the status of these flats.

"The Ministry started the Jana Sevana Condominium Management Program to repair these condominiums," he said.

"We have the Condominium Management Authority to maintain the common amenities of the high rise building once a high rise settlement is constructed by the NHDA. There is a mechanism to form a condominium management society to maintain each condominium," he said.

"It is a statutory need. When they form a condominium management society the owners of the house have the right to maintain the building through the society. If they do not form a society they can't do that.

Through the Jana Sevana Condominium Program we are going to activate the process," he said.

A National Steering Committee has been appointed to supervise the program. The Committee Chaired by Secretary to the Ministry of Construction, Engineering Services, Housing and Common Amenities comprises representatives from the Urban Development Authority, Ceylon Electricity Board, Colombo Municipal Council, Water Supply and Drainage Board and other organisations essential in maintaining these flats.

The committee has been constituted under the direction of Minister Wimal Weerawansa and will meet on a monthly basis to review the progress of the program.

"We hope to remove all unauthorised structures in and around these flats to make these places better. For this we will have to get the support from the Colombo Municipal Council, the Defence Ministry and the Police," he said.

Officials engaged in the project said the repair of these flats is a very difficult task as they have to attend to repairs when people live in the houses.

"Construction of new flats is much easier than this. All the flats have hundreds of unauthorised structures. We have to think twice when we remove those without harming the main buildings which are decades old," the official said.

Special Commissioner, Colombo Municipal Council, Omar Kamil said that the CMC is very appreciative of the program as the flats were in a neglected state for years.

"Most residents of the housing schemes used to turn towards the CMC for common amenities and other services as the situation was deteriorating. Collection of garbage in these schemes had not taken place as there was no proper mechanism to collect them inside the flats," he said.

"The CMC is very happy that under the program the Housing Ministry is going to streamline the process. The CMC is ready to collaborate with them to keep those areas clean," he said.

Ministry Secretary Gotabaya Jayarathna said the program will be implemented parallel to the Nagamu Purawara program initiated by the Housing Ministry to improve the infrastructure of the under served settlements in Colombo City along with the CMC.

"Our aim is to provide every citizen with a decent shelter to lead a dignified life. It will be good indication of the development of the country," he said.