New site at Nawam Mawatha:

A dignified life for traditional launderers

By Ranil Wijayapala

For many who visit Navam Mawatha and Perahera Mawatha in Colombo, which are considered important areas in the city, the site where thousands of dirty linen being dried in the sunlight may be an unusual scene.

The old laundry area at Nawam Mawatha

The newly developed site at Nawam Mawatha

The delapidated water tanks at the Polwatte site

The water tanks at the newly developed site

Anusha Liyanamana

N.A.S.N Nissanka

They may wonder whether this traditional job still exists in the centre of Colombo city even at a time when people are having more sophisticated means of washing linen. But the harsh truth is that these washer-men still exist in the city of Colombo to serve washing purposes of the people in the city, despite the arrival of the latest technology.

Historical evidence says that the 'dhobi' community who serve the British during the colonial era lived on the side of the Galle Face where the land slopes down to the Beira Lake, and were employed as official washer-men mostly by the colonial masters and were later shifted to 'Polwatta' site across the lake once their land close to Galle Face was acquired for the military hospital.

Therefore, Polwatta site and the Navam Mawatha site allocated for the washer-men have become one of the four sites administered by the Colombo Municipal Council to run public laundries apart from Wekanda, Paradise laundry and Wasala Road laundry sites that come under the Public Health Department.

According to Chief Medical Officer of the CMC Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam, the laundrymen used to run this facility at Polwatta and Navam Mawatha paying only Rs.11.25 rent per month to the CMC from the date they started running the business more than 100 years ago.

"The Municipal Treasurers Department is responsible for allocating the places for the people and charging the rent from them. The Public Health Department is responsible for the administering of the places. We have overseers to look after the places since we do not have overseers for this purpose. The Public Health Inspectors were asked to look after these places", Dr. Kariyawasam said. But due to the unhygienic conditions and the poor maintenance, the two sites located in a very important area in the city have been identified as an underutilised area by the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development. According to Deputy Director Planning Urban Development Authority N.A.S.N Nissanka, it was with the objective of giving these people who were engaged in this traditional profession a dignified life, that the Urban Development Authority (UDA) undertook the project to develop the laundry site.

"At the initial stages we carried out a survey to identify the real owners of the laundries based on the list given to us by the CMC since the property was owned by the CMC. The laundry people e paid a monthly rent to the CMC for using the facility", he said.

The initial survey identified that there are 32 people operating at the Polwatta site and eight people operating the laundries at the Navam Mawatha site. The extent of the Polwatta site is about 135 perches and the Navam Mawatha site 176 perches.

"Therefore, after consultation with the people we decided to accommodate them all in one facility at Navam Mawatha after temporarily shifting the Navam Mawatha people to Polwatta site to develop the Navam Mawatha site to accommodate them all", he said.

"The aim of the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development and the Chairman of the Urban Development Authority was to provide this facility to these laundry people to start the Sinhala Hindu New year at the new site", he said.

Deputy Director (Projects) of the UDA Anusha Liyanamana, giving more insight to the project said that the Polwatta laundry site was identified by the UDA as one location which is not properly used compared to the importance of the land there.

"They used to dry clothes close to the main road creating a bad picture of the area and the people who were operating there were running this site under greater difficulties. We saw that they were having low quality water supply for the washing purposes and running these places without any sanitary facilities. In addition, the Navam Mawatha site gets flooded frequently during the rainy season", she said.

"Since they are engaged in a traditional profession from the colonial era, many of the foreigners visiting the Colombo city also enjoy watching this site as they are not familiar with the way the people wash these clothes. Therefore we thought to improve this site and run this facility in a proper way", she said.

"Though there were proposals to relocate them outside the Colombo city, the Ministry decided to have this facility at Navam Mawatha site since it has enough space to accommodate all of them in one site", she said.

"Before planning the project we studied their profession, since their profession is not familiar to us. During the study we realised that they need a place to store the dirty clothes, a washing area and a place to dry the clothes and rooms to iron the clothes", she said.

"We measured the existing rooms and realised that they have two different ironing rooms, small rooms and big rooms. In the small room one person irons clothes and in the big room two people iron the clothes. They were keeping 8 x 6 feet rooms to store the dirty linen separately. There was one washing room and each one had one tank with a width of one metre and also they had a Kovil and worshipping area at Polwatta site on the Perahera Mawatha where there were 32 laundry people", she said.

The official had to take into consideration all these facts when planning the new site at Nawam Mawatha.

However, at the Navam Mawatha site, there were only eight people and it had not been properly maintained due to the involvement of outside people.

"There were four unauthorised families and we were told that they were engaged in some indecent activities. We thought of implementing this project without causing any injustice to any person. Therefore we decided to provide four houses top these unauthorised settlers on humanitarian grounds. We provided four temporary houses and they will be provided new houses under government housing schemes", she said.

To develop the Navam Mawatha site the UDA constructed a temporary washing area at Polwatta site and shifted the eight laundry people to that site temporarily to facilitate the project.

"We spent Rs.800,000 for the temporary building. After shifting them to Polwatta we cleared the Navam Mawatha site and called for tenders and handed over the project to a contractor to complete the project in 45 days", she said. "With the completion of the project we will provide a washing building with 80 water tanks.

Therefore, one person gets two tanks, two lines of clothes, a dirty linen room to store the clothes and an ironing room. A Kovil and Buddha shrine will also be established there for the convenience of the public", she said.

Apart from that, a vehicle parking area will also be established to facilitate the people to hand over the dirty linen to the laundry people and proper sanitary facilities will be available to them.

"We have asked them to have a Rs.50,000 basic payment for separate water connections and electricity supplies. Initially they agreed to pay that amount but later they say that they cannot afford that amount", Liyanamana said.

"We are also proposing to charge Rs.5,000 as fee but it will depend on the CMC's decision since the property is owned by the CMC", she said. "Once all the people at Polwatta are shifted to the Navam Mawatha site the land in Polwatta can be utilised for another development purpose. At present we have decided to make use of that area as a vehicle park, making use of the temporary building we constructed to facilitate the Navam Mawatha people," she said.

"To shift the entire facility to the Navam Mawatha site we need a few days as we have to remove the washing stones one by one to the new site and get them placed in the site. Therefore, people will have to have a new start at this new place", she said.

According to N.A.S.N. Nissanka, some people who used to work there under different owners are trying to create issues saying that they have been deprived of their profession. "Many of the people creating this issue are working under different owners and we are not in a position to provide them also the facilities given to the real owners we identified through a proper procedure", he said.

According to Additional Director General of the Urban Development Authority Brigadier J.M.S.S. Jayasundara, the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development has appointed a committee to hear the grievances of these people to provide an amicable solution to them also after considering their grievances. "What we are trying to do is to provide these people a decent place to engage in their profession in a more dignified manner. There may be issues relating to the project.

But we are trying address all these aspects of the people as soon as possible", he said. Secretary of the Polwatta Laundry Association Bandula Fernando told the Sunday Observer that the laundrymen at Polwatta are happy that they are getting a new facility at Navam Mawatha to continue their traditional profession. "I am representing the fourth generation engaged in this profession in this place since this facility was established in 1928. We have to comply with the government plans and we are ready to move to the new facility since it has proper facilities to continue our job.

But we earnestly request the authorities to confine the rent to Rs.2,500 since we are earning only a meagre sum of money from this profession", he said. "However we are expecting to start a new life at the new site developed for us by the Government", Fernando said.