700mt of garbage in city daily; residents' help needed to separate garbage:

CMC seeks permanent solution

By Ranil Wijayapala

The issue of garbage in the Colombo city has become a problem that trails between the people of Colombo and the people of Kolonnawa since 2009 with the suspension of dumping garbage at the Bloemendhal site following a Supreme Court ruling in 2009. The people in Meethotamulla, Kolonnawa are made to suffer due to the mountains of garbage dumped there at the rate of 700 metric tonnes a day from the Colombo city.

It is a fact that Colombo, the commercial capital of the country has limited space to tackle 700 metric tonnes of garbage they produce daily, but shifting that problem to another community is not something approved by society.

Therefore, the people living in the city and those responsible for generating the heaps of garbage in the city should think afresh to tackle the issue in a more effective way. They must think seriously about the people suffering from the health and environment hazards created by them in their bid to keep the city of Colombo clean and green.

As the biggest Local Authority and the highest revenue earning Local Government Body in the country, the CMC has a greater responsibility towards this. The Municipal Commissioner of the Colombo Municipal Council, Badrani Jayawardena humbly accepting that there were lapses on the part of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) when handling the Meethotamulla dumping site which made the people around it suffer, said they are thinking afresh to find a permanent solution to the garbage problem in the city.

"We know it is something that people do not want to have on their doorstep. But as a Local Government body we also have a responsibility to keep the city free of garbage and all our efforts are aimed at keeping the Colombo city clean", she said.

The Municipal Commissioner said, the CMC began dumping garbage at the Meethotamulla site since April 2009 on a directive from the Supreme Court, when the agreement the CMC had with a private owner of the Bloemendhal dump site was suspended preventing the CMC from dumping garbage there. The site was given to the CMC for dumping of garbage by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) but the CMC was responsible for managing the site.

"Though the panel of experts appointed by the Supreme Court evaluated and short listed the contractors to handle the garbage collected from the city and dump at the Meethotamulla site, the contractors failed to achieve the set objectives and continue the project though we gave them one and a half years to fulfil the requirements ", she said.

Badrani Jayawardena, Municipal Commissioner

Anjalie Devaraja, Director Solid Waste Management

Many of the contractors faced difficulties in finding the required lands to have garbage accepting points, and garbage processing plants to handle the dumping site properly and some failed to fulfil the standards and requirements stipulated by the Central Environment Authority.

"There were many reasons for the failure of the contractors and non continuation of the services since 2009. Now the fourth contractor, short listed by the technical evaluation committee appointed by the Supreme Court is handling the site after three contractors left without continuing their service during the past four years", she said.

"They too are not keen to handle the site and many wanted only to raise profits out of garbage. Now we have the fourth contractor since 2009 for a permanent solution to the garbage problem in the city. We believe the present contractor is doing a good job compared to the others, she said. The contractor has found a land close to the dumping site. But rumours have spread that houses around the land will also be demolished to facilitate the plant.

Therefore residents are protesting. Hence we asked the operator to find a new land for the plant while assuring that we will supply the collected garbage required for the project.

If the contractor finds a suitable land away from the site it will be a solution to handle the garbage collected on a daily basis in the city without any problem", she said.

"I accept there were shortcomings on the part of the Solid Waste Management Unit of the CMC. The protests in January this year was due to non-laying of soil over the layers of garbage dumped at the site. Therefore, I personally took over the section since January", the Commissioner said.

"After the January 5 protest the CMC engaged the service of four people from the area to monitor the activities, how the soil is transported to the site, how they added the soil layers, and dumped the rotten meat and fish in the site. "They have to report the progress of the activities at the weekly meeting. We pay Rs.1,000 per person amounting to Rs. 4,000 per day for their services", she said.

The CMC paid a monthly rental of Rs. 10,000 for the people who have been shifted from the site. "We have paid Rs. 120,000 each for 76 families and Rs. 60,000 each for the balance families as rental for their houses. We need sponsors to provide equipment for the school and conduct Shramadana campaigns in the area", she said.

Residents of another 31 houses which cracked during the past few weeks will be given Rs.10,000 as monthly rent if they wish to move out from the houses.

The UDA has identified a land for the construction of houses for the resettlement of people affected by the dump site and will start constructing the houses on the designs made by the UDA, after land is allocated for the purpose.On January 5, the residents around the Meethotamulla dump site declared they will allow us to dump garbage only for three months. It was on that note that they conducted the protest on April 6, she said."We had lengthy discussions, subsequent to which the Mayor made a public announcement that we will collect only separated garbage from June 1", the Commissioner said. "We cannot find a solution immediately for the entire 700 metric tonnes of garbage collected from the city on a daily basis. Therefore, we decided to collect only separated garbage from residences in Colombo beginning June 1, and stop collecting the non-separated garbage", she said.We will start educating the public about it on April 27 and 28 in the Kirulapona and Narahenpita areas and issue garbage bags to houses with the support of the Sri Lanka Army and the Police", she said.

The newly appointed Director of Solid Waste Management Unit of the CMC Anjalie Devaraja said by collecting sorted garbage the CMC can reduce at least 200 metric tonnes of garbage a day.

If we try to separate garbage after collecting the 700 metric tonnes it will be a difficult task. But if we can collect separated garbage from the household it will help us to dump them properly", she said.

If people feel they are responsible and take the responsibility of separating the garbage, that is what we want. We are ready to issue garbage bags to collect paper, cardboard, polythene, plastic, bottles, glass, glass bottles, metals, yoghurt and ice cups, rubber and coconut shells, which will be collected one day per week. The other garbage will be collected as usual", she said.

We can make use of them for recycling purposes as companies collect them from the CMC', she said.

"According to calculations we can manage at least 25 percent of the garbage or 200 metric tonnes of garbage collected on daily basis", she said. "We will commence educating the people on April 27 and 28 in the Kirulapone and Narahenpita areas and expect to cover the entire city by May 15.", she said. After people are educated on the matter the CMC will stop collecting unsorted garbage from June 1.

We will make use of all the resources in the Municipality to find a permanent solution to the problem. Garbage is the biggest responsibility of the CMC, as the biggest local authority in the country we are ready to find a permanent solution to this problem", Commissioner Jayawardena said.

We are studying all the proposals submitted to us and the contractor who is now at the final stage of the project.

If the investor could find a suitable land we will be able to see an end to the problem. We need the people's support to have a good start with the separation of garbage at the household level", she said.