City garbage problem likely to end

by Rohana JAYALAL

The garbage problem in the city of Colombo is likely to end as the CMC has started dumping its daily collection of waste at the new garbage dumping site at Meetotamulla from last week, Director Engineer Solid Waste Management Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) P. Thangamyl, said. According to P. Thangamyl, the land belongs to the Urban Development Authority (UDA) and has in extent of two acres to dump garbage collected in the Colombo city limits.

Meanwhile, another plot of land at Divulapitiya has been selected as a dumping site and the Chief Minister of Western Province Prassana Ranatunge has given the nod but the CMC is waiting for the final approval of the Provincial Council. Apart from drawing long-term plans to solve the city garbage problem, the CMC has taken steps to provide a garbage bin for every two families living in condominiums and houses within the CMC areas. An awareness campaign has also been launched to educate the residents to divide, collect and sell garbage. The CMC waste collection centres are set up at Greenpath, Torington, Sri Dhamma Mawatha and Vauxshall Street and people can handover plastic, paper, glass and other reusable waste materials to these centres.

Thangamyl said that these were only short-term solutions and the municipal authorities had decided to draw long-term plans with the help of the public to tackle the garbage menace in the city.

“The CMC has received about fifteen long-term plans like generating electricity using waste, producing gas and making compost. We are still studying these plans as those projects are under the supervision of the CMC’s special committee “, he said. According to Thangamyl, lack of vehicles is another problem for the continuous collection of garbage, which stink for weeks.

“Half of these vehicles were donated by Japan and now they are not in good condition. Due to this the CMC cannot collect garbage in some parts of the city”, he added.