A volume based user fee to be introduced for garbage collection:

Move to check stench

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

Filling the hand carts

A trailer unloading garbage at a dump

There may be several factors that may cause inconvenience to your daily life and you may take relentless efforts to solve those problems if you think they are your own problem affecting your life. On the contrary, there are issues created by you to inconveniencing the entire community and you think that it was not your responsibility to tackle those problems.

The ever growing garbage at your home, working place or at the business place is one such item that make the others inconvenient. Yet you think that it is not your fault but a fault of the local authority in charge of your area. That is the typical way the Sri Lankan used to think about the garbage they produce and ultimately become a nuisance to the society.

This is the way people used to think about the garbage, which has now become a vital issue, especially for those living in thickly populated cities.

They think that garbage is only a problem for them, only when the garbage is there on your way side, in front of their residence or at a place closer to their working place. But they are not aware that their short-sighted thinking on the issue may create a huge problem to the entire community and the environment they live.

Over the past few decades we have seen many attempts by Local Government bodies to streamline the process of garbage collection introducing various methods. Colour coded bins to put different types of garbage, establishing recyclable waste collection centres at key places in cities are some of the efforts they made to overcome this issue.

But sometimes we see these expensive bins are being used for other purposes than the collection of garbage as those systems had seen a natural death either due to lack of enthusiasm from the officials in charge of these projects or due to lack of response from the public.

For the Western Province that is responsible for the generation of over 60 percent of the municipal waste in the country, with more than 2,400 metric tonnes of solid municipal waste collected by the relevant local authorities on a daily basis, this is not a problem they can avoid any more. If the authorities keep mum on the issue the future generation will have to see a huge issue before them if proper attitudes are inculcate in the people to manage the problem they have created in the environment without pointing the finger at anybody.

Waste Management Authority of the Western Provincial Council, an institute established by the Western Provincial Council not so long ago is now having as serious look at this garbage issue to start addressing the issue even at a small level to expand it further to cover the entire Western Provincial Council by 2016.

"This is yet another humanitarian operation we are going to launch, but not to fight but to make the Western Province free of garbage", Director, Waste Management Authority (WMA) of the Western Provincial Council Priyantha Samarakkody said.

"Having introduced all the laws needed for streamlining the waste management in the province, we could not implement those laws because of the negative approach the people are having. So we have to launch this program in the form of a humanitarian operation under the theme 'We Are Here', Samarakkody added.

To tackle the garbage issue in the province the WMA along with the Central Environment Authority launched Karadiyana dumping site and it has now become the dumping site for the municipal waste from the Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia and Moratuwa Municipal Councils, Kesbewa, Boralesgamuwa and Maharagma Urban Councils.

Even after the implementation of the project people see that some local authorities also used to dump garbage, whatever the lands they come across in their local authority areas. "So it is important to introduce new systems to make people and also the local authorities responsible for the improper waste management habits", Samarakkody added.

The 'Pivithuru Pura' (Clean Cities) program introduced by the WMA to introduce seven steps in solid waste management from generation to final dumping will be selected for the launching of the program to increase the waste segregation at the source itself.

"We have identified 12 local authorities out of 20 where composting projects are being implemented to expedite this program by introducing a system of collecting only sorted garbage from the households and business places", Samarakkody added.

Accordingly WMA has selected Horana Urban Council, Horana Pradeshiya Saba, Kalutara Urban Council and Kalutara Pradeshiya Saba, Kaduwela Municipal Council, Wattala Urban Council, Wattala Pradeshiya Saba, Seethawakapura Urban Council, Attanagalla Pradeshiya Saba, Ja-Ela Pradeshiya Saba, Negombo Municipal Council and Katana Pradeshiya Saba for the implementation of the project.

"When we sort out the garbage we can find many ways to manage the solid waste. The non degradable waste also can be made use for many other things. When we take solid waste we can make use 30 percent of the garbage for composting, bio-gas generation, and to have poultry food out of food waste. Another 35 percent of garbage can be easily managed and another 22 percent can be recycled. Only 19 per cent should be handed over to the local authorities for proper management", he added.

"As people are not adhering to these systems many local authorities have to make a lot of effort to manage the solid waste by way of deploying manpower to segregate the garbage. Therefore, we should go for a system to charge a fee from the people if they do not sort out the garbage at their home itself. If they sort out the garbage they will have to pay only for the 19 percent of the garbage and the balance 81 percent can be managed properly. We are expecting to implement this project based on a Korean experience that had become successful", he added.

Prof. Ahn Young Che, from the Korean International Cooperation Agency, has advised the WMA to introduce the new mechanism to increase the sorting out of garbage by introducing volume based fee for the unsorted garbage from the households and the business places.

"We are educating the community, through various programs and targeted groups and the Local Authority Members and the officials to implement this program. First such workshop was held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute to educate the Local Authority heads on the program and discuss the issue further", Samarakkody added.

Through the implementation of this program the WMA is going to introduce bins for the collection of recyclable and reusable waste, and introducing bags for the collection of unsorted garbage.

"Once the system is introduced the Local Authorities will collect only the garbage in the bags they have issued to the people. At the same time the Local Authorities will also be made responsible to collect the garbage from the households at a given time and impose fines on the Local Authorities for not collecting the garbage", he added.

"The garbage bags can be issued to the public either by the Waste Management Authority or by the relevant Local government body and the cost of the bag, and the fee for the handling of the unsorted garbage for the respective local authority will also be embedded in the prize of the bag", he added.

According to Prof. Ahn Young from KOICA, the system introduced in Korea helped them improve the waste management in Korea and people welcome the program as it was very good solution for the garbage problem.

"Through that program we could reduce the volume of garbage collected in a drastic manner over the past two decades", he added.

"When implementing this volume based fee for the unsorted garbage there may be tendency to put the garbage in various places. But the availability of the Environmental Police and the Civil Defence Committees at every village level, Sri Lanka can overcome all those problems", Prof Ahn said.

"If you paying more for your garbage you must bear the responsibility for that because you must adhere to sorting of garbage at its generation itself and the sorted garbage will be handled free of charge by the relevant local authorities", he added.

In the same manner authorities can also introduce user fee for waste water, pollution charge for air or water pollution, and to impose taxes if products are creating environmental pollution, he added. Deputy Director of the WMA, Nalin Mannaperuma said the Western Provincial Council has already taken steps to implement the program by amending existing laws and creating new regulations.

"When we look at these laws we can take action against the mixing of garbage, open dumping, open burning of waste and the dumping of garbage in the places that can obstruct the community as they have been identified as punishable offences. The spot fines have been changed from Rs. 500 to Rs.5,000, the court fines from Rs.5,000 to Rs.50,000. Therefore the required legal frame is already in force now", he added.

"At present source segregation is at lower than 20 percent and we expect to increase that to 50 percent by 2016 through the implementation of these programs.

The garbage that cannot be turned into a resource at the local council level, the Western Province Waste Management Authority will utilise for the final disposal with rest of the garbage to be turned in to resources.

"These mega projects will be decided by the WMA in accordance with the requirement of the area and the availability of lands in the area to implement such projects. We have identified locations for the implementation of the large-scale composting projects, bio gas projects and sanitary landfills on the requirement basis", he added.

"To achieve these targets we have to start from somewhere and we need the cooperation of the public for our endeavours to manage this problem without creating a stink for the future", Mannaperuma added.