Plight of Ambulawawa residents to be discussed

By Isuri Yasasmin Kaviratne

A delegation of villagers headed by the Ambuluwawa Hamuduruwo will attend a discussion tomorrow, May 30, at the Human Right Commission in Kandy to discuss their plight after the Ambuluwawa Mountain landslide. Villagers lament that despite assurances given by the Municipality that dumping of garbage would be discontinued, it has not been so and has been a garbage dump for the past five years.

Over 70 people have taken refuge at the Ambuluwawa temple. After the recent deluge, approximately 75,000 tons of garbage together with the land slid down, surrounding their homes.

Unanvitiye Shanthabhadra thera (also known as Ambuluwawe hamuduruwo) said they will focus on removing the mound of garbage that now prevents the people from returning to their houses.

The mountain of garbage had slanted towards S.H. Bandara, who was a residentof the area's house. He said he and the other parties affected by the landslide, will reach an agreement on Monday as to what steps they should take.

"When the Human Rights Commissioner visited Ambuluwawa, she told us we had been treated unfairly by the dumping of garbage near our homes in a way that the safety of the area and cleanliness of the environment were threatened."

He said the Commissioner had said that they should be adequately compensated.

Gampola Municipal Council representatives and other relevant parties are scheduled to attend the discussion on Monday.

Villagers blame the Municipal Council for dumping garbage close to their homes, ignoring their protests.

They explained that a court case filed against the Municipal Council was withdrawn, on the assurance that the dumping of garbage would discontinued but this did not happen and the dumping of garbage continued.