Garbage: Never on Sunday

By Nadia Fazlulhaq

Residents of Kandy town face the prospect of their garbage not being collected on Sundays due to lack of funds to pay labourers, Kandy Municipal Council (KMC) Health Department Chief Medical Officer Dr. Asoka Senarath said. Collection of garbage on Sundays had been carried out for almost 15 years up to now.

“House-to-house collection would come to a stop from this Sunday and would not resume until we get adequate funds to pay the employees for extra duties. However, our vehicle collection functions would continue on Sundays,” he said.

The KMC Health Department is in charge of garbage collection within town limits. Daily more than 85 tons of garbage from the town is transported to the Guhagoda dumping site and it exceeds 100 tons daily, during the Kandy Perahera season. Kandy town has a population of 123,622.

“Garbage has become a huge problem as the load is ever increasing. We request the residents to re-cycle as much as possible. Meanwhile we are hoping to implement biogas generating and bioelectricity generating projects using the waste. The projects have been finalized in consultation with the Peradeniya University,” Dr. Senerath said.

He said a letter has been sent to the Environment Ministry requesting Rs. 10 million for the implementation of the projects. “We need the support of the private sector to help us in the implementation of the projects and to continue them successfully,” he said.

The Kandy Municipal Council requests the residents to leave their garbage outside their houses before the daily collection begins, as there are many instances when garbage is kept after the garbage collection has been completed. “More than 100,000 people come to the Kandy town daily and more than 60,000 vehicles enter the town. There is an earnest request to the visitors to take back their leftovers instead of throwing them away indiscriminately,” he said.