Garbage left uncollected in the streets of Colombo will be marring the Avurudha holiday mood for thousands of residents, who can expect the usual problems associated with piles of rubbish and heavy rains – blocked and overflowing drainage and mosquitoes by the million.
Caught up in the middle of the garbage crisis is the presently suspended Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), which is being prevented by thugs from using the officially designated dumping ground in Peliyagoda.
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| Peliyagoda rubbish dump |
Under a recent court order, the CMC was instructed to stop dumping garbage in the Colombo 13 area of Bloemendahl, and instead use a designated 13-acre piece of land in Peliyagoda for the purpose.
According to reports, residents in Peliyagoda have sought “political help” to stop the CMC from using the dumping ground.
Meanwhile, the city garbage is piling up at the rate 750 metric tons a day.
CMC Commissioner Badrani Jayawardena told The Sunday Times that that CMC was unable to collect the garbage piling up across the city of Colombo because there were no available sites to dump the rubbish.
“We have no land to dump the garbage,” Ms. Jayawardena said, adding that CMC staff handling garbage would not be given leave for the Avurudha until a solution for the problem was found. She added that the President’s intervention was crucial in this matter.
Meanwhile, to ease matters until the next court hearing on April 27, when a decision will be made regarding the Peliyagoda dumping ground, the CMS is disposing of limited quantities of garbage at a site in Madampitiya, in Colombo 15. “Over the next 10 days we will be using a small area of land in the Madampitiya area,” she said.
Meanwhile, former opposition leader of the now suspended CMC, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, has sent letters to the President, the Inspector General of Police and the Defence Secretary calling for action against the thugs who are preventing the CMC from dumping garbage in the official dumping ground in Peliyagoda.
“CMC employees have been threatened and chased away from the Peliyagoda site,” Mr. Nanayakkara said. “The garbage dumping at Peliyagoda is being done on the orders of the court and supposedly with the protection of the police. Despite my complaints, no action whatever has been taken. I heard that Minister Mervin Silva was at the site, personally opposing the the garbage dumping. “We have to wait till the next court hearing or till the President gives us a solution for this problem.”
The piece of land in Peliyagoda was given to the CMC by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) to be used for the dumping of garbage.
“We gave the CMC written permission to dump garbage in Peliyagoda,” said UDA director general W. G. Abeygunawardene. “We are a planning authority. There are a lot of political issues here in which we cannot get involved,”. |
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