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Extra security to ‘ride shotgun’ on rubbish convoys as residents revolt
Police have been forced to pay on special security for garbage convoys from Colombo heading north to the Aruwakkalu tip to fend off a string of attacks and interruptions, and say they are prepared to call in the Special Task Force and army if needed.
Armed Police security escorts for the garbage trucks, with Police vehicles and motorcycles deployed along the road between Puttalam and Wanathavilluwa. Pix by Hiran Priyanka
A senior police officer said armed Police security escorts were being provided for the garbage trucks, with Police vehicles and motorcycles deployed along the road between Puttalam and Wanathavilluwa, the closest town to the Aruwakkalu sanitary landfill site in the Puttalam area.
Legal action will be taken against people who disrupt the transport of garbage to Aruwakkalu, the officer said.
Army media spokesman Brigadier Sumith Attapattu said the army would only be involved to assist the police.
The security measures were brought in after some nine trucks transporting waste to Aruwakkalu were stoned and their windscreens smashed in just one week by people living in the Puttalam area, Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) Commissioner Palitha Nanayakkara said.
Following the attacks, Minster of Megapolis and Western Development, Patali Champika Ranawaka met with Colombo Mayor Rosy Senanayake and the Acting Inspector-General of Police, C.D. Wickramaratne to discuss security measures.
President Maithripala Sirisena also instructed police to provide special security.
Commissioner Nanayakkara said prior to the meeting he and Mayor Senanayake had written to the President and the police chief to request police security.
Residents in the Wanathavilluwa area are continuing to protest and hurl stones at the tippers carrying garbage to the Aruwakkalu site, saying that although Minister Ranawaka had assured them that only segregated and compacted garbage would be used as landfill, non-segregated rubbish was being brought to the site.
They also complain that while they had been previously told the rubbish would be transported in trains, they now had to suffer the horror of having around 20 garbage-filled trucks travelling daily through their town, in front of their houses.
The trucks, their loads covered with tarpaulins, went past their homes spilling and leaking garbage all over the roads, they said.
Commissioner Nanayakkara admitted the CMC was taking non-segregated waste to Aruwakkalu at the moment in order to clear a backlog of garbage accumulated when the previous dump site reached capacity some weeks ago.
A damaged windscreen of a vehicle transporting garbage
“The Aruwakkalu sanitary landfill site was set up to initially hold residual garbage. However, when the Kerawalapitiya landfill site had a problem of space, we were unable to take garbage there and, as a result, rubbish was accumulating on the streets,” he said.
“As an interim measure, to allow rubbish to be cleared from the streets, the Ministry of Megapolis allowed us to send mixed garbage to Aruwakkalu,” Mr. Nanayakkara said.
Once this immediate need was fulfilled, only segregated garbage would be collected in Colombo, degradable waste would be taken to Kerawalapitiya for the making of compost, and residual waste would be despatched to Aruwakkalu, the CMC Commissioner added.
The Project Director of the Western Region Solid Waste Management Project, Engineer Sarath Bandara said explained that the Arawakkalu sanitary landfill site had been designed with many soil layers and pits to hold any kind of garbage except for hazardous waste such as clinical waste.
Nevertheless, he said, “we requested segregated, compacted and dry garbage in order to increase the lifetime of the sanitary landfill and ensure that the landfill site remains viable for long-term use, even a permanent solution for waste”.
He continued: “We are able to use non-segregated wet garbage as sanitary landfill without any health hazard or environmental pollution as the site was designed in according to international standards. If, however, mixed and wet garbage is used for landfill this would take up more space and reduce the longevity of the project.”
Mr. Bandara said two of the five planned cells at the Aruwakkalu landfill site were available for use and could hold 600 tons of garbage brought in daily over 263 days. A third cell was being dug and prepared, with the entire construction project expected to be completed by next March.
Mr. Bandara said the Kelaniya segregated garbage transfer centre was also under construction and also expected to be completed next March and open for waste collection the following month..
He added that as the CMC was shouldering the unforeseen cost of transport of waste by road to Aruwakkalu, dumping fees had been waived off.
| Current boxcars no good for waste | |
| Railways General Manager Dilantha Fernando said the freight wagons currently used by the railway are incapable of transporting garbage to Aruwakkalu. He said his officials are planning to hold a meeting with the Ministry of Megapolis to discuss the matter in coming weeks. Until the engines and freight wagons built to the specifications of the Ministry of Megapolis were delivered, the Railways Department was unable to supply trains for garbage transfer, Mr. Fernando said. |