The Island Editorial

The Cardinal has shown the way!

13 September 2016

 

How civilised a country is can be measured by the manner in which it disposes of its garbage. Successive governments have boasted of numerous grand plans to develop Colombo. The previous administration yuppified it at an enormous cost to the public purse, but most of its chronic problems remains unaddressed, solid waste disposal, drainage and traffic congestion being some of them. Facelifts have passed for city development.

The Rajapaksa administration used to brag that it had managed to rid Colombo of wayside garbage heaps. True, that was no mean achievement, but what it actually did was to shift Colombo’s problem elsewhere! The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) has been committing, with impunity, a serious offence for which the ordinary people get prosecuted—irresponsible garbage disposal.

The despicable practice of Colombo’s waste being transported to densely populated suburbs has been going on for decades with no government caring to put an end to it. The CMC has turned Bloemendhal and Meethotamulla into hellholes, causing the people in areas adjacent to its garbage sites, to rise in protest at last. A group of Buddhist monks have reportedly threatened to stage a fast unless the CMC stops dumping waste at Meethotamulla.

Now, the CMC is planning to dump Colombo’s waste in Ja-Ela, consequent to a court case over the Meethotamulla garbage dump. Previously, it was toying with the idea of transporting rubbish from Meethotamulla all the way to Puttalam. It looks as if neither the CMC nor the government were keen to find a permanent solution to the garbage issue.

Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has vehemently opposed the government move to create landfills in Ja-Ela. He deserves public plaudits. He can rest assured that he will have all right-thinking persons on his side. Residents of Ja-Ela protested yesterday against the proposed garbage dump, which will make their lives as miserable as those of their Meethotamulla counterparts.

What needs to be done urgently is to solve Colombo’s garbage problem once and for all and not to keep shifting it here and there. The city ‘stepfathers’ have let the grass grow under their feet all these years without making a serious effort to set up facilities to recycle municipal waste, which can be turned into a goldmine if properly managed. "Where there’s muck there’s brass," a wag says.

If the CMC had embarked on a garbage recycling project a few years ago the problem of Colombo’s waste being thrown into its suburbs wouldn’t have arisen; it would perhaps have been able to recycle waste from other local government bodies as well.

The government tells us the CMC will be tasked with maintaining the road network in the Colombo Port City to be built. Does it want the jewel in the crown of its Megapolis project also ruined?

What is bad for Meethotamulla cannot certainly be good for Ja-Ela. Municipal waste is sure to contaminate not only waterways in the area but also groundwater, on which many people are dependent. It will also cause health hazards. What have the people of Ja-Ela done to deserve this kind of punishment?

Politicians and CMC officials have sought to justify the dumping of garbage in other areas on the grounds that they have no other way of disposing of it. But, they mustn’t be allowed to make the public suffer owing to their inefficiency and failure. They have been able to circumvent the problem at the expense of the people in the outskirts of Colombo, all these years, and the time has come for them to grasp the nettle. The only way to jolt them into making a serious effort to manage municipal waste properly is to bring pressure to bear on them to find ways and means of doing so.

The Cardinal has shown the way!