Ministry enlightens agitating residents around garbage site
Following agitations launched by area residents, against shifting the sanitary landfill from Arawakkaru to Serakuliya, Puttalam, the Megapolis Ministry intends to educate and create awareness among the residents.
The Ministry officials who met the protestors, will make the area residents inclusive and involve them in the project. With this in mind, representatives of the protestors, religious dignitaries, pradeshiya sabha members and grama sevaka niladharis of the area had a discussion on September 27. An Advisory Committee formed will meet every month and review the progress of the construction, with residents given the opportunity to participate in its progress, and will have the right to oppose any deviation from the approved plan.
Waste Management Director Jayavilal Fernando said the residents will be enlightened on the environmental impact of the project, and will be allowed to visit the site to ensure adherence to the approved plan.
Responding to residents' concerns that contaminated water from the garbage, may leak into the lagoon situated 5 km from the site, endangering the lagoon's marine life, he said the possibility of leakages is minimal, as only compressed garbage will be brought to the site.
The garbage, he said, will be first sent to a compacter yard in Kelaniya where 80% of the moisture will be squeezed out, before it is transported by train in special sealed containers, to the site.
Mr. Fernando said the residents pro- testing against the change in the location of the construction site is incorrect, as Arawakkaru is a large area and Serakkuliya is part of it. The original plan to have the site at Arawakkaru was abandoned due to its adverse environment impact.
The Environment Impact Assessment ( EIA) report states that the site being only one mile from the buffer zone of Wilapattu National Park, there is the possibility of wild animals straying into the area of the garbage pit, aggravating the elephant-human conflict. Also, there was the disadvantage to the Kalu Oya and Lunu Oya 200 metres northeast of the site.
"All environmental precautions and safeguards have been followed. There is no contamination, every day the garbage will be covered with a thin layer of sand," he said.
The new site identified at Serakkuliya is a large pit excavated and abandoned by the Cement Corporation around 20 years ago.
Mr. Fernando maintains that all protocols including the approval of the Central Environment Authority (CEA) of the North Western Province have been obtained for the project. "We have got the EIA report from the CEA distributed to the PSs, divisional secretariat and the provincial environment secretariat for their input. We will go ahead with it," he said.
Elaborating on the project, he said that, "Stage I will take 85 acres of land with a maximum capacity of 1,200 metric tons of garbage. Garbage from Colombo, Puttalam and Wanathawilluwa will be dumped at this site.
Disputing concerns of the residents of the adverse impact on salt production, he said that, "It is not possible, as the site is 40 km away from the salterns and the possibility of contamination of lagoons very low. Further there will be no discharge," he said.
He said the sophisticated treatment plan for the garbage site has been accepted and approved by the CEA. The treated water is to be re-circulated into the system," he said.
As Arawakkaru is an arid zone, with over 9 months of dry weather, and lack of ground water in the area, we plan to re-circulate the treated water for household purposes such as washing vehicles, containers and irrigation purposes.
The project, at an estimated cost of US$ 101 million, undertaken by the China Harbour Engineering Co., is expected to be completed by November 2019.
The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report states that the site being only one mile from the buffer zone of Wilapattu National Park, there is the possibility of wild animals straying into the area of the garbage pit, aggravating the elephanthuman conflict