Misunderstood Ekala landfill remains an option, council insists

“People even don’t allow us to do the feasibility study. We have to do a number of tests including soil tests and quantity surveys. If this feasibility study fails we might have to search for other alternatives but till then we have positive hopes about the Ekala site."

Despite public protests and opposition from politicians and religious leaders, the Colombo Municipal Council confirmed that it will dump garbage at the proposed site in Ekala.

The director of Solid Waste Management of Colombo Municipality Council Mrs Y Sylvester, believes the public does not understand the site.

“People believe this is a dump site. But it is a sanitary landfill. We will recycle the garbage and the rest will be sent to Ekala which will only be a small percentage,’’ she said.

The CMC said a consultant has been chosen by tender to do the feasibility study about the proposed site but the report was not available yet.

“People even don’t allow us to do the feasibility study. We have to do a number of tests including soil tests and quantity surveys. If this feasibility study fails we might have to search for other alternatives but till then we have positive hopes about the Ekala site,’’ she said.

Garbage collected in Colombo is transported to the Meethotamulla site. It is estimated that between 800 metric tons and 850 MT of garbage is transported to Meethotamulla every day by the CMC and Kolonnawa Urban Council.

However Mrs Sylvester said other projects would be implemented as long term measures including the waste-to-energy project that would be built in Muthurajawela.

She also added that due the massive amount of organic waste collected in Colombo the council does not have the capability to turn it into compost.

“Previous attempts to produce compost in the area has failed. We have to seek other alternatives,’’ she said.

Meanwhile, lawmaker Kavinda Jayawardane, said managing waste was more important than dumping. There is no need to dump waste in Ekala because the Muthurajawela waste-to-energy project was in the offing.

He said a lawsuit had been filed regarding the Ekala site and it should be sorted out before implementing the project.