Project chief says proper plan and timeline now in place
The total allocation for the Metro Colombo Solid Waste Management Project (MCSWMP)—which dates back to mid-2013—was Rs 14 billion, said Jayavilal Fernando, head of the Megapolis and Western Region Development Ministry’s Solid Waste Management Project. The allocation of Rs 4 billion for 2015 and 2016 was only a part of this fund.
Dr Fernando only took over the MCSWMP and solid waste management in December 2016, before the period covered in the documents seen by the Sunday Times. However, Ministry Secretary Nihal Rupasinghe was unavailable for comment on the issues raised in the documents and questions were directed to Dr Fernando.
The MCSWMP’s Acting Project Director P. Suresh who oversaw activities during the period in question is now with the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms. “Any answers I give you will be secondary and I cannot take responsibility for what I am not aware of,” Dr Fernando said, as a caveat.
The Ministry was unable to use the Rs 2 billion allocation for 2015 because the Environmental Impact Assessment for the Gangewadiya site was rejected. The following year, the relevant stakeholders worked together and identified a new site—Aruwakkalu—which is six kilometres away (as the crow flies) from the Wilpattu National Park. The EIA process for this location started in 2016.
“This being a totally new site, everything had to be done from the beginning including soil tests and geotechnical investigations as well as environmental and social assessments,” Dr Fernando explained. “The whole year went towards finding a new site, starting investigations, carrying out negotiations and finalising the location.”
The Ministry has expedited onsite investigations such as boundary surveying, biodiversity and environmental surveys, ground testing and so on. While feeding information to the EIA report, a conceptual design for the landfill was initiated along with a fresh feasibility study.
Then, the Meethotamulla site collapsed in April 2016. This posed another challenge because the transfer station for garbage in Colombo— where solid waste was to be loaded for transport to Aruwakkalu—was to be located in a section of Meethotamulla. “We then had to find a new loading point in Colombo,” Dr Fernando said. “We had to change our plans from the very beginning.”
Finally, a bare marshland owned by the Sri Lanka Land finding alternatives to waste disposal at Meethotamulla was thereafter slow and insufficient steps were taken to reduce the quantities being dumped therein,
This being a totally new site, everything had to be done from the beginning including soil tests and geotechnical investigations as well as environmental and social assessments
Reclamation and Development Corporation in Wanawasala, Kelaniya, was identified in June. It was close to the railway line (the waste is to be transported to Aruwakkalu by train) and also near the road system to facilitate easy access for dump trucks bringing waste from the Colombo suburbs.
The EIA is now with the CEA and the Wayamba Environmental Authority for approval. The surveys are done, as are the conceptual drawings. The bidding process to find a suitable designand-build contractor for the sanitary landfill is also nearing completion.
The Aruwakkalu landfill will be 85 acres and receive the audit summarises.
Short- term measures to manage solid waste, such as composting, were only taken after the Meethotamulla disaster. around five million cubic metres of waste over eleven years. The first four months will go towards producing a detailed design. Construction will start once the designs are approved by the ministry.
Dr Fernando said he did not know how much was spent on the first feasibility study and EIA. But he said it was to be expected that those reports would be of no use once the site changed. “They had been nearing the end of the old planning process when the CEA rejected the previous site,” he explained.
Regardless of what occurred in the past, the MCSWM now had a proper implementation plan with timelines, Dr Fernando said. And what was initially meant to be a three-year programme has now been shrunk to 18 months after the Meethotamulla collapse—a clear indication of what might have been achieved had the project been prioritised in the first place. However, the relevant project was in existence for two years with sufficient funds allocated to it. The loss of human lives could have been averted.