Environment: Tamil Tigers Are Keeping Sri Lanka Green

COLOMBO, Aug. 7, 2005 (IPS/GIN) — Known as one of the world’s most ruthless militant outfits, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are now earning a green reputation for enforcing a ban on polythene shopping bags and other non-biodegradable plastics in territories under its control.

Indeed, one of Sri Lanka’s best know environmentalists and pioneer of the country’s solid-waste recycling programme, Ajantha Perera, wishes she had the kind of authority the Tigers enjoy in banning plastic bags across the whole island and tackling a crisis looming up from poor garbage management.

“Maybe it is because there is one authority over there (in the northern part of the country controlled by the LTTE) and no one can dispute it,” Perera told IPS in reference to the Tigers’ unusually successful environment programme as compared to the indifferent experience in the rest of the country.

Perera’s exasperation is understandable. Mountains of garbage are piling up along the roadsides while the country’s 19.5 million citizens seem oblivious to the hazards posed to the environment as well as to public health.

Many of the garbage dumps are uncomfortably close to residential areas and, one of the largest, spread across 20 acres, is situated along the main access road to the country’s only international airport at Bloomandhel, north of the capital.

“It is a national problem, but unfortunately very few are aware of it or interested in solving it,” Perera said.

Some 2,500 tons of solid waste are produced on the island every day, with bulk of the discharge coming from the densely-populated urban areas, according to the Central Environmental Authority (CEA).

The Colombo Municipal Council collects between 600 to 700 tons of waste daily from within the city limits. CEA officials estimate that more than 200 of 232 local government authorities are facing a solid- waste disposal problem.

Part of the problem arises from poor recycling practices. Waste segregation is hardly discussed in Sri Lankan households, where domestic solid waste is filled into polythene bags and left outside for the garbage collectors.

“Not many people are interested in recycling or even reusing things like (polythene) bags. The country can only sustain so much solid waste and we are getting close to that limit,” Lal Fernando, director of CEA’s environmental pollution control programme said.

Fernando believes that any solution to the garbage problem should be multi-faceted, have a long-term perspective and begin with the programme of educating households on waste reduction and separation.

“The programme has to involve local governments, civil organizations and NGOs. At the end of the day there should be some financial commitment from governments to promote waste buying and recycling programmes. If there are no buyers for the recycled waste, the effort will fail,” he said.

Fernando proposes new building regulations that would require every new house being built to compulsorily incorporate a recycling bin in the plan.

Programmes promoting waste separation and recycling have recently been launched at the local government level. “No (national) government has so far paid any attention to recycling,” Perera said.

The Sri Lanka Centre for Plastics in Environment (SLCPE) does have a limited programme of educating local authorities, manufacturers and legislators in segregating waste using separate disposal bins for polythene bags and plastic so that it can be readily recycled.

However, segregating waste would only solve half of the problem. It is the other half that has been the cause of concern since most local bodies resort to collecting waste and dumping it in landfills often leased from private owners in unsuitable areas.

Last month, the Dehiwela-Mount Laviniya municipality, south of Colombo, ran into a major headache when the public protested against indiscriminate dumping and prevented trucks from disposing waste at a dumpsite.

The municipality then stopped collection and rubbish already loaded into trucks just sat in the municipality compound and rotted while uncollected garbage began to pile up along the main roads and alleys.

However, residents of Dehiwela-Mount Laviniya consider themselves lucky especially when compared to what people in Colombo experienced recently following attempts at privatization of waste management.

The Colombo municipality had entered into a contract with a private waste-disposal company called Burns Ltd, which stopped garbage collection when the municipality stopped monthly payments and outstanding amounts began running into millions of rupees.

According to Colombo municipal commissioner Jayantha Liyenege, the payments were stopped because the contractor violated the terms of contract which stipulated that part of the collected waste should be recycled by the contractor.

Colombo was soon inundated with piles of rotting garbage until a court, last week, ordered the municipality to release payments for June. “That is just one month, it will again start when the collectors demand payments for July,” deputy mayor Asad Sally told IPS.

Perera is not hopeful that situation will improve anytime soon. And she blames elected office bearers and bureaucrats. “They have learned the fine art of making money from the garbage (disposal problem), ” she said.

She alleged that municipal officers are involved in contract- related rackets and pocket a percentage of the money that is supposed to be paid to collectors and then look the other way at contract violations. She told IPS that there have been instances of collectors dumping waste on government land and yet collecting money.

In the midst of the garbage disputes at Dehiwela-Mount Laviniya, a grenade was thrown at the mayor’s residence and the attack was linked to collectors angered by duplicitous dealings — although police investigations have been inconclusive.

Sally agreed that petty politics had prevented a speedy resolution of the Colombo garbage impasse. “When one (political) party decides to do something, others will oppose it, so nothing gets done. It is not environmentalists making decisions, but politicians,” Sally added.

Last week, Perera released a statement urging the public to be more civic-minded, minimize waste disposal and segregate waste but she still feels, that in order to work, policies have to be imposed in a dictatorial style after the manner of the Tigers.

Indeed the Tigers have not only banned polythene bags but also supported Perera’s waste segregation programme by distributing marked waste bins.