Meethotamulla: Assigning the blame

correctly

Friday, 21 April 2017

At a recent panel discussion on ITN television themed Mountains

of garbage where the writer was a panellist, S.M. Marikkar, MP for
Colombo District, brought a file with copies of communications
from him to authorities regarding the Meethotamulla garbage
dump. The list of institutions and individuals to whom the letters
were addressed epitomised the breadth of the blame assigning
involved.
Recipients included Commissioner for the Colombo Municipal
Council, Chief Minister of the Western Province, Director General
of the Waste Management Authority of the Western Province,
Director General of the Urban Development Authority, Chairman
of Central Environment Authority (CEA), Minister for Local
Government and Provincial Councils, Minister for Megapolis and
Western Development and of course the President who also is in
charge of the Environment portfolio in the Cabinet. The Chairman
of the CEA was a panellist at the TV event, but Marikkar as the
sole parliamentarian in the panel received an unnecessary share
of criticism by the listeners who called in, I felt.

Politicians, good or bad, are everybodys favourite target.

However, as we move forward it is important that we put the
blame where blame is truly due in the Meethotamulla tragedy.
Hierarchy of responsibility
We hand over our garbage to the local authorities to do the
needful. Our elected representatives at the local councils are
expected to develop the relevant rules and regulations, and
maintain a bureaucracy to manage our garbage, so that you and I
can go about our business without worrying whether the remains
of the buth-packet that sustained us yesterday is going to stink up
somebodys neighbourhood, or worse still, be part of the pile of
garbage landing on somebodys house. That is exactly what
happened on 14 April. Our garbage landed on a neighbourhood
far removed from us, but now connected more than ever to us by
a bond of shared sadness and a sense of guilt.
Problem for final disposal
 Sadness yes, but we need not feel guilty. We follow
instructions from the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), say, and
dispose our garbage when and where as requested. Every couple
of years CMC launches a campaign with posters and colourful
leaflets telling us to sort our garbage. People may not do it
correctly at first, but most comply as best as they can. After a few
weeks you begin to notice that the garbage collectors throw in
your carefully-sorted waste into one heap and it is clear it is
headed nowhere but the dump, and you stop separating.

Bureaucrats initiate these source separation programs but they

cant follow through because they dont have what we call a final
disposal plan. In Solid Waste Management (SWM), as in most
other activities where you move massive amounts of unpleasant
material, you need to begin with the end in mind. Just as our
bodies need crematoria and cemeteries, the waste we produce
too needs proper places for processing and resting in peace.

In my opinion, the CMC cannot be blamed for the Meethotamulla

disaster. Final disposal of waste is not something that a local
authority, even one as large as the CMC, can procure for itself. In
the hierarchy of responsibilities, provincial and/or national
authorities have to provide the final disposal infrastructure and
the regulatory framework for proper disposal.

Politicians at the provincial and national level too are hampered

by structural issues in governance. Our electoral system yields a
proportional result with power split over two major parties and
several smaller ones. In an effort to keep fragile coalitions
together, cabinet portfolios which should be together are
separated and distributed like candy for kids. As a result, decision
making is hampered and interest groups have more influence
than they deserve.

We have seen this happening beginning with 1990s when

governments of the day have allowed interest groups to derail
common sense solutions for solid waste management. Popular
slogans in 1990s were No to Colombo garbage and 100%
recycling No landfilling with sanitary landfills demonised.

Recycling is wonderful. I have practiced 3R (or reduce-reuse-

recycle) in the last 30 years of my life at personal or community
level, and researched issues and advocated for changes at policy
level. However, I am also keenly aware of the fact that it is not
possible to initiate and maintain a recycling program without a
landfilling option in place. Unfortunately our environmental
activists are still stuck in their utopia.
Recycling and landfilling has to work in tandem
The leftovers from necessities you bought or unsolicited stuff that
came your way all end up one of two forms: Recycled or landfilled.

To keep the discussion simple, I define recycling broadly to include

(1) recycling of plastic, paper, polythene metal, etc. into materials
that are close to the original in their chemical composition and (2)
converting waste to materials such as compost, bio-gas or energy
where the product is very different from the original, physically or
chemically.

What cannot be recycled has to be landfilled properly in what we

call sanitary landfills. Contrary to emotional responses from some
environmentalists, human have always produced material that
cannot be reused or recycled. Broken crockery or clay items that
serve as markers of ancient civilisations are some examples.

Sweden, a country which is held up as the epitome of solid waste

management, currently recycles 99% of its household waste.
Sweden did not achieve this overnight. In 2000, the Swedes were
landfilling about 30% of their waste. We dont have data on the
times when they landfilled more, but current recycling rates of
USA and UK are indicative.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency of USA, in

2014, the recycling rate of municipal waste in the USA was 35%
and the rate in In UK in 2015 was 44%. Meanwhile, our local
activists demanded in 1990 and continue to demand for 100%
recycling now!
Misguided activists and oppose everything when in
opposition politicians
Sri Lanka is a country where university students and other
interest groups stall traffic for hours to demand free higher
education only and no private options demands and there are
indeed many in this country who think that it is a just demand.

In the same vein, our environmentalists have gotten away so far

with the misguided demand that we should have 100% recycling
and no landfilling. The story of misguided environmental activism
begins with opportunists who derailed plans for a sanitary landfill
in Padukka in early 1900s.

As the Auditor General dryly noted in his 2003 audit report on

solid waste management at the CMC: An agreement had been
signed in 1992 between the CMC and the World Bank for an
environmental land filling project at the Alupota Estate, Meepe.
The project had been abandoned due to opposition from the
public. The total expenditure incurred on the project is not
available for audit. Alternative sites had not been considered for
the continuation of the project and the funds received had been
returned.

One of the actors of the drama, Hemantha Withanage Executive

Director, Centre for Environmental Justice, in an article published
on the website of the Centre for Environmental Justice on 14
January 2009, confesses to being part of a political game:

The sanitary fill proposed at the peak of the debate on garbage

had to be abandoned due to public protest. The site moved from
Ragama to Alupotha in Meepe. It was proposed to have few
central collection stations and bring to the sanitary fill. The
scientific and environmental debate on the issues such as best
site and best waste management mechanism was transformed to
a political game of certain politicians in the area. The slogan No
to Colombo garbage was a creation of this political game.
Although it was not the best solution, abandoning of this sanitary
landfill was the biggest mistake. I feel ashamed because I was
also part of this debate.

(See https://www.ejustice.lk/CEJ%20web6/article%2019-%20Say
%20no%20to%20Colombo%20garbage!.htm)

But, eight years later, Withange has forgotten his recantation and
mouths the same erroneous arguments against the proposed
sanitary landfill in Puttalam.

Hemantha Withanage of the Centre for Environmental Justice

(CEJ) says the project is a crime and not worth the cost. He says
the solution lies not in dumping garbage at landfill sites but
addressing the root cause. Go for a zero-waste model promoting
recycling. It will be a sustainable solution. Sometimes drastic
measures such as banning polythene and plastic might have to be
taken but it will help in the long run, he said. Withanage said
the people must also act with responsibility to minimise garbage.

(See http://www.sundaytimes.lk/151004/news/environmentalists-
derail-garbage-train-to-aruwakkalu-166659.html)

Another actor is Dr. Ajantha Perera, who captured the imagination

of many in the 1990s with her focus on the plight of solid waste
workers and the resources we waste by not recycling.
Unfortunately, her solutions were expressed as beliefs, with little
scientific evidence or practical experience in large-scale solid
waste management. Dr. Perera was quoted in 2000 as follows,
this time about the sanitary landfill in Dompe:

One of the key advisors to the Pilisaru Project, Dr. Ajantha

Perera says the Rs. 600 million garbage disposal project in Dompe
will only cause further problems to the ongoing garbage issues in
the country. She says despite recommendations, authorities are
still depending on methods that are not suitable. She says she
strongly believes that recycling and composting are the only
solutions to the garbage problem.

Fortunately, the credibility of these extremist advisors has been

waning and today we indeed have a sanitary landfill facility in
Dompe which can be brought to service once waste is better
prepared for landfilling. Further the Megapolis Ministry is
seemingly recruiting people with proven track records in SWM,
like Nimal Prematilake, a senior Public Health Inspector, who was
the livewire behind our own exemplar in solid waste management
at the Balangoda Urban Council.
Waste to energy has

become a recycling

method of choice
There was a time when the release of dioxins and other highly-
toxic chemicals was a problem in waste-to-energy operations.
Today waste-to-energy processes have improved vastly and many
countries are adopting these. In Sri Lanka such projects were on
the drawing board for years. It is gratifying that present
Government has finally signed on two contracts awarding the
processing of 500MT in Karadiyana (down Borupona Road in
Ratmalana) and 400 MT at Muthurajawela with commitments by
the Government to buy electricity from them at Rs. 36 per KWH.
Leaving others more knowledgeable to discuss the technicalities
of these contracts, I am concerning myself with the timing. These
plants will not be functional for another three to four years. What
do we do between now and then?
Between now and

the promised waste-

to-energy solution
CMC collects 750-850 metric tons of waste a day. The other day
Courts granted permission to CMC until 28 April to dispose of 350
metric tons of garbage per day at the Karadiyana site. The Dompe
landfill may accept another 100 MT or so. How about the rest?
Can the CMC/us reduce waste bulge from 750-850 to 450 a day?
And where will our waste go after 28 April?

Asked for his thoughts, Nimal Prematilake, now sociologist in solid

waste management project at the Ministry of Megapolis, thinks
that, barring any political or civil obstacles, we can address the
problem if we immediately start separating our bio-degradable
waste from the rest of the waste.
Key is to remove the biodegradables from

the waste stream

Waste can be basically distinguished as bio-degradable and non-
bio-degradable. Particularly critical is the need to reduce bio-
degradable waste going into landfills. An often ignored truth is
that it is the bio part in the waste that pollutes water sheds and
even kill people.

Bio waste sounds natural and benign, but they stink up the waste
and makes for icky working conditions for garbage collectors, and
once landfilled, bio-waste continues to rot to produce gases and
leach out a nasty liquor or a leachate that pollutes ground water.
The decaying matter and leachate and gases produced would
have had much to do with the destabilisation and collapse of the
Meethotamulla garbage dump.
What you can do
So, if you want to do something about the garbage problem,
immediately start collecting your food waste separate from the
rest of waste. Make the rest of the waste free from food residues.
It is as simple as that. The garbage collectors may dump the two
bags in the same truck for a while but if the Megapolis Ministry
has its way, source separations directives will be followed up with
action from the authorities. Even if authorities take their time,
think of the garbage collectors who now can rummage through
the non-bio bags to salvage recyclable without getting their
fingers into your rotting lamprais.
Posted by Thavam