Solid waste management in Northern Province to be regularised

In order to regularise the solid waste management within the Northern Province there was an awareness programme on solid waste management held in Jaffna last week with the participation of Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Minister of Environment as the chief guest and the Central Environment Authority (CEA) Chairman Charitha Herath.

Representatives of Local authorities, Government officers in the area, representatives of CBOs and NGOs in the area and regional politicians participated at this event. “Pilisaru” National Solid Waste Management Project operating under the purview of the CEA organised this workshop to manage the solid waste problem within Northern Region. The Central Environmental authority as the main regulatory institution in charge of environment in Sri Lanka is promoting Solid waste management which is becoming one of the main problems in the urban context. The CEA is involved in planning and designing waste management projects for local authorities, giving technical and financial support to local authorities through “Pilisaru” National Solid Waste Management Project which is operating under the purview of the CEA. Solid waste management is being introduced to the Northern Province when the region is stepping into rapid economic growth after 30 years of war.  Chavakachcheri Urban Council and Jaffna Municipal Council have been selected as the first step and financial and technical support on solid waste management is to be given for this purpose. Meanwhile workshops have been organised to create awareness among the local authority members on solid waste management. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa Minister of Environment; Charitha Herath Chairman Central Environmental Authority; Yogeeswari Patkunarajah Mayor of Jaffna; A. Sivaswamy Chief Secretary of Northern Province; Lal Fernando, Director Pilisaru Project also participated at this event. Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa stressed that solid waste management was very important because the amount of waste generated by households had grown unlike in the past and that had led to a very big issue of managing solid waste especially in the urban context. He also stressed that waste management was one of the most important duties of the Environmental Ministry and it was due to this that the Ministry of Environment with the Central Environmental Authority was going from district to district in order to create awareness in managing solid waste in those areas.

Addressing the gathering CEA Chief stressed that solid waste management was one of the key responsibilities of the Central Environmental Authority as the main regulatory body relating to Environment of Sri Lanka.