Waste management key priority for CEA

Government to embark on awareness campaign to alert public

Hazardous waste is rearing its head in Sri Lanka as an issue that needs urgent attention, with the health sector being a cause for serious concern at present. In an effort to contain the fallout, the Government is initiating a marketing campaign to ensure people are provided with places to dump their garbage.

By Sunimalee Dias



The Central Environmental Authority (CEA), engaged in the protection of the environment, has taken on the task of assisting the local authorities to ensure proper waste management is carried out in the country.

Effective disposal mechanisms

The cost of waste management is piling up to such an extent that the responsibility lies not in consuming a product alone but in its disposal mechanism as well.

CEA Chairman Charitha Herath in an interview with the Daily FT on Tuesday said that in the future, the purchase of a mobile phone would also involve ensuring that the responsibility of disposing it is carried out effectively post consumption.

The authority is presently engaged in working on waste management, environmental education and awareness, in addition to providing licences for environment management.

The Government is ready to assist the public in finding the nearest places to handover e-waste matter; the required information could be obtained by dialling 1919, the National Information Service.

Commencing January, Herath said they would be encouraging people to hand over their used electronic items. In the meantime, private companies have been requested to assign one day as e-waste day to motivate and educate customers about the programme, which is currently underway.

Clinical waste

The CEA is currently working on establishing a national level solution to the most hazardous waste created by the health sector termed as clinical waste. The programme is set to commence within this month together with the Ministries of Environment and Health.

CEA Chairman Charitha Herath said that both Government and private hospitals were generating a significant amount of clinical waste with some of them making a payment to Finlays in a bid to arrange for the disposal of such garbage.

This company is currently engaged in purchasing the clinical waste and disposing of it by burning it using incinerators.

In 2002 alone, statistics indicate that 5,643.75 MT of clinical waster have been collected per year.

He noted that when clinical products are being used it becomes beneficial, but it is post consumption that they become hazardous to the environment. As such it is important that everyone must be accountable for the use of these products.

In this respect, it was pointed out that society needed to take responsibility for post consumption disposal of such waste material that could prove to be hazardous. A cluster-based system is being developed to ensure that organised clinical waste management takes place effectively.

Some hospitals reportedly send their clinical waste to other solid waste dump yards. Herath pointed out that this was not appropriate and that it could become hazardous to the environment.

Chemical waste

Currently there are a lot of chemicals in the Sri Lankan environment emitted from various industries, as a result of which a national policy is being brought into effect in order to contain the negative impact of this hazardous waste.

Herath observed that today there are lots of chemicals entering the country through different materials. Currently the impact of chemical waste management is not seen as a major issue, although the negative impact is more hazardous than most of the other types of hazardous waste.

Solid waste management

The CEA has stepped in to assist local authorities which have fallen short in carrying out their duties in ensuring solid waste management is disposed of effectively. A national plan has been drawn up for the use of the local authorities, which are expected to work together with the CEA to maintain proper waste collection and disposal.

The environmental authority is focusing on providing technical, financial and administrative support to the local authorities. Towards this end, the CEA has embarked on a project of solid waste management to segregate waste, set up compost and recycle plastic and polythene.

With 310 local authorities in the country, the CEA had already commenced work with 60 while another 23 local authorities are currently developing centres and some are ready to start the centres.

Herath observed that since they were unable to achieve their targets in the first three years, an extension was requested for a further three years in a bid to ensure the local authorities would be able to accomplish the given tasks.

In the Colombo metropolitan area, waste management is being effectively carried out with the assistance of the Ministry of Defence. This has been achieved together with the environmental policing units that were alerted while the Ministry controlled some key issues that arose in Kolonnawa, Kotikawatta, Karadiyana and Bloemendhal.

It was pointed out that the municipal councils should pay more attention to this project and consider it as a top priority, especially since the CEA is assisting the councils to find a substantial solution to waste management, Herath explained.

However, most municipal councils or Pradeshiya Sabhas also face issues concerning the purchase of land and space for the proper management of waste collected, as a result of which such priorities are abandoned.

However, today waste management is being given a bigger priority in the face of the ongoing development programmes aimed at informing the general public on the seriousness of the crisis.