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People look at houses destroyed beneath the mountain of garbage at Meethotamulla
By Shanika Sriyananda
As hundreds of military rescue workers continued digging through tonnes of rubbish and rubble in search of more bodies and Government officials work on relief measures despite the Avurudu and Easter holidays, the blame game intensified yesterday over Friday’s tragedy in Meethotamulla with the death toll rising to 26.
Officials confirmed that by last evening the number of people killed by the collapse of the garbage dump in Meethotamulla was 26, up from 19 on Saturday. Among the dead were six children, an entire family of four and three teenage siblings from another family.
Amidst rising tensions in the area and nationwide sorrow, President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday chaired a high-level meeting at the Disaster Management Ministry to take stock of the Meethotamulla tragedy and finalise urgent relief measures. The President, who is also the Minister of Environment, directed officials to expedite relief support including cash irrespective of budgetary constraints.
Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, who is in Washington to attend the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC, said in a statement yesterday that ministry officials have been directed to release necessary funds to pay compensation for the families of victims of the Meethotamulla disaster.
“The Finance Ministry will release funds to pay full compensation for damage to property to each family as per estimates prepared by the Disaster Management Ministry. In addition, compensation will be paid to the affected under the special insurance scheme - National Insurance Trust Fund - introduced in the Budget 2016 to pay compensation to victims of natural disasters such as the one at Meethotamulla,” the statement added.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was in Japan on an official visit when the Meethotamulla disaster happened, has expressed the Government’s regret at not being able to move the massive garbage dump in Meethotamulla before the tragedy struck despite plans to do so being in progress.
“The Government will take action to resolve the problem. It is the responsibility of the Government. Innocent people should not have to pay with their lives,” said the Premier, whose office said yesterday that a technical team from Japan would arrive shortly to help with remedial measures.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) blamed the Government for the collapse of the garbage dump saying that the State should be responsible for not having an administration with a plan.
“This is not a natural disaster. It is a disaster an administration without a plan should be responsible for,” the JVP said in a press release issued on the Meethotamulla disaster.
More people joined the chorus of condemnation. The People’s Movement against Kollonnawa Garbage Dump (PMKGD) yesterday lashed out at politicians from the area for the tragedy in Meethotamulla.
PMKGD Convener Attorney-at-Law Nuwan Bopage told the Daily FT that the politicians who have been elected to the Parliament and those who are in the Kollonnawa Municipal Council should be punished under the law for “murdering” innocent people in Meethotamulla. Over 800 tonnes of garbage is dumped daily at the Meethotamulla site.
“The present Government as well as the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa Government should take responsibility for the disaster. The garbage dump is a goldmine for politicians, who have earned Rs. 200 million from this dump, annually,” Bopage charged.
He claimed that the estimated tender for garbage disposal by the Colombo Municipal Council was Rs. 600 million but the tender was given to two private companies for Rs. 800 million.
“Therefore, Rs. 200 million was distributed among those politicians and the top officials of the CMC, who discouraged all solid waste management project proposals to solve dumping of garbage at Meethotamulla, to give the tender to those two private cleaning firms,” he claimed, adding that this was one of the main reasons the garbage problem at Meethotamulla has remained unresolved since 2011.
He said people who lived in the surrounding areas of the 91-metre-high open garbage dump lived like on death row.
“They have been murdered purposefully. We have staged over 15 protest campaigns against the dumping of garbage here but each time we were attacked by the police,” Bopage alleged.
He said the dumping of Colombo’s garbage at Meethotamulla continued as it was a lucrative business for some of the politicians from the present Government as well as the previous Government.
“The Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of a local government body are among those who have deployed lorries carrying garbage to the site. Therefore they didn’t want to have sustainable solid waste management projects but continued with the dumping of garbage at Meethotamulla,” Bopage said.
Lawyer Udul Premaratne, a PMKGD member, said they would take legal action against those who were responsible for the Meethotamulla tragedy.
“We protested since 2011 but authorities were deaf and blind over the people’s suffering. They were left to die and it was a crime committed purposefully,” he said, adding that over 60 companies that were involved in solid waste management had come forward with different project proposals to solve the garbage problem in Colombo as an alternative to dumping garbage at Meethotamulla but the politicians who earned from the site opposed those projects.
“It is a gold mine for those politicians,” he added.
However, even with no proper data on how many people were living in the surrounding areas of the Meethotamulla garbage dump, over 1,500 rescue workers – 1,050 from the tri-forces and 500 from the Special Task Force and the Police – are still conducting search operations to look for survivors buried under debris following the collapse of the garbage dump on Friday.
“We need public support to get the actual numbers of residents living in the area and about their visitors to give a clear picture. But at the moment we lack information,” Military Spokesman Brig. Roshan Senevirathne said.
Police spokesman DIG Priyantha Jayakody, providing available statistics, said that over 145 houses were damaged and 625 people belonging to 180 families were displaced. Seven victims are hospitalised.
In its Situation Report as of 12.00 p.m. Sunday, the Disaster Management Centre, quoting data up to 14 April, said 228 families comprising 980 persons were affected by the Meethotamulla garbage dump tragedy. It also listed that 80 houses were completely damaged while 36 had sustained partial damage.
Brig. Seneviratne also said three locations in the area have been identified as critical due to instability after the landslide.
“Search operations are ongoing in these three locations but people are not allowed to enter. We advise people to refrain from visiting the area to facilitate the rescue work,” Brig. Seneviratne said.
The authorities have requested the people in the areas to provide details of missing relatives to the information desk set up at Rahula Vidyalaya.
Minister for Disaster Management Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said the search operations would continue and relief measures have been taken to look after the survivors.
He said rescue workers would take all efforts to look for survivors and the affected people would be provided shelter.
However, he said that the Government would ensure that no garbage would be dumped at the site in the future and the existing site will be shifted soon.
In a Twitter message President Sirisena promised that the Government would find a sustainable solution to the garbage issue in Sri Lanka.
At yesterday’s meeting chaired by the President, ministers Yapa, Susil Premjayantha, Rajith Senaratne, Patali Champika Ranawaka, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, State Minister A.H.M. Fowzie, Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva, MPs from the area S.M. Marrikar, Prasanna Solangarachchi, the IGP, the heads of the armed forces and senior Government officials were present.
Reports said that the Police are probing whether the collapse of the Meethotamulla garbage dump on Friday was a natural calamity or an act of sabotage.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who reached Vietnam yesterday has decided to cut short his visit because of the tragedy at Meetotamulla.
The Prime Minister was to get back to Sri Lanka on Wednesday April 19. However he is expected return to the country earlier.
