{"id":91763,"date":"2019-07-29T23:58:16","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T05:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91763"},"modified":"2019-07-29T16:49:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T23:49:39","slug":"is-my-country-drowning-in-a-sea-of-garbage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/29\/is-my-country-drowning-in-a-sea-of-garbage\/","title":{"rendered":"Is my country drowning, in a sea of garbage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I\nsaw a picture on Facebook on (27-07-19) that made me silently cry. It was the\ngarbage-strewn river mouth of the Kelani Ganga. It is literally a giant carpet\nof garbage, the thickness of which could be anyone\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then\ncame the containers. The ghostly shapes stuffed with garbage sitting somewhere,\non this pristine land of ours, its filth slowly leaking to the ground, its\nstink penetrating and permeating through the air around started to play tricks\non my mind. The boxes of metal now glistening as if livid with demonic rage\nbegan to float in front of me, a grotesque, savage dance prophesying the\nill-health of the nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People\nfrom all walks of life, the poor and the not so poor are talking about it. It\nhas taken media on all fronts and formats by storm. It is about this\ndespicable, disgusting act, which is tantamount to spitting on ones\u2019\n\u2018Motherland\u2019 with spite and venom, by heartless rogues and I wonder if it\ndoesn\u2019t make any sane person, even with a modicum of care, concern and love for\nthe country of his\/her birth, fume, what else can? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These\ncontainers are said to contain garbage and filth, some even carrying human\nremains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nheard somewhere that those containers cannot be sent back, according to \u2018Basal\nConvention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and\ntheir Disposal\u2019, which prohibits cross-border (land\/sea) traffic of garbage\ntransport. And this \u2018Treaty was also designed specifically to prevent transfer\nof hazardous waste from developed countries to less developed countries\n(Wikipedia)\u2019. I think this is quite relevant and applicable to Sri Lanka as\nregards this present case since part of the garbage is said to contain\nhealth-hazardous hospital garbage including human remains, which ought to be\nconsidered hazardous by Sri Lanka in any case, which is the country of import.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncovenants, conventions and treaties have to be fair by all parties. An illegal\nact has taken place at the point of origin, where the despatch of the cargo was\ninitiated and subsequently effected. Consequently its voyage to its present\nlocation was illegal too. So why that cargo cannot be sent back? I am not a\nlawyer. Yet, common sense and fair play suggest that it should be so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr\nPresident, you were born and bred in a village. I am sure you have heard the\nenchanting sounds of humming bees and chirping birds, seen how beautiful the\ngreenery can be, smelt that uniquely refreshing fragrance coming from a meadow,\nfelt the breeze and smelt its delicate scents, which only a clean and pristine\nenvironment can give. And I am sure you had many a dip and swim in those\npristine waters of our \u2018ala, dola and ganga\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nthen you are also the Minister, who is responsible for looking after our\nenvironment. Therefore, please make it a task of highest priority to initiate\nan island-wide campaign to handle and properly manage the disposal of garbage.\nTransferring of garbage from one place to another is an eyewash. It is not\nonly unsustainable, it defeats the purpose too, which is to make our\nenvironment free of garbage and trash. I have read about few small-scale\ngarbage sorting and recycling plants in operation in some locations. Why not\nmake this an island-wide project, where each council has its own to cater to\ngarbage produced in the area that comes under its jurisdiction? Or a few can\nwork together, where capacities come into the equation, having one plant to\nserve them all. And I have also heard that as one would expect these days that\nthere exist \u2018garbage mafia outfits\u2019 too in many a locality or council and you\nshould be prepared to handle them as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir,\nplease make sure that those containers will be leaving Sri Lankan shores to\nwhatever the destination without delay. And also make sure that all those, who\nare behind this despicable act, will also be expediently dealt with, if there\nis enough legal grounds for such action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please\ndo not let our beautiful country drown in a sea of garbage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laksiri\nWarnakula <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula I saw a picture on Facebook on (27-07-19) that made me silently cry. It was the garbage-strewn river mouth of the Kelani Ganga. It is literally a giant carpet of garbage, the thickness of which could be anyone\u2019s guess. Then came the containers. The ghostly shapes stuffed with garbage sitting somewhere, on this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laksiri-warnakula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}