{"id":95943,"date":"2019-12-02T16:13:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T23:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=95943"},"modified":"2019-12-02T16:13:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T23:13:36","slug":"disposing-garbage-along-a-wall-on-sri-lankas-sea-coast-please-rethink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/02\/disposing-garbage-along-a-wall-on-sri-lankas-sea-coast-please-rethink\/","title":{"rendered":"Disposing garbage along a wall on Sri Lanka’s sea coast \u2013 Please rethink"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Emeritus Professor Ariyasena de Silva of \nMoratuwa University, writing in The Island (1st Dec. 2019) suggests the \nfollowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“[making] blocks one metre long and 0.5 m across … outside \nplastered with a thin layer of cement mortar \u2026 Compressing the garbage into a \nsteel casing can also be done with a press made locally. If the blocks are sunk, \nat about 0.25 km away from the coast where the depth is roughly about three \nmeters, a wall of one to two km in length can produce a land area of 0.25 sq km. \nOnce the wall is built the normal garbage can be dumped as it is collected … \nIt has to be a job lasting several years, but it can be done in smaller sections \nand the land put to some use. Perhaps (growing) coconuts will be the best. \nRainwater storage in the land must also be considered. The equipment can be \ntotally built by our youth … and it may even be possible to grow some leafy \nfood like Mukunuwenna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who value the beauty of Sri Lanka’s beaches \nwill find the proposal quite unacceptable. However, let us examine it \nfurther.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The engineering professor was led to this idea because rubble \nfrom buildings demolished during World War II were used in building the coast \nline of the USA. However, since then, our knowledge of the ecosystem and the \ninter-relatedness of the web of life has grown by leaps and bounds. Various \ninternational conventions exist regarding what can be disposed in the sea even \nwithin territorial waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost all countries are party to the \n“Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other \nMatter, 1972 (the London Convention) and the related the 1996 Protocol”. These \nagreements are there because what is dumped in Chennai or New York may have \nnon-local effects even on Sri Lanka’s coasts, and vice versa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garbage is \nnot some inert material like rubble from demolished buildings. It is a living \necosystem full of microbes and bugs. The microbes are feasting on the \nbio-degradable components of garbage and producing a lot of greenhouse gases \nlike methane and carbon dioxide. That is why composting which allows such gases \nto escape into the environment (instead of being harvested) is very bad. Such \ngases cause global warming. Furthermore, if the garbage is compressed and \nencapsulated, the aerobic processes become anaerobic, but gases are produced, \nand the blocks proposed by Prof. De Silva will eventually explode or crack open. \nEven the garbage compressed inside large open garbage mounds explode from time \nto time, as has happened several times in Meethotamulla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor de \nSilva envisions that blocks of encapsulated garbage could be used to form a wall \nin the sea. From then on, he suggests using the space between the wall and the \nsea coast as a landfill for garbage where one can eventually plant coconuts and \neven grow “Mukunuwenna”. Urban garbage is rather rich in metal toxins like \ncadmium, lead and arsenic, as well as industrial pollutants, petro-chemical \nresidues, excreted or discarded pharmaceuticals, electronic waste etc. If crops \nare grown on soil containing such rotting garbage, or compost made from such \ngarbage, the toxic substances present therein are also absorbed by the \nMukunuwenna or Murunga grown there. There is also a mechanism known as \nphyto-magnification, whereby the toxins accumulate and concentrate in the crops, \nsometimes up to a factor of 100 times more. That is, toxins concentrate as you \ngo up the food chain. So, the Mukunuwenna is even more toxic than the soil \necosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your food is only as clean as the soil and water used to grow \ncrops! Of course, the false propaganda is that all the pollution come from \nagrochemicals. Actually, such pollution and toxicity from agrochemicals are \nutterly minuscule compared to that of other sources. However, it makes good \npropaganda for the “organic food” marketeers who promote their products and \ncater to the elite, while destroying the agriculture that feeds the vast \nmajority of poor humanity. The Yahapalanaya government followed the appalling \nagricultural dicta of Ven. Ratana and his minions who claim to get their \n“science” from God Natha, and banned the herbicide glyphosate in 2015. Sri \nLanka’s key agricultural sectors are yet to recover from that crippling blow \nthat cost the country far more than the Bond Scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if we ignore the \nagricultural proposals of growing crops on the garbage disposed landfills on the \nsea coast, the project is destined to fail. As a mechanical Engineer, Prof. De \nSilva would know that the slow but incessant effect of tides, currents etc., as \nwell as the tremendously variable dynamic loads from waves in monsoonal and \ninter-monsoonal times will take their toll on the garbage wall. Only strong \nwell-designed breakwalls (aka breakwaters) can face such furious power. Anyone \ndriving along the southern coastal strip of Sri Lanka will know that efforts at \ncontrolling sea erosion along those coasts have failed. So, what chance has the \nproposed wall of garbage against the power and fury of the ocean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is \nmost likely that any such garbage-packed wall will disintegrate within a year \nand spew garbage all along the world famous golden coasts of Sri Lanka. In \naddition to the irreparable pollution to its own fishery, tourism, its \nmarine-coastal ecosystem, many international treaties of the sea will be \ncontravened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Canada and many other countries where the integrity of \nmarine ecosystems have come to be greatly valued, what can be disposed in the \nocean are strictly controlled. They are listed in Schedule 5 of the Canadian \nEnvironmental Protections act. Some examples of acceptable disposal at sea \nare:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. the sand at the bottom of a channel is dredged and disposed at \nsea to help control rising water levels and increase ship safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. a \nfish plant in a remote location disposes the fish waste (flesh, skin, bones, \nentrails, shells etc.) at sea as there is no other option<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. a ship is \ncleaned and sunk at sea when no ship recycling facility is available<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. a \nrock slide occurs on a remote road along the coast, and the rocks are disposed \nof at sea for efficiency in cleaning up the road when the rocks are not a \npotential risk for the marine environment<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. in a remote rural location, \nwhere there is no practical alternative, the offal from disease-free muskox is \nplaced on the ice and allowed to fall into the sea during the spring \nmelt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Item numbers 2 and 5 show that no rotting matter can be lightly \ndisposed off in the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe severely criticized the \nChinese port city project in the run up to the 2015 January election when the \nYahapalanites won. But the addition of rubble and sand to the sea in the \nconstruction of the port city is not as serious as adding a wall of rotting \ngarbage along the coast, or the ecological dangers of oil exploration in the \nMannar basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe Yahapalanaites stopped the port city when they came to power; then \nre-authorized it and even paid heavy penalties for delaying the project. \nHowever, perhaps some individuals profited handsomely in the process. Now the \nport city is being built, giving an opportunity for ecologists who complained \nabout the project to gather daily data on the environmental impact of such \nconstruction. There is a dearth of information, especially for tropical waters \nregarding such projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n(The author pioneered courses in Food Science and environmental \nstudies during his tenure as a Vice Chancellor and Professor of Chemistry at \nVidyodaya which is today’s SJP university. He is currently a Professor of \nPhysics at the University of Montreal, and works for the National Research \nCouncil of Canada.)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chandre Dharmawardana, Canada Emeritus Professor Ariyasena de Silva of Moratuwa University, writing in The Island (1st Dec. 2019) suggests the following. “[making] blocks one metre long and 0.5 m across … outside plastered with a thin layer of cement mortar \u2026 Compressing the garbage into a steel casing can also be done with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95943","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=95943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}