Provincial Council and Local Government Minister Faizer Mustapha said Commissioners and Secretaries of local government bodies should resign from their posts if they cannot manage the garbage disposal issue.
“These officers know exactly how corruption flourishes on garbage collection and disposal for a long time.This has become one of the main sources of income for corrupt officials.They do not want to solve the problem as they lose income.Corrupt officials should be responsible for the Meethotamulla garbage dump collapse. If they acted responsibly and genuinely by taking correct decisions timely, such a disaster would have not have happened,” he said.
Garbage collection and disposal has become one of the most corrupt businesses in Sri Lanka. We must be ashamed as we were unable to find a permanent solution to the garbage problem since Independence.Though we commenced the garbage segregation last June, this exercise did not meet with much success. Eventhough, people have been asked to segregate their organic and inorganic waste, they do not seem to practice this concept, Therefore, it is necessary to make an attitudinal change among the people. If the householders care to separate out the kitchen waste from other waste, and manage the kitchen waste within their own premises using compost bins and hand over only the non-perishable waste to collectors which could be recycled, this problem would not have built upto the mountainous level.
The Minster said he will solve this problem without leaving it to anyone else. Even though a large amount of money is spent for the garbage collection and disposal, the problem is not solved still. He said the officials appointed to the Task Force should be duty bound to solve this problem. Every citizen living in the city is also responsible for this misadventure. It is the garbage generated by each and every household from the affluent to the poor that gets dumped here. If no garbage is generated, there will be no garbage dumps and no such tragedies. Therefore, we will take action to impose massive fines on those who throw garbage on streets through the Task Force in the future.
The Minister also requested the supermarket owners to stop the usage of polythene bags which has badly affected the waste problem.Nearly 6 billon polythene bags are used daily in super markets in the country currently. Therefore, stopping the use of polythene is a great benefit for the country.