Only 50 Trucks which are 20 years old at CMC for garbage collection

The Colombo Municipal Council(CMC) yesterday said that the council was in possession of only 50 compactors and trucks to collect garbage and they were over 20 years old.

The CMC said that the Provincial Council had allocated funds to provide the Council with more compactors and trucks, but they are yet to materialise.

Colombo has seen a stark increase in garbage visible in many parts of the city. Residents and shop owners said the garbage was not collected for days by the Council. However, V.K. Anura insisted that they non collected was due to many residents not segregating the garbage.

He said that more than 50 people have been arrested over dumping garbage on ad hoc manner within the Colombo areas.

He added that legal action would be taken against the citizens failing to segregate their garbage.

Contrary to what many residents of Colombo told the Daily News the CMC claimed that garbage collection in and around Colombo has been resumed in a systematic manner, many roads and junctions are stocked with piles of garbage yet to be cleared by the CMC. Large amount of garbage were spread all over the area as CMC had not collected them for the past few days.

The Commissioner also said dumping garbage on ad hoc manner in Colombo was an organized act.

“Some people are purposely dumping garbage on roads in the Colombo areas to pollute the environment. The CMC intends to take legal action against those individuals with the help of the Army and the police”, he said.

Anura further said that the CMC’s aim is to reduce the amount of waste that people produce every day and added that at present around 400 tonnes are collected within the Colombo areas.

“Continuous raids will take place in all the areas to monitor the waste segregation process with the help of the Army and the police”, he said.

Anura emphasized that the Army was not used to collect garbage but they have been helping CMC to create awareness among the public.

He said that CMC has requested the public to separate their waste as degradable waste, Recyclable waste and non- recyclable waste. Commissioner claimed that only bio-degradable garbage was being dumped in the compost yard in Muthurajawela.

He further said 400 tonnes of degradable waste, 100 tonnes of recycle waste and 200 tonnes of non-recyclable waste are collected every day.

Responding to a question raised by a Journalist about garbage collection tenders that have been out sourced, Commissioner said CMC cannot award tenders to clean streets of Colombo annually.

“The tenders have to be awarded for a period of four years”, he said.

He explained that the tenders were out sourced in 1990 as young people refused to work in this area and CMC could not recruit individuals above the age of 60.

They are around 1200 CMC employees are engaged in garbage collection and cleaning process with in the Colombo.

The Commissioner however said that they are taking measures to replace them. 

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