Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faiszer Musthapha denied the claim that human body parts have been mixed with the waste dumped at Muthurajawela, today in Parliament.
The Minister replying to a question by MEP Leader Dinesh Gunawardena said that human body parts from hospitals and mortuaries are being incinerated by health authorities at incineration plants in Welisara.
He also said that the Government plans to construct a sanitary landfill and compost plant at Muthurajawela.
Another sanitary landfill would come up in Aruwakkalu in Puttalam with trans-substation and railway connectivity, he said.
“As an immediate measure my ministry is carrying out a detailed survey of existing dump sites to see the possibility of converting them to environmentally friendly sanitary landfills. We need to resolve land issues and construct at least two sanitary landfills in every district. We have planned to purchase 100 garbage compactors from local funds and another 151 from Korean soft loans to improve waste transportation facilities of LG authorities,” he explained.
The Minister said a taskforce will be set up in his Ministry to monitor waste management activities in Colombo and suburbs.
“We will prepare a waste collection and disposal master plan for each province with the support of all stakeholders. We will hand over the summary of the report to the President on July 17,” the Minister added.
The Minister noted three ‘waste to energy’ plants would be set up at Karadiyana, Muthurajawela and Moratuwa with the help of other stakeholder ministries for waste being generating in Colombo metropolitan area and Gampaha district.