Meethotamulla is a
tragedy. According to my personal views, both governments should take the
responsibility of what had happened at the meethotamulla.
And i do not like
to forget the other groups as well; the dukgannarala’s who delivers millions of
speeches saying this and that about this and that issues of the society. We do
not need talkers actually what we need is doers. I do not know whether such
groups took any actions to deliver any reminding speeches to the relevant or
why didn’t they take any actions to smoother the issue. Why they wait till an
election to arrive at their door steps to present their plans at stages.
I remember
listening to dozens of speeches enclose of loads of promises during previous
elections with regard to ‘garbage management and disposal.
Garbage is one of
the issues some raised as an issue that needed immediate action.
So though the
former government has introduced a design to manage garbage, according to what
i over heard (according to revelations of MP, Mr. BandulaGunawardena) and it
was submitted to the parliament). i guess that they were unable to implement
because they lost the election. i guess they should have fasten the procedures
and must have taken fast actions to implement that before facing the election. For
a government that had the courage to solve massive issues, we cannot say that
solving garbage issue was a difficult task.
And later the
current government until the incident happened i do not know why took no action
to find an alternative to the issue. I do not know whether they were planning
anything within to solve the issue. And according to my awareness the
government gave a lot of attention to study what former ministers have done and
try imprisoning those filing cases. Therefore they had little time to
concentrate on some of the issues such as ‘the garbage issue’. But according to
what i read the president has taken some actions against those who left the
country after the incident.
I read that the
minister of the relevant ministryhas told that the government is taking the
responsibility of the incident happened. Fair. Apologizing after happening
something is good it is sad that he couldn’t hurry up the process that he had
in his mind. He is a minister with good records, past.
Iassume that the
design and the plan introduced by former government is a proper plan weighing
the qualities and the standards of other town plans and what they have already
implemented. So kindly view and study the plan and try to implement it.
According to the
newspaper article carried in Lanakadeepa (23/04/2017) one of the
environmentalists has warned the danger of having such a huge mountain of
garbage. And he has spoken of the consequences. I do not know whether that was
the first time the environmentalists warned to the governments who governed the
country. relevant must read such articles written on such subjects, listen to
programmes when ever they get a chance or when ever possible.
Following details
were published in the paper, i read yesterday.
Height of the
mountain = 48.5 m
The area they use
to dump garbage is about 20 acres
They dump 1200
tons of garbage daily at the premises.
According to the
sources, number of people died due to the issue exceeds the number 20. i have not noted any thing about the other damages due to the incident because no damage is massive compared to loss of human lives.
There are things
you cannot change or things that are difficult to change.
One of them is that
it is hard to change the perceptions of some people. And the other thing is you
cannot give life back to a dead.
Although the
incident happened cannot be changed or ‘redo’ and the sorrows and hardships is
larger, i appreciate that immediate actions they took to relieve, to solve the
problem, The Housing solution for example.
The government
said that they have warned the people to leave the place. But just saying is
not enough. You must follow up and monitor. You cannot solve it alone,
forgetting or without listening to people’s voices. You must show them a proper
way that won’t fail, so that they can’t say ‘we can’t or they won’t ‘ignore’.
What is next?
Are you planning
until the other mountains collapses into the heads and lives of people?
Blumendal?Or immediately planning to have a proper mechanism to bin and dispose
garbage?
I know that it is
not easy because it is not an issue one or two years old. I guess due to
increase of population and lack of places, land areas with less population or
barren lands binning garbage within town zones is not easy. So solving it is no
easy. to solve something easily or accurately one must take actions at the
preliminary stage of an issue.
I do not know why
was it not possible to recycle the garbage collected by separating them without
taking any intervals or letting the tons of garbage turned into mountains.
I remember
visiting the place near the cemetery, the place used to dump garbage,Dadella, in
Galle about more than a decade ago.i visited that place as a enumerator to get
people’s perceptions on the place that then government or the relevant
authority used to dump garbage. After
one or two visits i didn’t get any chances to re visit the place. Therefore i
cannot say anything about the current situation of the place.
i believe if
relevant sponsors, authority can provide separate bins to dump garbage at
household level and the collectors , the responsible company can send them to
relevant sections, for example to ‘recycle them’ without facing big issues. I know
we can manufacture compost, fertilizer using garbage you collect.
Keeping
environment clean and tidy is not just single person’s responsibility or just a
responsibility of a single government; it is a responsibility of every citizen.
Kindly refrain from binning garbage where ever you please or you mustn’t throw things
at or near public places where you find a lot of children and people gather. Children’s
park for example.
I observe that very
often the authorities take action to clean such surroundings but within a week
or so, the places become full of garbage. Though no one can compensate the
lives lost due to the incident happened. I wish the team all the best to
achieve the aim, target of distributing houses, compensation allowances to the
needy, fifty thousand a month until they get a house.
Kindly try to keep
garbage bins in the areas where you have not kept any bins in the
town areas and at the public places. Take actions against every idiot who dump
the bottles, packets of food items after consuming them and polytheene as they
please.
What is happened
is happened. Very few has the right to talk about the things like ‘who‘s fault
was that or who should take responsibility etc. Reason is solving or supporting
and encouraging solving public issues is normally a responsibility of every Member
of Parliament, every public servant and every government worker. And is a
responsibility of every citizen of this country. Only difference is ordinary
citizens do not have the power to take decisions.