‘NO KUNU’ an organization dedicated to ‘help Sri Lanka become the cleanest country in Asia,’ calls citizens to arm against the garbage menace again. This time, they are reaching southwards from the commercial hub. They will be clearing and cleaning the ‘Wellawatte Canal’ from Wellawatte to Pamankada running up to Thalakotuwa Gardens.
NO KUNU founder Sumi Moonesinghe has just completed such a project, cleaning the parameters of the Beira Lake in Colombo. It’s the success of the project that had prompted him to take up another, soon after. It was conducted as a public private partnership in collaboration with government establishments and non-government entities. NO KUNU cleaned up the whole length of the Beira periphery (approximately 11.5 km) within one day in July. The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC), Urban Development Authority (UDA), Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLLRDC), the SL Navy, Ports Authority and the Police supported the effort.
The challenge is to create awareness over 250 low income families living on the banks of the canal, says the team. NO KUNU hopes to reduce the amount of garbage dumped into the canals. “When garbage is dumped into the canal, it blocks the drainage and the canal. Therefore, the city gets flooded with the slightest amount of rain, he said.
The NO KUNU Team is ready. They have the support of the SLLRDC and the CMC this time, as well.
The campaign with humble beginnings, door-to-door visits creating awareness among the poor families on the importance of segregating garbage and putting them into good use has now spread its wings to keeping the cities clean. Soon, NO KUNU’s vision to bring about a change for the better, one city at a time would be a reality.
“We will move from city to village, to beach, to forest and farm, from house to house and shop to shop and company by company. We will teach them how to separate their garbage, we will mobilise company workforces to help clean up our country. We will create a 1,500 Business leaders to pledge to be guardians of our cities and mobilise their resources and workforces to help demonstrate, reiterate, clean up, resource and monitor a programme to Keep Colombo Clean first, and then every city, river, beach and forest,” say Moonesinghe and her team of inspired, likeminded people who treat their efforts as a “pay-back” for all that the country had bestowed on them.
They are intense, influential, determined and would leave no stone unturned until they achieve their goal.