There is a danger of the Clean Sri Lanka initiative being interpreted as a one-off shramadana – a type of temporarytamasha our citizenry has been used to for decades. A grand show and the subsequent descend onto the same squalor.
The mind of a person is evident in how he lives and certainly in how he disposes of his garbage. This could be said of the nation which is but a collection of individuals and their minds. The Japanese are known for their ultra respectfulness to others. This is seen even in a cursory glance of the spotless streets of Japan and how a citizen of that country would use a public washroom.
Sri Lanka in contrast, once faced the humiliation of some foreign diplomats speaking without mincing their words of the horrific status of public washrooms, when they were invited to speak at a tourism related exhibition around two years ago.
In a nutshell what was implied was that all the tourism promotion in the world would be useless unless we get the basics in order. Pity the local or the tourist who needs to find a public toilet mid journey anywhere in the country. Either there are no toilets to be found or they are repulsively used. Or there are toilets stating ‘Only for Tourists’ which are locked up!
Meanwhile, the less said about the condition of toilets in trains the better. One can purchase a first or second class ticket and travel in stink.
Just few weeks after being elected to office, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake announced the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ initiative, a nationwide program to enhance cleanliness and environmental responsibility by citizens and the State, and to bring about much needed attitudinal changes. Months into the endeavour we can see how difficult it is.
Erratic garbage disposal
This writer, having shifted her library to Nuwara Eliya last October is daily engaged in a running battle with the immediate neighbourhood over erratic garbage disposal. One key problem is that Municipal vehicles, including handcarts do not go uphill. Therefore, in many areas in districts such as Nuwara Eliya and Kandy, two key historic and scenic locales which attracts large numbers of tourists, the garbage menace is a shame on the nation and the officials paid for keeping the nation clean. A case in point is the Hantana- Richmond Hill route which has some wonderful resorts – and a massive garbage dump right across the road mid way.
This brings us to the question, how on earth can mountainous areas which have such touristic appeal be kept clean when no municipal vehicle including handcarts traverses up? The municipal lorries stay stationed downhill for around 3 to 7 minutes.
Sri Lanka has not bred responsibility or civic consciousness in our masses to the extent that they diligently separate their trash, proceed downhill and wait at the main road patiently for the garbage truck. Instead what we see every yard or so is litter filled plastic garbage bags strewn around galore. The waterfall I live close-by to is a garbage ridden eyesore as is the roadway encircling it which is dotted with plastic burning dumps. Slippers, plastic bottles, beer cans, paper, silisili bags – they all make up daily pyramids of bonfire.
The intensely horrifying thing is the calmness with which those who live around such beautiful scenery throw their refuse around.
By clean Sri Lanka we can thereby interpret that what is expected is a cleaning up first of our minds – and with clean minds bring about clean actions which will automatically result in a clean nation, devoid of garbage, devoid of hypocrisy and devoid of corruption. These consist of the unclean mess that had clogged the progress of this country since 1948 to date.
To begin, first it is possible that we must initiate this process with every Municipal official and ask them these questions. Why are you not walking on your public inspection rounds? Why are you not interacting with the people? What kind of a public inspection can you have when you glide through in your vehicles? Interviewing residents of the Lovers Leap touristic village in Nuwara Eliya it was learnt that the garbage collection occurs only once in 3 weeks or once in a month.
Also learnt is that if there are more regular garbage collections, it is because one has a relative working in the municipal council.
What is most interesting is how calmly Sri Lankans dump their refuse on the high roads or in front of someone’s house and how complacently they walk past such heaps. Travel to any bus terminal and see how filthy it is, especially on rainy days. What this writer finds unique is how comfortably used we have got to this kind of scenario.
Garbage dumps
Clean Sri Lanka then needs to focus first on the minds of Sri Lankans.
It is not an exaggeration to state that if this type of initiative is not introduced, at least now, after waking up from the Rip Van Winkle sleep of 76 years, that Sri Lanka would be known as the garbage dump of Asia as opposed to the fairy tale like slogan ‘Miracle of Asia.’
It is thus imperative for the Clean Sri Lanka endeavour, directed by President AKD to be supported by government officials and the public with seriousness.
It is only a President who has lived an ordinary existence and like other fellow mortals walked – (stepped onto the road and actually walked in his life) as opposed to being transported in oblivion in fancy vehicles, who would prioritise such an initiative. No doubt President Dissanayake in his years as a tutor has tripped over the bags, bottles, beer cans, biscuit packets and whatnot strewn all over the roads across this country. This mass exhibition of the visage and stink of litter is what one would sight first thing in the morning as one proceeds to begin the work day.
For six months, this writer researched the pathetic condition of Nuwara Eliya – which had in colonial times earned the name of Little England due to the similarity to Britain in climate. Today Nuwara Eliya is a sad skeleton of what it was – unplanned houses and slum like structures border many of the roads and it is common to see tourists trip over garbage. One dreads to think of the confetti of garbage that would result following the Nuwara Eliya ‘season’ which is currently on.
When this writer visited the Municipal Council of Nuwara Eliya to meet the new Commissioner, K.M.H.W. Bandara who previously served as the Municipal Secretary of Nuwara Eliya, the discussion that ensued with Public Health Inspector Kithsiri Herath, pointed to the fact that ‘many other districts were worse,’ and that the happy go lucky dumping of garbage anywhere one pleases was the norm across this country. This is correct. No area is spared.
Garbage issue in Colombo
Walk along the most elite environs of Sri Lanka – Cinnamon Gardens, once a cultivation ground of acres of cinnamon but which today, despite its boast of housing the ‘poshest’ of Colombo, cannot say that it is not garbage free. Look into the drains and the shady nook and corners of this alcove in the capital city and one would find mysterious garbage bags often ripped open, containing rotting food – or lunch-sheets with food on them placed on the road. In this backdrop, President Dissanayake may go down in history as the only one (there have been eight Presidents prior to him), to identify the root of the problem of an uncivilised and uncultured nation. He is no doubt taking a cue from the policies of Lee Kuan Yew who took change of a country which resembled a fishing village and transformed it into one of the most disciplined nations where not a shred of paper would be dropped on the roads. How did Lee Kuan Yew do this? Did he import a fairy godmother who waved a magic wand and turned Singaporeans overnight into environment safekeeping and public hygiene protecting Cinderellas? No. He risked being unpopular and introduced stringent fines, laws and inspection units.
Hefty sums that would make a person bankrupt had to be paid by anyone who violated the rules. The then gum chewing habit of the people was put an instant stop by banning import of these items. This ended the habitual and unconscious placing of the chewed gum between railway doors which prevented them closing properly.
Many people did not love these strictures or the man who ushered them in. They protested, whined and resisted. Finally the nation settled down to doing what was decreed and thereby making Singapore one of the cleanest international hubs of the world.
Tourism is a major contributor to the Singaporean economy. It was the ardent wish of Lee Kuan Yew after the establishment of Singapore in 1965 to model this fledging nation after Ceylon which was what he saw then as the best example of a modern and beautiful country. In general at that time, it would have been even to him seemed like wishful thinking, as Singapore’s only strength was its port. It lacked the multifarious natural resources Sri Lanka was endowed with. Yet it has today built forests where there were none. Singapore has formed scenic natural spots resplendent with dedicatedly grown parks and created waterfalls. The Singapore airport is a mesmerising testimony of horticulture.
Time wasted
In Sri Lanka, we have dedicated over seven decades for just the opposite. We have spent this time destroying in every possible way we can, the impeccable beauty of this land. Have we, who were born to this country, ever pondered that we are upon one of the most diverse epics of nature – where in 24 hours one can wade the ocean, climb the mountains, gape at waterfalls, bask in the sun, huddle in the cold and witness almost all world religious cultures – Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism as one traverses across the length and breadth of this paradise isle.
Have we ever thought of educating the general public that Sri Lanka would be losing tourists if we go on like this – creating a mass scale Meethotamulla of this nation? Incidentally it is almost 10 years after the Meethotamulla garbage dump explosion and collapse and the flurry of activities immediately after to search for solutions (it was witnessed that the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe dutifully wore a mask to protect his health), when he visited the place.
That episode is now completely forgotten. However, the people who lived next to those dumps, suffer to date the stench the then PM could not tolerate for even a few minutes without covering his nose and mouth. Their children live there and go to school from that location.
Reverting to the topic of tourists, it is not rocket science that a country which resembles a hell of refuse cannot attract tourists. The heavy spending for tourism publicity campaigns that depict the country as one of pristine beauty and cleanliness will only lead to negative results when the foreign visitor sees the paradoxical actual reality. To realise this fact one does not need to memorise a host of theories and achieve a piece of paper euphemistically called a degree. An intelligent five-year-old would comprehend this.
No visitor would like to come to a place reeking of garbage, populated by a people for whom dumping their refuse anywhere they please, into the streams of wondrous waterfalls, onto the road, the bus stands, in front of other people’s houses, is a mere norm.
From beauty to nightmare
This writer’s initial endeavour of walking across Nuwara Eliya, originally for the purpose of imbibing its beauty, has now become a nightmare. Almost every step of the way one can see garbage of every form and when there is no garbage there are the excreta of dogs, both stray and domestic.
The practice of keeping food for these dogs on plastic bags and plastic ‘lunchsheets’ make the matter worse. The standard islandwide practice of serving curry onto plastic bags is a menace that makes whatever little effort there is in the country for recycling further arduous. Sri Lanka’s repeated banning of plastic bags is by now a joke.
From where this writer lives, atop a mountain facing a waterfall, small houses built haphazardly with little sanitation dot the incline and the drains spout a multifarious array of litter everyday.
Changing a Government is no use unless we change ourselves and help others to do so. It is now the norm in Sri Lanka to frown at anyone for whom the dastardly act of littering this land is a crime. We have teachers, university professors,
Municipal authorities, public health inspectors, parliamentarians, environmentalists, musicians and artists (among many others in differing vocations), for whom it is the everyday done thing to walk carefree past tomes of garbage.
The last time I was there over a year ago, a vast area directly opposite to the Vavuniya University was a garbage dump which had been accumulating for years. In this backdrop have we ever wondered why we are receiving ‘education’ or ‘higher education’? Have we ever contemplated on what countries like Singapore and Japan do differently? Just for the record, Japan and Singapore have designed their entire education system – from childhood onwards, to make children and youth responsible adults.
They are taught to be true to themselves and do a task to perfection. It is the children who clean toilets, keep the building and sports grounds clean, who water the plants and prepare the food and then serve them at the school canteen. Is it therefore a miracle that these countries have strong economies? These countries produce energetic, creative and pragmatic individuals who can think and create and get things done and to perfection. They do not create human photocopying machines who are able to perfectly place onto paper memorised jargon that they do not understand a whit.
Let us keep these in mind as we proceed forward and commit to the seemingly herculean task of cleaning Sri Lanka.
