Sri Lanka moves to generate electricity from garbage

The government is set to initiate three projects in the Western Province next month to generate electricity using municipal solid waste.

The initiative forms the basis of measures to find a permanent solution to the festering garbage crisis in urban areas.

President Maithiripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe spearheaded the move to find permanent solutions to the existing issue surrounding garbage.

As a result, President Sirisena appointed a three member task force, headed by Ministers Champika Ranawaka, Faiszer Musthapha and Western Province Chief Minister Isura Devapriya to pilot the project in the Western Province and specifically Colombo.

“With international support, with the use of latest technology, we will solve this crisis so that it will no longer a problem for any future leader or a government.

“Today, we see protests, but no one offers solutions…,” President Sirisena said at a function held during the weekend.

He added that he was monitoring progress every two weeks of a committee to deal with the problem of garbage disposal. No previous government had given such priority to this issue,” he said.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe who addressed UNP officials who helped his political career which began from the Biyagama electorate 40 years ago, spoke of the waste disposal crisis and the government’s initiative to resolve it.

Megapolis and Western Development Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said the government has found permanent solutions to the piling garbage crisis that remained unresolved by successive governments for decades.

“We will start three projects next month in the Western Province to generate electricity using garbage,”the minister said while launching a 30-million rupee railway square in Ella over the weekend.

He said the previous administration boasted that it deployed the army and did not allow even a toffee wrapper to be dropped in the city of Colombo. However, the reality was that they haphazardly dumped garbage at Meethotamulla leading to the April tragedy when nearly 40 people died after a mountain of rubbish collapsed on them.

The minister said unlike the previous government, the new administration did not deploy troops to clear the garbage that had piled up in the city, but the municipal sanitary workers had been used for the job.

“We no longer pile up garbage. Out of the 700 tonnes of garbage generated in Colombo, 300 tonnes are being turned into compost. Another 100 tonnes is being recycled.

“We are going to improve this even further. To permanently solve the garbage crisis in the country, we are building a sanitary landfill in Aruwakkalu (in Puttalam district),” the minister said.