The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in cooperation with Central Environmental Authority (CEA), successfully completed a final seminar to share their findings and recommendations of “Pollution Control and Reduction of Environmental Burden in Solid Waste Management”.
From February 2017 to February 2019, JICA has been conducting waste management project in Sri Lanka. Under this project, three local authorities, - Kurunegala municipal council, Ratnapura municipal council, and Kataragama Pradeshiya Sabha have been selected as pilot project sites, and have been carried out improvement work of their landfills, using the technics introduced in JICA’s former project “Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (called SATREPS)” in 2016. The project also implemented multiple activities to promote 3R (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle) awareness raising.
At the seminar, JICA’s chief consultant Dr. Sato explained that in those pilot project sites, with the promotion of 3R and the improvement of final disposal facilities, the solid waste management have been improved step-by-step. He added - “this project has helped all the participants to deepen the understanding of “Improvement of Solid Waste Disposal Site” and “3R Promotion”, and opened up a dialog on how other local authorities can also improve the waste disposal system in the country. In doing that, it is essential for local authorities to get the strong support from the central government such as CEA and NSWMSC as the human resource, techniques, as budget are limited for each local authority.”
Dr. Onuma, JICA’s Long Term Expert, who led the “Waste Flow & Recycle Industry Survey” have identified that since many local authorities have started separate collection and recyclable waste, their selling amount of recyclable waste to the private sector is increasing. Following the situation, the recycling industry development policy needs to be considered in Sri Lanka as one of the next policy targets to promote appropriate waste disposal system in the country.
To conclude the seminar, JICA’s Senior Representative, Toru Kobayakawa, asked all the stakeholder’s for their continuous monitoring and support in keeping the activities and facilities that have been put in place by the project sustainable. JICA will continue to support Sri Lanka with its work towards the improvement of solid waste management.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is the executing agency of Japan’s Bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA). JICA, the world biggest bilateral aid agency, works in over 150 countries.
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