Karadiyana Dumping Ground

Iresha Upulinee

14th, August, 2012

On the third day of first week, 14th of August we visited to the Karadiyana Dumping ground. It is one of the largest disposals in Sri Lanka extending to an area of 25 acres.

Before we reach the place we visited to the Boralasgamuwa MOH office and we were given a brief lecture of the place by a PHI on how the waste management is occurring there. We had so many questions to ask from him as we are new comers to this field.

When all of us were eagerly waiting to visit that place our dear monitor was struggling to fill up a form given by the faculty, “Oh no, is it the only thing he wants to do in this appointment??”

At last we reached the place, it was the first time we visited that kind of place.

Though the staff was waiting to welcome us warmly our eyes were attracted to beautiful red lotus in the opposite side of the road.

Beautiful red lotus and Garbage damp…..

How contrasting??

After observing the beauty of the red lotus we started to explore the dumping ground.

Yah actually it is full of garbage in a huge area. No more things only Garbage, Garbage and Garbage. It was an unbelievable thing to me.

One of a staff member gave us a brief account on how they collect garbage, dispose them and their future plans about management of this much of garbage. And he proudly said that if they stop dumping garbage for one day the roads and all the towns will fill up by garbage in few hours. Just imagine what will happen if the whole filled up with garbage. ??

So I think they are doing marvelous job.

“This land is of 25 acres, nearly 30 laborers are working in here, if you want to dispose garbage here you have to pay money to us” he continued his speech by giving us an account of how dispose garbage in a universal method, first they damp garbage in to a cell (cell = a particular area not having an exact size). Then they compress it and put soul in to a one feet depth. They are not putting garbage to that place up to one week.

By doing it they prevent spreading of smelly gases over the area. He also said that they have a plan to establish a bird watching area relate to the garbage dump.

The laborers who worked in this place earn money by selling plastics, metals, polythene collected from the garbage damp. The person who delivered the lecture to us was so proud to tell us that he found his shoes also from this garbage pit itself. I was wondering why he is so proud to tell such thing to us; sometimes he may try to convince us the importance of this place on that hand also.