The Delights Of A Rural Existence!

By Emil van der Poorten –November 1, 2015

Emil van der Poorten

I have, sporadically, over the years during which I’ve written for publication, referred to the shenanigans of the Tumpane Pradeshiya Sabha’s dumping of garbage in land that belongs in the jurisdiction of the adjacent Poojapitiya Pradeshiya Sabha.

Let me take you, briefly, down memory lane with regard to this little saga for a beginning. And if your memory is better than mine (not a great feat!) forgive me but I think we need context clearly established for what I am about to relate.

Shrouded by the mists of time there was the brief interregnum of Ranil Wickremesinghe when, while he occupied the Prime Ministerial chair, Chandrika Kumaratunga was President.

This brief period was preceded by a time when one of the most corrupt of politicians ruled the roost in Tumpane. He discovered some land which was owned by the Land Reform Commission and decided to establish a ”Middle Class Housing Scheme” for the benefit of his buddies who would only have to build their new homes on land supplied free together with such infrastructure as water supply already in place. However, before the houses could be completed, leave alone the new residents of the Samarakoon Housing Estate move into occupation, Ranil and his cohorts began their (brief) occupation of the seats of power. One of the first acts of vengeance of the new regime was the dumping by the tractor-load in the very centre of what was to be a “housing scheme” of the garbage collected from the Tumpane Pradeshiya, notwithstanding the fact that some infrastructure, inclusive of very large concrete reservoir which still exists, being constructed. I would be only too pleased to take anyone interested in verifying my story on a conducted tour of the place if they can find gas masks appropriate to the occasion!

This not only put handing over of public resources to private individuals, at no cost to the recipients on hold, but effectively destroyed two drinking-water springs that several households depended on for their daily needs.

Bags of butcher’s offal dumped at (locked) gate of “landfill”

The real plus, though for those responsible for the ecological despoliation was the fact that, due to its location, this was, literally, out of sight of the real “beneficiaries” of this abomination: the people of an adjacent (third) rural jurisdiction depending on the water from the Dik-Oya one of the headwaters of the Deduru Oya into which these springs emptied their waters. The people of Weuda and its environs, among others, literally could not see up to ten loads of garbage – heaped up agricultural tractor trailers – going into this place every day right up to now.

Initial efforts by the local population, more than a dozen years ago to put a stop to this were brushed aside and the travesty has continued unabated.

THIS WAS A COMPLETELY UNAUTHORISED GARBAGE DUMP WITH, CERTAINLY, NO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT EVEN BEING CONSIDERED PRIOR TO ITS ESTABLISHMENT.

While this abomination was relatively distant from where I lived, I sought to have the Department of the Environment, headed at the time by the Hon. Pathali Champika Ranawaka, intervene. I was given the run around and nothing came of that effort save a personal attack against me in a newspaper to which I then contributed a column!                                                               Read More