The Environmental Profile of the Colombo-Core Area was prepared to assess the Municipality needs for natural resources by their various development sectors, the sustained availability of those resources, the impact of resource use on the environment from pollution, and the likely impact of environmental hazards on the sustainable growth and development of such sectors in the project area. The Environmental Profile not only facilitated the identification and mobilization of the key stakeholders in the urban management process,but also spotlighted the major issues of concern such as solid waste management, sewerage and storm water drainage, mosquito breeding and increased exposure to malaria and dengue fever, pollution of water bodies, air pollution and traffic congestion in the project area.
The Environmental Profile helped the local authorities to create public and political awareness, to approach the municipal issues in a methodical manner, to learn the strategic importance of developing a structured data-base of information on priority municipal concerns, and of collective validation of strategies and proposed actions which were innovative approaches to include in their general planning and programming processes. Since the Environmental Profile proved to be such a useful tool to strengthen the municipality’s vision for more sustainable urban development, additional resources were mobilised to support KMC and DMMC to compile their own Profiles, which strengthened their local databases and is still being used as a core document to target and coordinate better development activities.
