3. Key Environmental Issues and Demonstration Projects(cont.)

Demo-project Top > Colombo > Kotte > Dehiwala

Colombo Municipal Council Demo-Projects (CMC)

- Green Star Homes Project

- Managing Water Consumption in Low Income Areas

- Urban Air Quality Management

- Weligodawatta Community Development

• Green Star Homes Project (GSHP)
  Every year after the rainy season and despite routine control measures, CMC experiences repeated outbreaks of mosquito-borne dengue fever which result in the loss of many lives,high public health bills, as well as lower economic productivity; all of which negatively impact on CMC’s overall urban development. In an attempt to reduce and in time finally eradicate the incidence of dengue and other vector controlled diseases, CMC through the SCP participatory approach, established a Working Group lead by the Public Health Department, comprising of members from the Engineering Department, Mayors Office, Ministry of Health, NGOs, community groups, press and media, supported by the CCA Project Manager and SCP national training coordinator, which identified a critical gap in the routine measures. Whilst the drains, streets and public places could be cleaned by the Council, water bearing receptacles on private land were continuing to harbour mosquito lavae. Through discussions the WGmobilised and pooled resources from the Council budget and private sector investors to support door to door inspections by the Health Inspectors to implement existing bylaws and regulations that required all property owners to keep their own areas clean. Invoking “old” Council bylaws however, required the active support and mobilized engagement of communities as well as individual plot owners through a media campaign.
  

  Sevastian Canal before the Project

  
  The GSHP commenced in July 2001 as a city wide environmental sanitation improvement project that covered the entire residential population of 642,163 people in the city. Through visits by Council Health Inspectors, residents were encouraged to clean their home compounds and back yards, once checked, they received a prestigious green star award sticker that indicated a clean and healthy home. This initiative created awareness and a sense of involvement and competitiveness among neighbors and the community at large, to maintain a clean and healthy environment in their private premises. A second round of support a year later expanded the concept to include cleaning the City’s canals from solid waste in partnership with the Sri Lankan Land Reclamation and Drainage Board, coupled with the treatment of the canals themselves to kill the mosquito lavae.

  Youth in Green Star Home Campaign		Workshop for Community awareness

Download Green Star Home Demo-project documentation (301KB)

• Managing Water Consumption in Low Income Areas
  To improve access to water in the poorest settlements of Colombo, most were provided with communal standpipes many decades ago, the consumption of which was paid for by Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) under a special management arrangement with the Water Supply and Drainage Board. Due to lack of ownership however, these public taps are generally unattended, un-managed, leaking or continuously running throughout the day, resulting not only in a huge loss of costly treated water, but causing other drainage, sanitation and vector disease issues within the communities. The CMC, as part of the Sustainable Colombo Core Area project, requested support from a NGO to mobilize the households to obtain own private connections to their homes, which would give better and secured access, reduce local sanitation problems and health costs, and thereby gradually withdrawing the free roadside water taps to reduce overall costs to te Council which could invest its resources in other pro-poor areas.
  

  Download Colombo NRW Demo-project documentation (80KB)

• Urban Air Quality Management
  The population growth and increase in commercial and social activities have made an unprecedented increase in the demand for mobility, with a consequential increase in the number of motor vehicles entering CMC daily. Whilst the need to improve air quality was well recognized at the national-level, and numerous quite successful efforts had been made by the Central Environment Authority (CEA), none of these measures were linked to the Local Governments - which of course had expertise, skills, constituencies that demanded improved air quality, as well as potential resources and management initiatives. The CMC therefore established a Working Group within its own Departmental structure that linked to the efforts that the CEA was making, to discuss and negotiate mutually supportive measures that would strengthen the CEA implementation arrangement, using the participatory Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) approach. By establishing a cross-sectoral working group, the project succeeded in building broader partnerships that actively involved and linked community leaders and community-based/Council demonstration projects to the national level Working Group arrangement, which included: the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Transport, the Central Environment Authority. Through extensive collaboration, the project was able to create greater public awareness within CMC on air quality, the lead-content of petroleum products, and the emissions of fumes for motor vehicles; and facilitated the implementation through Council support of a number of road management proposals to speed up traffic circulation - including the sychronisation of traffic lights.
  

       Download Air Quality Management Demo-project documentation (42KB)

• Weligodawatta Community Development
  This demonstration project was an effort to improve the environmental sanitation and social cohesion in a large slum settlement. Based on the places of origin from where the different ethnic and social groups migrated a generation ago, the Weliodawatta community remained divided. Each group vied to protect its identity. Therefore, collective bargaining at the municipal level for basic services was not possible. This project demonstrated that by helping to organise urban poor communities into federated residents associations and societies, they in the end can become a voice and force that can negotiate with the municipal system with mutual trust. This was brought about through Community action planning to identify the major environmental issues of concern to the community, so that assistance of respective municipal departments (such us water supply and drainage) could be mobilized to help implement the plan.
  

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