By Shiran Illanperuma
COLOMBO, Jan 5 (NNN-XINHUA) – Port City Colombo, in association with local partners, launched a year-long project, to clean up a 5-km stretch of beach in Colombo.
The project was inaugurated at the Mount Lavinia public beach, with the presence of Secretary to the Ministry of Urban Development, Water Supply and Housing Facilities, Priyath Bandu Wickrama, State Minister of Environment, Jayantha Samaraweera and Port City Colombo Managing Director, Jiang Houliang.
In a speech at the inauguration, Jiang said, Port City Colombo promoted sustainable urban living. He noted that, despite being blessed with pristine beaches, accumulation of waste and debris harms visitors, as well as, local residents and businesses.
“We have undertaken this initiative as part of our corporate social responsibility, to ensure a cleaner beach that will benefit and support local tourism, to sustain in a pleasant environment,” Jiang said.
The year-long project is to provide daily clean-up of a five-kilometre stretch of beach in Colombo, namely Wellawatte, Dehiwala and Mount Lavinia, which is popular among local families and foreign tourists.
The project is funded by Port City Colombo and supervision of daily maintenance of the beaches will be overseen by the local Wana Arana Foundation.
Samaraweera emphasised that keeping Sri Lanka clean and safe was a policy priority of the government, and he expressed his gratitude to Port City Colombo for helping meet this goal by funding the project.
“Keeping Sri Lanka clean is not a one day event but an ongoing project that will require the cooperation of citizens and government authorities,” Samaraweera said
Eighteen year-old Sajani Perera, a volunteer, said she had heard about the project through her school and was keen to participate with her friends and family.
“I thought it would be a good deed to participate in an event like this and give back to my country,” she said.
Zhang Qian, a new Chinese employee at Port City Colombo said, she had participated in similar activities in China and was happy to do the same in Sri Lanka.
Local fisherman, Sriyantha De Silva, who lives in Mount Lavinia for 30 years said, the beaches in Colombo had become very dirty due to lack of facilities. He noted that the situation had begun to change with the introduction of recycling bins by Port City Colombo.
“I hope these kinds of programmes continue in the future, so that we can keep our beaches beautiful and clean,” De Silva said.
Invested by China Harbour Engineering Company, Port City Colombo is a project to build a modern sustainable smart city, out of 269 hectares of land reclaimed from the sea, added to the district of Colombo. The city is envisioned to be a hub in South Asia.
The land reclamation phase of the project has been completed with the construction of roads, bridges and waterways currently taking place.– NNN-XINHUA
