Sivakumaran Sivaramanan
Central Environmental Authority, Sri Lanka
Title: Evanescing beauty and viability of coastal beaches of Colombo district
Biography
Biography: Sivakumaran Sivaramanan
Abstract
Sri Lanka has been ranked at the 5th place in the list of world’s most sea waste producing Countries. Sea waste comprises the slow decaying or accumulated manmade products at the seashore and deep-sea waters. It has been observed that sources of the waste depend on the type of coastal location of the beach. According to weekly beach survey conducted for two months and data analysis done by Clean Coast Index (CCI) method, some beaches in the Colombo district are rarely visited by public and they are at the backyard of rural population and become the dumping sites for them (domestic dumping sites) such as Moratuwa and Ratmalana. Beaches in Wellawatte, Dehiwala, Bambalapitiya and Kollupitiya hold wastes from mixed sources such as domestic dumping, wastes from commercial activities such as hotels, from running trains and from beach visitors and beaches in Mt. Lavania, Galleface and Mattakuliya hold similar kind of wastes that are mostly from beach visitors including tourists. Furthermore, wastes from fishing related activities are abundant in Dehiwala, they are nylon fishing nets, ropes and polystyrene floats. In addition, PET bottle usage by the fisherman also significantly high. In urban areas such as Kollupitiya, Bamblapitiya, Wellawatte and Dehiwala most of the wastes are carried by the drainage canals. Mechanized beach grooming is not possible in most of the locations due to the presence of Southern railway track and stone fences thus source level mitigation plans have to be implemented such as penalties and banning of certain types of plastics