The western region of Sri Lanka is considered the main metropolitan hub of Sri Lanka contributing to a significant portion of the national economy. A major segment of the economically significant infrastructure of Sri Lanka is situated in the Western Province together with some extremely sensitive ecosystems such as the wetlands, tropical forest patches,and the beautiful coastal belt. Along with urbanization and concentrated human activities, the environmental pollution level in the Western Province has also increased at a considerable level. Meanwhile, Ocean Plastic Pollution is one of the global concerns, whereas Sri Lanka has been ranked as one of the top contributors to global ocean plastic pollution. The Western Province is leading the ocean pollutions discarding tons of waster annually.
Janathakshan is one of the sub-grantees of the Municipal Waste Recycling Project (MWRP) which aimed at reducing marine environmental pollution through reduced plastic and polythene use and improved waste recycling. Janathakshan worked with the supermarket sector, the hotel sector, and harbor and lagoon communities in Negombo.
Janathakshan carried out awareness campaigns among these communities on plastic and polythene pollution and established waste management systems to reduce
open dumping and increase recycling of non-degradable waste. The Negombo Municipal Council, volunteer groups (from organizations, youth groups, and the communities), local recyclers, boat users as well as other stakeholders such as the Sri Lanka Navy and the Marine Environment Protection Authority supported project activities. The project provided training on how the different stakeholders could improve their respective processes and how they could engage in promoting and supporting the project’s ‘No Plastic and Polythene’ message. Also, the project introduced innovative systems to increase the engagement of project beneficiaries and the general public. The project used inclusive processes to ensure that multi-stakeholder planning took place. In doing so it established systems that were stable and supported by their key proponents. Building links between the various stakeholders as part of this process.
Janathakshan believes that it is important to address plastics and waste management issues through sustainable and circular economic models. We thank USAID for financing MWRP which demonstrated a few of those kinds of models in Asia including Sri Lanka.