Garbage crisis bursts into heated arguments in Parliament

Heated arguments broke out at the start of the parliamentary sessions today when the joint opposition raised a question on the garbage crisis.

JO parliamentary group leader Dinesh Gunawardene who raised this matter said garbage was piling up on roadsides as a result of garbage disposal coming to a standstill.

"Collecting and disposing of industrial waste and garbage is far from satisfactory because garbage was piling up on roadsides giving off a unbearable stench," he said while highlighting that there had been human body parts among the piles of garbage in some areas in the Gampaha District.

He urged the government to heed the requests made by Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith to search for body parts among the piles of garbage.

The MP asked what short and long term measures had been taken by the government to resolve the garbage crisis.

Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faiser Mustapha in his response vehemently denied there being human body parts among the garbage.

He said all local bodies had been asked to develop environmentally-friendly disposable sites in every district. The minister said recycling plants will be set up based on private-public partnerships and that three compost plants would be set up at Muthurajawela.

There were heated arguments when some joint opposition MPs tried to raise some issues pertaining to garbage disposal in the Gampaha District and were prevented from doing so by the minsister, who said other MPs could not raise sub questions when a question is raised under standing order 23(2). (Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana)