| |  |
| Open
Space & Recreation Activities |  |
| Application
of public outdoor recreation space standards |
|
The population in the
Colombo Municipal area has been estimated at 721,443 in 1994. On the basis of
the Public Outdoor Recreation Space (PORS) standard of 1 Ha. per 1000 population,
the city of Colombo should have 721 Ha. of recreation space.
| Existing
public parks and playgrounds in the CMC area |
|
Parks and
playgrounds account for 95.4 Ha. or 2.5% of the total area of
the municipal council. the area under parks and playgrounds have
been grouped into several categories in accordance with the UDA
public outdoor recreation space policies and concepts.(Map
8)
There
are also 75.91 ha of other private and semi-public outdoor recreation spaces in
the CMC area, which amount to 2% of the total municipal area. Accordingly, there
are a total of 171.15 Ha. of outdoor recreation spaces in the CMC area, almost
half of which belongs to private clubs and other organisations. The
centralised public outdoor recreation spaces cater to the public both at regional
and national levels. However public parks and playgrounds are distributed fairly
unevenly throughout the municipality. Some areas are over-served and other areas
are deprived of such facilities. At the same time canal and river reservations
and other opportunities such as linear parks around Beira Lake remain under-utilised.
The potential of the beach strip (approx. 12 Ha in extent) is also not fully utilised
due to poor planning, misuse and mismanagement.
| Solid
Waste Management | |
CMC is the largest
and the only jurisdiction in Sri Lanka that presently has an organised solid waste
management system. Its solid waste management division is responsible for collection
and disposal of domestic, commercial, industrial and hospital waste generated
within the municipality. The total
cost of solid waste managed in the Colombo municipality amounts to approximately
Rs. 62 Mn. per year (Rs. 327 per ton). In the CMC area the primary collection
of waste is taken from households by handcarts and deposited in about 100 collection
points. In the secondary collection, waste collected from disposal points are
transported to the disposal sites using a variety of vehicles. However, the majority
of the municipal solid waste was deposited at the landfill site at Wellampitiya
(12 Ha.). The operation of this landfill by the CMC has now been terminated as
it had reached saturation. At present 800 Metric Tons of waste is collected per
day by the C.M.C. This amount is expected to increase to 2630 Metric Tons per
day by year 2010.
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