| |  |
| Health
|  |
Health institutions located in the
CMR play an important role for the entire country. According to recent data, 40%
of doctors in the curative services, 25% of doctors in the administrative and
other services, 42% of the dental surgeons, 17.5% of the medical officers and
39% of the nursing staff are in the CMR. An important issue in the Health Sector
is that health facilities are not equally distributed. Colombo District has relatively
high proportion of modern facilities such as Teaching, Provincial and Base Hospitals
while in Gampaha and Kalutara Districts these facilities are very limited. For
example, there are 610 hospital beds per every 100,000 population in Colombo District,
compared with 260 beds in Gampaha and 210 in Kalutara. In terms of doctors per
100,000 population, Colombo District average is 68 while the average for Gampaha
and Kalutara are 17 and 22 respectively.
|
Education
|
|
|
CMR also plays a very important
role in the educational sector in the regional and national context since most
of the leading schools, four universities and a large number of vocational centres
are located in the CMR About 25 % of government schools and the majority of the
leading private schools are also located in the CMR. However, these facilities
are also not evenly distributed. About 40,000 students travel daily to the City
of Colombo to attend these leading schools. This daily flow of students entering
the city is one of the major sources of traffic congestion in Colombo. In
order to address this problem the Structure Plan recommends the establishment
of branches of all leading schools outside the City of Colombo. In addition, upgrading
and modernising some of the schools in the CMR, outside the city of Colombo, has
been recommended to encourage students to attend these schools.
| Housing |
|
In 1994, the housing deficit in
the CMR was 40,794 units and this deficit accounted for 41.3% of the total housing
deficit in the country. Permanent housing units in the CMR were 62.6% which reflect
the nature of the existing housing problem in the CMR. Pipe borne water was obtained
only by 29% of housing units. The additional housing requirement for 2010 is estimated
at 375,800 units. The focus of the CMRSP regarding housing development is to make
available adequately serviced lands for new housing. A comprehensive urban renewal
programme is also considered as vital to upgrade the existing low-income housing
stock.
| Agriculture |
|
Of the total extent of the land
in the CMR, 20% consists of paddy fields, wetlands and low lying grassland and
35% consists of highland agriculture. Major issues of the Agricultural Sector
are fragmentation of highland agricultural land and filling of low-lying agricultural
land such as paddy fields. To overcome the above issues it is proposed to discourage
fragmentation of the agricultural land and filling of low lying land and to introduce
urban agriculture as a major land use/ function and commercial activity.
| Industry |
|
In 1996, about 84% of all industrial
establishments in the country were located in the CMR. It contributes to more
than 70% of value added in and accounts for nearly 80% of industrial employment
in the country. Inappropriate location of industries and inadequate pollution
control has created complex environmental problems. Inability to provide infrastructure
facilities satisfactory outside the city of Colombo is also a major problem. The
CMR Structure Plan proposes an Industrial Policy which promotes the location of
industries only in growth centres and industrial townships.
| 
