Kotte Solid Waste Management Strategy

occupiers of commercial establishments and public institutions on the new SWMstrategy, rules and guidelines with the view to enlisting their active support andparticipation in its implementation. Door-to-door education by official teams is themost effective way of public education, conscientization and awareness-raising asproven by the Green Star Homes project of the Colombo Municipal Council. TheSchool Environment Societies will be a strong partner in this effort.• Ward-level Environment Management Committees (EMC) led by the clergy: TheCouncil will help set up an Environment Management Committees (EMC) in eachmunicipal ward to engage public participation and collaboration in SWM in the ward.Ideally, this committee will be attached to a religious institution in the ward and willfunction under the leadership of its chief incumbent priest. It will meet monthly todiscuss and review the status of SWM in the ward and represent matters to theMunicipal Council when municipal action is desired. In addition, the committee willmobilize public participation in environment improvement actions. It will alsodirectly supervise and monitor the lane committees described below.• Lane Committees for environment: The Municipal Council will identify andencourage a Residents’ Association, Lane Committee or any other existingCommunity Based Organization (CBO) in each locality to take responsibility forparticipatory local area management. Where such organizations do not exist, theCouncil will help form new ones. These associations will be authorized to do sitechecksto monitor the environmental cleanliness in the area and directly report to themayor/commissioner if there are complaints. The local authority will encourage andassist these Lane Committee to develop its own locally sustained systems to collectwaste from their lanes and bring those to designated points on the main roads forcollection by the motorized vehicles.For primary collection, the local authority will provide tricycles, basic implements,uniforms, health insurance. As an incentive, it will also provide for a maximum ofone year the salary of two waste collectors for each cluster of 300 households thusserved. It will also provide an easily accessible plot of land for the workers to bringthe mixed waste for segregation and sorting. It is from this spot, the vehicle wouldcollect the unusable waste. Gradually, the CBO will be able to pay the workers from amonthly fee charged from each household and from the sale of recyclables. Theparticipating CBOs will be responsible for maintenance of the tricycle andimplements, daily assignment and monitoring of workers, supervision of thesegregation process and recording of sales, attending to resident complaints and paypenalties levied by the local authority in case of default. The Samurdhi povertyreduction scheme of the government can be easily linked to this effort to obtain theinitial capital required for eventual replacement of worn-out tricycles, uniforms andimplements. Its strong field presence will also be a boon to monitoring.• Revitalization of School Environment Committees: The Environment Societies ofthe city schools will be activated as part of the city SWM strategy to promote a litterfreeschool environment; segregation of waste both at school and home; and to take