Monday, April 30, 2012
Managing Waste, the Sri Lankan Perspective
Biogas
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Managing urban waste
HelpO: an NGO committed to conducting Grass root level social welfare programs
with the assistance of UNDP Sri Lanka, under the auspices of the Galle
Municipal Council, constructed a bio gas plant to dump market waste of the
city. Following this project, which was a roaring success, a mechanism was
developed whereby, in the grassroots, the villagers themselves got-together and
made a small financial contribution for the maintenance of a biogas tank. UNDP
simply made the initial investment and allowed the beneficiaries to invest in
the maintenance of the plant. Of course Biogas helped minimize the effects of climate
change, but for the hapless villagers it saved their land and waterways from
harmful waste; provided an excellent organic fertilizer and best of all,
produced a cost efficient and profitable fuel. UNDP
initiated projects are underway in various parts of the island, addressing solid
waste management concerns while also generating an extra income through the
bi-products of waste management such as bio fuel and compost manure. Simple
composting systems were an effective, low-tech solution to reduce large quantities
of waste and generate manure for agriculture. With approximately 60% - 70% of
waste being bio-degradable, composting has now become an important component of
an integrated waste management process.
According to Dr. Ananda Mallawathanthri, who is UNDP’s Assistant
Resident Representative cum Team Leader: Environment, Energy and Disaster
Management, the UNDP supported the biogasification of waste at two different
levels: i.e. at the community level, and the institutional level. In community the
level, one bio gas plant was constructed for five to eight neighboring
houses, while in the institutional level, biogas plants were constructed in
hotels, hospitals, military bases, schools and even prisons. Financial and
technical support for some of these community level projects was channeled in directly
to NGOs and CBOs by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Program.
Solid Waste: a tool for reconciliation
Financial support of the UNDP was also utilized for the
implementation of a waste management project to convert banana waste into value
added products such as handicraft, paper and fabrics, as a cottage industry
among the rural community. Banana, a popular tree that grows freely in tropical
climates is valued only for the soft nutritious fruit concealed in its slippery
peel. It is widely grown in Sri Lanka as a garden tree and commercially in
plantations. Banana waste is now used to create handicrafts and other products such
as wall hangings, table mats, handbags, key tags, and even fabrics. Again, solid waste which was once a menace has
metamorphosed to a profit generating cottage industry.
Sri Lanka: Disaster Management and Recovery: : Predicting the unpredictable and escaping the wrath of nature
UNDP- Sri Lanka
supported the architecting of the institutional structures necessary to bring
this vision to the light of day. The UNDP supported the establishment of the
Disaster Management Centre (DMC) as a focal point for disaster management in
Sri Lanka. The DMC is an around the clock emergency operations center, acting
in liaison with ministries, authorities and agencies, private sector agencies,
NGOs and the military. It also facilitates the issuing of warnings, and
conducts evacuations. 
Prepare, Mitigate, Manage
UNDP
also provided training at National, district and community levels so as to
streamline warning and evacuation systems in the event of a disaster occurring.
The training curriculum included first aid to victims, rescue strategies,
managing the elderly and the differently-abled and identifying safe evacuation
pathways.
A disaster could occur in a split second making you lose not only your hard-earned investments and property but also your friends, family and loved ones. In the blink of an eye, everything and everyone could be taken away from you. Sri Lanka: though not frequently affected by the wrath of nature, is no stranger to natural disasters. The tsunami which hit the island on Boxing Day in 2004 swept around 30,000 people away, and displaced at least one and a half million persons, taught Sri Lanka a lesson: it brought about a collective conscience among the government, civil society organizations and international agencies of the need for a comprehensive disaster risk management mechanism
The Disaster
Management Centre of the Ministry of Disaster Management, with technical and
financial support from the Disaster Risk Management program of the UNDP and the
UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok also initiated the formation of a database on
past disaster incidents from 1974. The Disaster Information Management System
is a tool that helps to analyze disaster trends and their impacts in a
systematic manner. With increased understanding of the disaster trends and
their impacts, better prevention, mitigation and preparedness measures can be
planned to reduce the impact of disasters on the communities. These databases
could be accessed on 'http://www.desinventar.lk'. In order to facilitate
this, UNDP also funded a detailed mapping exercise that covers over eight
districts. Risk and Disaster Management
The United
Nations continues to support the Government to meet the urgent needs caused by
various natural disasters. For example, it assisted the government in securing
shelter, food and drinking water for one million people affected by the second
wave of floods last year. According to Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) Colombo, the World Food Program has distributed food for six
days in support of around 192,000 persons in flood affected areas. Meanwhile,
UNICEF has dispatched around 4,600 tarpaulins; the International Organization
for Migration has supplied 9,000 plastic sheets and tarpaulins while the United
Nations Refugee Agency has provided 400 tents, in aid of the victims of the
second wave of floods.
Strategic Environmental Assessment
In another
initiative the UNDP began to develop integrated strategic environmental
assessments (ISEA) starting with the conflict affected Northern Province, where
the process involves a large number of agencies related to land use,
conservation, infrastructural development, service delivery and urban planning.
The ISEA–North is aimed at better understanding the natural resource base in
the Northern Province following the conflict and to provide strategic
information support to facilitate rapid development. A key outcome of the
process is that assessments are carried out early to identify potentially adverse
effects on the environment.
Queue for disaster relief
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In August 2011,
the Government of Sri Lanka conveyed its agreement to the proposed terms of
reference and formally requested the Emergency Relief Coordinator and the United
Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs for the deployment of an UNDAC mission through the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Sri Lanka. The UNDAC mission was soon deployed to Sri Lanka.
the full stop.
When your life itself is a nightmare, the only way to wake up from it, is to die, and if death is not anywhere near you, you might have to find death yourself …
My life has always been a nightmare. Not that I haven’t had good times at all, but sigma good times minus sigma bad times would definitely take minus value in a number line. For you, I might be just another person, but for me, I am myself, and to be myself;-to be a sinner before religion, a criminal before the courts, and to be a coward before the society, and to know that it’s not going to get any better, when in all the horizon of the future there is not a single star of hope, life really doesn’t feel all that great. .It’s not anymore a choice between living like a coward and dying like a man. it’s a choice between living like a coward or dying like the same, and I chose the latter, mainly because it involves , little , or no , to be precise, humiliation , at least on my part. My only fear of death is re-incarnation, I really have had enough this once… But I can't think of any other way out of this hole.
It’s hard not to care, when you know that no one, no one at all, is going to miss you, going to pray for you, going to cry for you or going to ask you not to leave. When you can’t find a reason to live for, that itself is enough reason to die for. Newton was right to say that every action has an equal and opposite reaction for I am now facing the equal and opposite reactions of my actions –of cowardice, crimes and sins. With all due respect to the bard –“all the world” really “is a stage”, “and all men and women merely” are “players”; “but one man in his time” doesn’t “play many parts”; at least not all men, cause all my life I’ve played only one part, the part of the villain, of the bad guy. May be I don’t even qualify to be called a man, or even human for that matter. It's like I'm in a sea of darkness and I feel like I'm only going to keep sinking deeper and deeper until I've run out of air to breathe.
Out of all murders I’ve committed mine, is the most carefully planned murder ever. As funny as it may sound, I wanted everything to happen according to plan. Nothing was different; it was just another murder, the only difference being: the murderer and the murdered bring the same person- myself.
Everything was clearly planned. It’s Friday the 21st of June 2009; so no one would look for me till Monday morning. All doors are bolted. At 11.56 I would drink the methadone tablets -crushed and dissolved in vodka: which will take effect in four minutes. At 11.57 I would throw the hanging rope around my neck and climb up the stool, at 11. 58 I would take out the Browning 9x19mm Hi-Power handgun from my left pocket and at 12.00 midnight, as I feel my throat burning, when the methadone takes its effect, I would push the stool with my right leg and shoot the revolver with my left hand.
That will end it.
When the sun dawns on Saturday – I will be a dead man.
My non-existence is not going to make any difference whatsoever; the world minus myself would remain the same. Matter will still attract matter in proportion to mass and distance; light will still, under the same circumstances, be reflected at the same angle; and will still travel with the same velocity. Air will still be lighter than water, and gold heavier than iron; nothing lost, nothing gained.
For the first time in a long time, a feeling of happiness electrocuted me. The feeling that it is finally coming to an end, brought with it a deep sense of pleasure. The absoluteness of death amazed me, the beauty of death, is that, when you’re dead, you’re dead, there is no turning back whatsoever.
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
Time passed …Minutes felt like millennia. The last few minutes on my existence …The final countdown has begun
……..11.51……..
……..11.52……..
……..11.53…….
……..11.54……..
Its time.
EVERYTHING SHOULD GO ACCORDING TO PLAN.
I took the bottle which read methadone, not realizing that those will be the last words I’ll read in my meaningless subsistence, took a handful of tablets, put them in the vodka, and drank it all in one mouthful.
I walked towards the stool, with the lightest heart.
……..11.56……….
I threw the rope around my neck and climbed on to the stool and exhaled a deep breath of relief.
……..11.57……….
I took the handgun out of my pocket and pointed it at my head.
……..11.58……….
I could feel my throat burning.
It started to feel cold. My heart started pounding, my shirt started to get wet with sweat, my lips started to tremble, my whole body began to shiver.
My mind was overwhelmed with feelings, desire for life, fear for death, of envy, of agony, of regret... For the first time of my life, I started to feel a love for my life.
CRANK!
I heard the hand gun thudding the ground. I couldn’t think of anything, I wanted to breathe again, to live, “I don’t want to die”, but it’s too late… In a few minutes I’ll be a dead man, and no one can do anything about it, no one at all. I was desperate to keep my heart beating, to keep my lungs breathing. I was fighting a losing battle- a battle for my life. I had no strength to fight back. I could feel the paws of death clutching me; I could feel his tentacles infecting me with venom. I could feel the venom running down my arteries. What could I do but succumb myself to death? I was alone .And I was dying. And I....
……..12.00……
300 miles away a woman just conceived.
Death is not the end- it’s just the beginning, it’s not a full stop, just a comma.
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