A new community-based initiative to improve waste management and help contain the dengue outbreak is under way, Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils and Local Government Prof. Chandana Abeyratne said in Puttalam on Thursday.
Speaking on the challenges facing local administration, Abeyratne said special community-driven waste management programmes are currently being rolled out to tackle garbage disposal problems and curb the spread of dengue, NewsFirst reported.
The minister said equipment shortages have long held back both waste collection and local road development. The ministry has secured funding and received its first shipment of machinery, with distribution to local authorities officially beginning on August 5.
He did not specify how many machines are in the first consignment, which authorities will receive them, or the value of the funding secured.
Uncollected waste is directly linked to dengue transmission. Discarded containers, tyres and polythene that hold rainwater are among the most productive breeding sites for the Aedes mosquito, which is why clean-up drives form a standard part of the national control effort alongside larval inspections and fogging.
The announcement comes with the outbreak still growing. The National Dengue Control Unit reported this week that cumulative cases for the year have passed 84,000, with 61 deaths, and that 175 high-risk areas have been identified across the country. Gampaha and Colombo districts account for the largest share of cases, with the Western Province recording more than half the national total.
Local authorities carry primary responsibility for solid waste collection in Sri Lanka, and capacity varies sharply between councils — a gap the machinery distribution is intended to narrow.
