Plastic Pollution in the Pinga Oya – An Ongoing Problem

June 20, 2023June 16, 2023 by CrimsoN

Plastic Pollution in the Pinga Oya – An Ongoing Problem

Plastics clog up the Pinga Oya

During the flood events in Akurana, we can see that plastics are clogging up the river. These are
visible floating on the water’s surface. On the sides of the river and bank on the pillars on which
many buildings are standing. These include plastics from 1 cube of silt, 1 kg of plastic bottles, and plastic bags (Source: from the report of Srimalee Kashmitha, Achintha Sandaruwan, University
of Peradeniya). When plastics go downstream, it creates a headache for water intake for
the water supply at Gohagoda (NWSDB) and the Mahaweli diversion tunnel going to the Bowatenna hydropower plant.

Solid Waste Management Practices

Plastic waste should not be in the river but a failure in disposing of solid wastes (SW) properly is
the problem. While there is a system of collecting SW locally by the APS, there are
shortcomings in its functioning, and plastics are routinely dumped all over including in the river, and disposed of by burning. The environmental offices at the Akurana Pradeshiya Sabahawa
and Divisional Secretariat, the Central Environmental Authority are responsible for solving these
problems. They do need the cooperation of businesses, organizations, and citizens. An effort to
promote the 5R practices – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Repurpose.

Steps to prevent pollution from plastics and waste are outlined by the Eng. Thameema
Hilal in the Pinga Oya workshop (Zubair and Wickramagamage, Proceedings of the Symposium
on Pinga Oya, 2013, University of Peradeniya, pp 77).

Accumulation of floating debris, sediment, and pollutants can be controlled and prevented by the following exercise.

Solid waste, liquid waste, and garbage should be minimized by introducing reuse and recycling practices. Low-cost methods can be introduced.

Mixing sewer to the stream without treatment should be completely stopped. Other possible methods can be introduced at the catchment. Improving the quality of water by removing nutrients and controlling the growth of water plants”.

Conducting awareness programs among the people who actually pollute and activities to promote the protection of the environment.

5W and H Questions for Restore Pinga Oya

June 16, 2023January 12, 2023 by CrimsoN

Why and Where

Sri Lanka, like the rest of Asia, is organizing rapidly in particular peri-urban (surrounding urban centers) that are changing without overall spatial planning (town planning). Pinga Oya catchment is a prime example of such a peri-urban urbanizing region spanning Katugastota, Akurana, Ambatenne, and Alawatugoda. This led to frequent undue flooding leading to the rapid spread of infectious diseases rise in floods and landslides disasters while leading to less of natural habitats including in the river. There is much information that is available but not accessible and information that is not readily available and there are knowledge gaps. Our work is to address these issues.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ආසියානු කලාපයේ සෙසු රටවල මෙන් නාගරික ප්‍රදේශ කේන්ද්‍ර කරගනිමින් විධිමත් නගර සැලසුම් නොමැතිව ශීඝ්‍රයෙන් නාගරීකරණයට ලක්වෙමින් පවතී. පිඟාඔය ජල පෝෂක කලාපය මේ සදහා එක් නිදසුනක් වන අතර කටුගස්තොට, අකුරණ, අඹතැන්න සහ අලවතුගොඩ යන උප නගරවල විහිද පවතී. මේ නිසා ඒ ආශ්‍රිතව ඇතිවන ක්‍ෂණික ගංවතුර තත්ත්වයන් හේතුවෙන් බෝවන රෝග සීඝ්‍රයෙන් ව්‍යාප්ත වීම සහ හදිසි නායයාම් තත්ත්වයන්ට මුහුණ දීම ද සිදුවන අතර පිඟාඔය අවට ස්වභාවික පරිසර පද්ධතිය අඩුවීමට ද හේතු වේ. මේ සම්බන්ධව බොහෝ තොරතුරු ඇති නමුත් පහසුවෙන් පිවිසිය නොහැකි වීම, ඇතැම් කරුණු පිලිබද නිසි අවබොධයක් නොමැති වීම සහ දැනුම් පරතරය පැවතීම යනාදී ගැටළු ඇත. අපගේ කාර්යය වනුයේ මෙම සම්බන්ධයෙන් පවතින ගැටළු පිළිබදව ඔබව දැනුවත් කිරීමයි.

இலங்கை, ஆசியாவின் பிறபகுதிகளைப்போலவே குறிப்பாக புற நகர்ப்புற பகுதிகள் எந்த வித இடம் சார்ந்த திட்டமிடலும் இன்றி மாற்றத்திற்கு உட்பட்டு வருகின்றது. கட்டுகஸ்தோட்டை, அக்குரணை, அம்பத்தென்னை, அலவத்துகொடை போன்ற பிரதேசங்களில் உள்ளடங்கும் பிங்கா ஓயா நீர்ப்பிடிப்பானது இது போன்ற நகரமயமாக்கல் பகுதிக்கு ஓர் பிரதான உதாரணம் ஆகும்.இது அடிக்கடி நிலவும் வெள்ளப்பெருக்கிற்கு வழிவகுப்பதோடு, மற்றும் வெள்ளப்பெருக்கு, நிலச்சரிவு என்பவற்றின் போது பரவும் தொற்று நோய்களையும் அதிகரிக்கின்றது. அதே நேரம் இது ஆற்றில் வாழும் இயற்கை வாழ்விடங்களின் வீழ்ச்சிக்கும் காரணமாய் அமைகின்றது. இருப்பினும் பல தகவல்கள் இது பற்றி இருந்தாலும், அவை அணுக முடியாத முறையிலும் பெற்றுக்கொள்வதில் தாமதம் ஏற்படுத்தும் வகையிலும் உள்ளன. இவ்வாறாக நிலவும் பிரச்சனைகளை தீ்ர்ப்பதே இங்கு எமது நோக்கமாக கருதப்படுகிறது.

Who

This website is intended to aid those affected by environmental mismanagement and disaster, the concerned and the youth to be better informed of the scientific background behind the disasters and to better understand the governance and its shortcomings. This work is being done by persons and organizations who have in-depth knowledge over the last four decades. Our team comprises individuals and organizations concerned with the environment, climate, disasters, and social welfare of women and children. It is supported by a team of younger social and environmental and engineering researchers and ICT technology experts. Individual researchers from several Universities such as Peradeniya, Colombo, Open University of Sri Lanka, Southeastern, and Columbia University of New York are contributing.

මෙම වෙබ් අඩවියේ අරමුණ වනුයේ ස්වාභාවික ආපදා තත්වයන් හේතුවෙන් විපතට පත් වූවන්ට උපකාර කිරීම, ආපදා තත්වයන්ට අදාළ විද්‍යාත්මක පසුබිම පිළිබඳව තරුණ ප්‍රජාව දැනුවත් කිරීම සහ එහි පවතින අඩුපාඩු, පාලනවිධි සම්බන්ධව නිසිලෙස අවබෝධ කර ගැනීමයි. මෙය පසුගිය දශක හතරක කාලය තුළ පුළුල් දැනුමක් සහ අත්දැකිම් ලබා ඇති පුද්ගලයින් සහ සංවිධානවල සහභාගිත්වයෙන් සිදු කරනු ලැබේ. අපගේ කණ්ඩායම පරිසර, දේශගුණ, ආපදා සහ සමාජ සුබසාධන කටයුතු සම්බන්ධ පුද්ගලයින් සහ සංවිධාන වලින් සමන්විත වේ. මේ සදහා තරුණ සමාජ, පාරිසරික සහ ඉංජිනේරු පර්යේෂකයන් සහ තොරතුරු හා සන්නිවේදන තාක්ෂණ විශේෂඥයින්ගෙන් සමන්විත කණ්ඩායමක් සහාය දක්වයි. තවද පේරාදෙණිය විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, කොළඹ විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, ශ්‍රී ලංකා විවෘත විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය, අග්නිදිග විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය සහ නිව්යෝක්හි කොලොම්බියා විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයන් ද දායකත්වය ලබාදෙයි.

இந்த தளமானது பாதிக்கப்பட்டவர்கள், சம்பந்தப்பட்டவர்கள் மற்றும் இளைஞர்கள் என அனைவரும், அனர்ததங்களுக்கு பின்னால் உள்ள அறிவியல் பின்னணியையும், நிர்வாகம் மற்றும் அதன் குறைபாடுகளையும் புரிந்துகொள்ள வேண்டும் என்பதை நோக்கமாக கொண்டுள்ளது. கடந்த நான்கு தசாப்தங்களாக இது தொடர்பான அனுபவம் மற்றும் அறிவை கொண்ட தனிநபர்களாலும் நிறுவனங்களாலும் இந்த பணி தொடர்கிறது. இந்த அமைப்பு முற்றிலும் மதம், கட்சி, அரசியல் சார்ப்பற்றதோடு எந்தவொரு குறிப்பிட்ட அரசுடனோ அல்லது அதிகாரிகளுடனோ இணைக்கப்படவில்லை. மேலும் சுற்றுச்சூழல் மற்றும் பொறியியல் ஆராய்ச்சியாளர்கள், ICT தொழில்நுட்ப வல்லுநர்கள் போன்றோரின் பாரிய பங்களிப்பை கொண்டுள்ளதொடு, பேராதனை, கொழும்பு, இலங்கை திறந்த பல்கலைக்கழகம், தென்கிழக்கு மற்றும் நியூயோர்க்கின் கொலம்பியா பல்கலைக்கழகம் போன்ற பல பல்கலைக்கழகங்களின் தனிப்பட்ட ஆய்வாளர்களும் பங்களிக்கின்றனர்.

What

This website shall be used to provide a portal for information on environmental and social issues in the Pinga Oya basin. We also seek to identify the gaps in knowledge that are holding back an informed citizenry and advocacy. We shall proceed to provide reliable information to aid advocacy efforts and provide educational materials.

පිඟාඔය ආශ්‍රිතව පවතින පාරිසරික හා සමාජීය ගැටලු පිළිබඳ තොරතුරු සැපයිම සඳහා පිවිසුමක් ලෙස මෙම වෙබ් අඩවිය භාවිතා කළ හැකිය. මෙමගින් දැනුම් හිඩැස් හඳුනා ගැනීමට සහ ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් මහජනතාව දැනුවත් කිරීම සදහා අප උත්සාහ දරනෙමු. තවද විශ්වාසදායක තොරතුරු සැපයීම මගින් උපදේශන ප්‍රයත්නයන්ට අදාළව සහය වීමට සහ ඊට අදාළ අධ්‍යාපනික තොරතුරු සැපයීමට ද අපි කටයුතු කරමු.

இந்த வளைத்தளமானது பிங்கா ஓயா ஆற்றுப்படுக்கை தொடர்பான சமூகம் மற்றும் சூழல் சார்ந்த பிரச்சனைகள் பற்றிய தகவல்களை வழங்கும் நோக்குடனும் ஆரம்பிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. மக்களிடையே நிலவும் இது பற்றிய தெளிவற்ற சிந்தனைகளை கண்டறிந்து அவற்றை தெளிவூட்டும் வகையில் செயற்படுவதையும் நோக்கமாக கொண்டுள்ளது. அத்தோடு நம்பகத்தன்மையான தகவல்களை பகிர்தல் மூலம் இது பற்றிய அக்கறை கொண்டவர்களது செயல்களுக்கும் ஆதரவு வழங்கவுள்ளோம்.

How

We are setting up a communication network on these topics as well, and welcome News articles and multimedia content. Associated with social media channels for Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and YouTube. We seek your support to build our Followers and Subscriptions as that shall strengthen our hand in terms of accessing resources.

අප විසින් ඔබව දැනුවත් කිරීම සදහා සන්නිවේදන ජාලයක් පිහිටුවා ඇති අතර ඊට පුවත්පත් ලිපි සහ බහුමාධ්‍ය අන්තර්ගතයන් ද අදාළ වේ. එය Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram සහ YouTube යන සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ජාල වලින් සමන්විත වේ. මෙම කර්තව්‍ය සාර්ථකව පවත්වාගෙන යාම සහ දායකත්වයන් ගොඩනගා ගැනීමට අප ඔබගේ නිරන්තර සහය අපේක්ෂා කරමු.

இது பற்றிய கலந்துரையாடல்களை மேற்கொள்வதற்கும், தகவல்களை பகிர்வதற்கும் தற்போது நாம் தொடர்பாடல் வலையமைப்புக்களை நிறுவிக்கொண்டு வருகிறோம். Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram மற்றும் YouTube என்பவற்றை உயிர்ப்போடு, தொடர்ந்து செயற்படுத்துவதற்கு உங்கள் ஆதரவு அவசியமானதாகும்.

Restore Pinga Oya

March 20, 2023January 10, 2023 by CrimsoN

Restore Pinga Oya

#RestorePingaOya is a multi-platform digital portal to make available reliable information to support evidence-based discussions on the Pinga Oya tributary of the Mahaweli and its catchment, and relevant activity of government and private actors so as to support advocacy to better its governance. Our focus is on highly disturbed portions of the river such as in Akurana.

There were three floods in Akurana in the 2nd half of 2022 in August, September and December 25. The flood level raised upto 9.5 feet above the road level at its deepest at the Dunuwilla road intersection. The spatial extent of the floods was expanded. Initial estimates for the flood damage was 980 million rupees but this shall be an underestimate.

The #RestorePingaOya initiative is an effort to make the water body what is used to be, a helpful resource to everyone in the vicinity.

Enhancing the climate literacy among the youth in Sri Lanka

September 21, 2022August 31, 2021 by CrimsoN

Promoting Literacy on Climate, Climate Change, its Impacts and Mitigation through Awareness of Potential Transition to High Renewable Energy in Sri Lanka

Purpose of the project

In order to provide basic localized information on climate change, its impacts authoritatively so as to support youth action and understanding and to reach four selected climate impacted and vulnerable communities Disaster Service Centre launched a project with the British High Commission of Sri Lanka on December 2020 . We targeted the youth (via social media users) audience primarily, and community based organizations, institutions, local leaders in climate impacted and vulnerable locales. The targeted locations are in the Central, North-Western, and Sabaragamuwa Province with impacts on disasters, ecosystem services and disease risk (dengue, TB) and to build awareness of the global renewable energy transition, and the potential in Sri Lanka to transition to a high renewable future (80% by 2030 as proposed by National Policy Framework). We specifically targeted the local engineering fraternity (energy-focused), supporters of renewable energy, decision-makers, and young people. This information will assist in fostering the conditions necessary for public demand for a focus on renewable energy in national action plans.

Project Summary

Climate Change, Impacts and Adaptation Component

While there is awareness of global climate change among Sri Lankans, the response of youth and community is held back by,

•the lack of awareness of local climate change based on state of the art research ,
•the lack of understanding of the regional, seasonal, and longer-term changes in climate,
•the lack of awareness of evidence to attribute impacts of climate change locally (e.g. on disasters, ecosystem services, and infectious and respiratory diseases).

Renewable Energy Transition Component

We have identified a gap in the knowledge about the global renewable centric energy transition among many Sri Lankans. This is evident in multiple SM platforms in Sri Lanka related to the sector. Among wider public and youth, this knowledge is even sparser, and is supported by active disinformation by fossil fuel interests. This is in spite of Sri Lanka being uniquely suited for the transition due to its potential and high hydropower installations. Within the project we will make content regarding global renewable shift, address myths about ‘difficulty of RE integration’ opportunities RE presents to Sri Lanka in economic, social and environmental spheres

Social Media Promotion

Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp and Twitter are platforms used to disseminate the output and assess the social media outreach.
Facebook and Twitter platforms were being uploaded with the content being careful to upload only a few at a time and the outreach is yet to be assessed.
As the first step we listed down the existing social media groups that we intended to disseminate the outputs. Then we looked at the new climate and disaster related groups where we can distribute our content with creative hashtags and background descriptions. A schedule was prepared to share the content and assess the reach by a responsible person. FECT’s official WhatsApp account has lately been set up to share the outputs by being a member of climate and disaster related groups.

Outputs

In terms of accessibility and understandability we employed PowerPoint as the tool to create brochures, factsheets and posters. 10 infographics were designed using Canva as it helps in Real-time collaboration across the team members.
Throughout the video production process, several tools were used. At first we made the decision to prepare the video using Powtoon since it enables frame creating, audio narration, video editing and merging audio with video which is expensive and didn’t addressed our needs. But lately we found that in each stage we can use separate tools to complete storyboarding, frame creating, Initially Video frames were created using PowerPoint. Audacity was used to edit the audio file of the video. In the third step, Fillmora was used to merge audio narration and PowerPoint frames together and continued the video editing process.

Factsheet on Climate Literacy of Sri Lanka

Heat Warnings to Several Districts in 2020

June 1, 2020May 13, 2020 by CrimsoN

Heat Warnings to Several Districts in 2020

The general public in Sri Lanka has been inconvenienced due to hot weather being experienced in some parts of the country to a noticeable degree in the past six months. Hot weather in Sri Lanka is increasing dangerously in 2019. We have identified the locations to be cautious of the hot weather in Sri Lanka for the first six months of 2019. The Heat Index (HI) has been calculated by using relative humidity and temperature and this is a measure of how hot it really feels on the body when relative humidity is factored with the actual air temperature.

HI classification of NOAA’s Weather Service does not show a much spatial variation of the heat stress in Sri Lanka. However, when consider the pattern of HI in the island, Comfort Level can be recognized in the stations situated in Central Highland mainly at Nuwara-Eliya, Diyathalawa and Kandy than sea level and intermediate zones. HI values are varying with the seasonal rainfall and environment lapse rate which are occurring with the nature of the topography and orography.

The monthly HI is varying from comfortable level to Extreme Caution level for the first six months and gradually declining for the rest of 2019. The same situation can be viewed for the first four months of 2020.

In January to March, Caution Level can be identified in some parts of the Northern, North Central provinces and some coastal areas. Higher temperature value from April – July is responsible for increased HI values. In this period, HI values have been gone up to “Danger” level in some parts in Northern province and “Extreme Caution” level can be identified in North Central, Eastern, North-Western provinces and coastal areas and slowly gone down from August

A plot of heat index anomalies shows the significantly higher anomalies for recent five years. The highest peak (2.7) was in year 2016

Monthly variation of Heat Index during recent decades

We have obtained a mean annual cycle of HI values to understand the pattern of heat index value events over the year. These annual cycles are characterized by mean of monthly HI values over the period 1986 – 2018. An upward shift in the HI values is noticeable throughout first 6 months and decline for the rest. A slightly deviation of HI in October, 2019 can be observed. According to the HI chart, April to July can be acknowledged within “Danger” and “Extreme Caution” levels and the rest of the year within Caution and Comfort Levels for the period 1986-2018.

Accordingly, the temperature felt on the human body is expected to increase up to “Danger” level at some places in North, North Central and North Western provinces while “Extreme Caution” to the Eastern, Western and Southern provinces in the next few months.