KEEPING KAHATOWITA A HEALTHY PLACE TO LIVE -An open letter to a minister by a resident of Kahatowita

Honoured Sir,

KEEPING KAHATOWITA A HEALTHY PLACE TO LIVE

Thanks to the government policy to advance the healthcare of the people, it is good to see, in almost every village and town, that the environment becomes

very healthy due to the cleaning activities organized by the local government authorities. The PHI and other related officials are very much concerned over the healthcare in the territories under their control, and give their best to make them healthy places for living.

Kahatowita, a small village in terms of area, with around 2000 families, is situated in the Attanagalla division of Gampaha district. This has been one of the areas with a higher population density in the district. When compared with the population, this village is lagging far behind in facilities such as pure drinking water, one of the very important requirement of mankind. Further, our people are heavily suffering daily without the essential facilities such as waste water system, sewer discharge system, garbage disposal system etc., which cause deep concerns over healthcare of people and pleasant environment.
We appreciate the laws and regulations that the government has imposed regarding disposal of wastes. Also we appreciate the system of fining the law breakers. Because, it is obvious that we can't have an environment with a high level of cleanliness without the laws and regulations as well as fines. Unfortunately, the village of Kahatowita badly suffer an acute shortage of land for habitation. This has caused acute hygienic issues. For example, most of the dwellings in our village have been put up in a land with an extent of 5 to 6 perches. Drinking water wells, septic tanks, waste water disposals etc., etc., all these have to be located in this small extent of land. Further, the garbage is also going parallel with these issues making the "issue" much broader.
The garbage disposal unit has been scheduled once in a week, but it is not happening regularly. Even the unit comes once in a blue moon, the whole garbage dumped, in place to place, are not taken off fully, and a part of garbage remains unclear. How can it be possible to maintain a healthy surrounding in this manner, if this crippled system continues, specially during rainy days. Further, lots of residents have built their boundary walls, blocking the natural flow of rain water. Water stagnates everywhere. In some areas, stagnated water flows through another person's land or house. We could not have a solution for this problem even after several complains were lodged in the police.
In this situation, many people have been fined for not maintaining their surroundings properly.
Honourable Minister, we humbly request to take necessary action to reduce the burden for everyone, in our village, taking all the above matters into your kind consideration.
We need a healthy life. We will be able to breathe in pure air only if the surroundings are clean and pure. Then only we can lead a healthy life.
We request the government to provide the facilities to keep our environment clean and healthy. We hope major hygienic issues will be solved to some extent if the facilities for pipe bourn water, systems for garbage disposal and drainage are provided as early as possible.
Thanking you,
your sincerely

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