Indian clinical waste lands on Puttalam beaches

[Gibbs]

Been nothing but a Fecking Curse !!

Indian clinical waste reaches Puttalam

The mounting clinical waste in coastal areas off Puttalam has washed ashore from India, the Maritime Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) confirmed yesterday.

Speaking to Daily Mirror, MEPA CEO Dr. Terney Pradeep Kumara said clinical waste could be found in Kanda Duwa, Cinna Padu, Periya Padu and Palliwatta Padu in Puttalam.

“Residents in these areas complained to the MEPA that 50 to 60 kilograms of clinical waste were found washed ashore. Expired medicines, bottles, polythene packages, syringes and surgical hand gloves were among them,” he said.

Mr. Kumara alleged that expired clinical waste would have been released to the rivers and streams in Tamil Nadu and that it would have reached Sri Lankan soil due to sea currents.

“We cannot prevent clinical waste from coming to local beaches because it is a natural process,” he said.

However, the MEPA warned the public not to collect clinical waste without any safety precaution, and not to swim in the seas off the coast where clinical waste gathered.

“Just like clinical waste released by India arrived in Sri Lanka, effluents released by us may reach the Maldives. Clinical waste is often identified by labels,” he said. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)

 

[Skull and Bones]

It’s a curse for us to for not having a proper disposal protocol for medical waste.

 

[Icewolf]

Well a country where 75% of population open defecates on the roads and railroads, will have no problem throwing syringes, blood bags, etc on the beach.

 

[Roybot]

Well a country where 75% of population open defecates on the roads and railroads, will have no problem throwing syringes, blood bags, etc on the beach.

You seem to have outdated data, in fact it is close to 95%.

 

[Gibbs]

Well a country where 75% of population open defecates on the roads and railroads, will have no problem throwing syringes, blood bags, etc on the beach.

They dump it in their rivers, Which is even worse, In turn flows to the sea and ends up on Lankan shores due to currents !!

 

[Ajaxpaul]

You seem to have outdated data, in fact it is close to 95%.

Nope it's 99%. I too went to the beach to attend the nature's call. I had several bags of medical waste also. Since I was at the beach I threw them away.

 

[Roybot]

They dump it in their rivers, Which is even worse, In turn flows to the sea and ends up on Lankan shores due to currents !!

Srilanka is the biggest polluter in the region and 5th largest in the world.

SRI LANKA: THE PINT-SIZED GLOBAL POLLUTER OF THE OCEAN

There can be few more beautiful sights than watching the sun rise at Batticaloa or Trincomalee in the east, or the scenes at sunset on the western coasts of our island nation. Unfortunately, beauty as the saying goes is only skin deep and these beautiful scenes cover a more deadly reality. Sri Lanka is one of the world’s top polluters of the ocean.


Ocean pollution, also known as marine pollution, is the spreading of harmful substances such as oil, plastic, industrial and agricultural waste and chemical particles into the ocean. Since oceans are home to wide varieties of marine animals and plants, it is the responsibility of every citizen to play his or her part in making these oceans clean so that marine species can thrive. The ‘International Business Times’ in 2010, ranked Sri Lanka as the 5th largest plastic polluter of to the ocean with 1.59 million metric tons of plastic/polythene dumped into the sea every year.

The other countries are Vietnam -1.83 metric tons, Philippines -1.88 metric tons, Indonesia -3.22 metric tons a year and China - 8.82 metric tons a year. The big difference between us and the other top polluters is that they have populations of more than 80 million people –China 1.357 billion, Vietnam 89.71 million, Indonesia 249.9 million and the Philippines 98.39 million. Roughly 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every year. So how does little Sri Lanka, with only 20 million population, have such an effect on a global scale?


According to reports, the average Sri Lankan generates 5.1 kg of waste per day and mismanages 0.29 kg of plastic waste per day! Being an island, we are surrounded by the sea. We lack waste disposal knowledge. Not surprisingly this leads to polluting our environment which in turn ends up in the sea. Waste Disposal Management is almost unknown nor taught island-wide. Slum settlements are found around canals, waterways and the sea. Here land is limited and waste is discarded the easiest way – the closest body of water.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/SRI-LANKA-THE-PINT-SIZED-GLOBAL-POLLUTER-OF-THE-OCEAN-118388.html

 

[Gibbs]

Srilanka is the biggest polluter in the region and 5th largest in the world.

SRI LANKA: THE PINT-SIZED GLOBAL POLLUTER OF THE OCEAN

There can be few more beautiful sights than watching the sun rise at Batticaloa or Trincomalee in the east, or the scenes at sunset on the western coasts of our island nation. Unfortunately, beauty as the saying goes is only skin deep and these beautiful scenes cover a more deadly reality. Sri Lanka is one of the world’s top polluters of the ocean.


Ocean pollution, also known as marine pollution, is the spreading of harmful substances such as oil, plastic, industrial and agricultural waste and chemical particles into the ocean. Since oceans are home to wide varieties of marine animals and plants, it is the responsibility of every citizen to play his or her part in making these oceans clean so that marine species can thrive. The ‘International Business Times’ in 2010, ranked Sri Lanka as the 5th largest plastic polluter of to the ocean with 1.59 million metric tons of plastic/polythene dumped into the sea every year.

The other countries are Vietnam -1.83 metric tons, Philippines -1.88 metric tons, Indonesia -3.22 metric tons a year and China - 8.82 metric tons a year. The big difference between us and the other top polluters is that they have populations of more than 80 million people –China 1.357 billion, Vietnam 89.71 million, Indonesia 249.9 million and the Philippines 98.39 million. Roughly 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every year. So how does little Sri Lanka, with only 20 million population, have such an effect on a global scale?


According to reports, the average Sri Lankan generates 5.1 kg of waste per day and mismanages 0.29 kg of plastic waste per day! Being an island, we are surrounded by the sea. We lack waste disposal knowledge. Not surprisingly this leads to polluting our environment which in turn ends up in the sea. Waste Disposal Management is almost unknown nor taught island-wide. Slum settlements are found around canals, waterways and the sea. Here land is limited and waste is discarded the easiest way – the closest body of water.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/SRI-LANKA-THE-PINT-SIZED-GLOBAL-POLLUTER-OF-THE-OCEAN-118388.html

None on the island dumps medical waste in to bodies of water, Second being an island as we see here waste from neighboring country washes on shore, Unless it's labelled as in this case no one knows where the plastic comes from, The writer of this article contradict him/herself, A country with such a small population creates that much plastic waste ? It's hilarious to say the least and it's pretty now obvious where the garbage on our shores comes from

One dumb study by "International Business Times" .. Quite a credible record they have too..

In late 2011, Google allegedly moved the outlet's articles down in search results in response to excessive search engine optimizationactivity. An internal IBT memo allegedly advised IBT journalists on how to "re-work a story you've already done and re-post it in the hopes that it will chart better via Google... Some people have been just re-posting the exact same story, with a new headline. We're not doing that anymore."

Reporting in 2014, Mother Jones claimed that IBT journalists are subject to constant demand to produce clickbait; one former employee reportedly complained that management issued "impossible" demands, including a minimum of 10,000 hits per article, and fired those who couldn't deliver. Of 432 articles published by IBT Japan in a certain time interval, 302 were reportedly created by copying sentences from Japanese media and combining them, "collage-style", to create stories that seemed new; IBT Japan apologized for the behavior and blamed it on a contract employee.[4] Similarly, employees told The Guardian in 2014 that at times they seemed to operate more as "content farms" demanding high-volume output than a source of quality journalism. At least two journalists were allegedly threatened with firing unless traffic to their articles increased sharply

 

[Roybot]

None on the island dumps medical waste in to bodies of water, Second being an island as we see here waste from neighboring country washes on shore, Unless it's labelled as in this case no one knows where the plastic comes from, The writer of this article contradict him/herself, A country with such a small population creates that much plastic waste ? It's hilarious to say the least and it's pretty now obvious where the garbage on our shores comes from

One dumb study by "International Business Times" .. Quite a credible record they have too..

In late 2011, Google allegedly moved the outlet's articles down in search results in response to excessive search engine optimizationactivity. An internal IBT memo allegedly advised IBT journalists on how to "re-work a story you've already done and re-post it in the hopes that it will chart better via Google... Some people have been just re-posting the exact same story, with a new headline. We're not doing that anymore."

Here's an article quoting Sri Lankan officials. Don't tell me the Sri Lankan government is also a click bait.

Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) General Manager Dr. Terney Pradeep Kumara told Daily Mirror that the sea in general is polluted with 6.4 million tonnes of waste annually. He added that the sea around Sri Lanka was polluted with 1.59mn tones of waste. The common waste items that can be found in the coast of Sri Lanka are grocery bags, plastic bottles, drinking straws, bottle caps, glass bottles, rigifoam and cigarette butts.

“The breakdown of waste products found around Sri Lanka annually amounts to 41% plastic, 34% fishing nets, 4% glass and 14% other effluents. This waste that accumulates is not merely from Sri Lanka, but comes from neighbouring countries like India, Thailand and Indonesia. Therefore, a sustainable solution is needed to control the release of waste to the sea,” Dr. Kumara said.

www.dailymirror.lk/article/It-s-time-that-Sri-Lanka-addresses-marine-pollution--136901.html

 

[Gibbs]

This waste that accumulates is not merely from Sri Lanka, but comes from neighbouring countries like India, Thailand and Indonesia. Therefore, a sustainable solution is needed to control the release of waste to the sea,” Dr. Kumara said.

Looks like you forgot to highlight this part.. Most of the plastic and other pollutants are washed ashore from neighboring countries, The problem is it's an island nation that gets the brunt of it unfortunately, As i mentioned before unless it's branded like the horrible medical waste from India there is no way to find out if it's waste originating from Sri Lanka, As anyone can attest to if they have ever set foot on the island the inland water bodies in the island are not even close to being polluted as in the case of the sub continent

Just because these pollutants are found in Sri Lankan waters doesn't mean it's from Sri Lanka for obvious reasons

 

[ghameed]

It's not only medical waste ...general garbage ...several of the white bottles displayed in the pictures seem to be ' perungayam thool '..that's Tamil for asafoetida powder ,a spice used during cooking to flavour the food ..

 

[Cobra Arbok]

They dump it in their rivers, Which is even worse, In turn flows to the sea and ends up on Lankan shores due to currents !!

I apologise. The government needs to make better efforts to clean our rivers and provide an effective waste treatment system accessible for all.