The manner in which rehabilitation work is being carried out would create more problems, Minister of Environment and National Resources A. H. M. Fowzie told The Island on Monday.

He was participating at the regional workshop on integrated capacity development for multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEA’s) in South Asia held at the World Trade Centre in Colombo.

"The debris resulting from the Tsunami is being dumped in wetlands. This will result in floods. Trees are being cut down for building of houses. This should not be done. Instead, houses must be built without trees being cut," he said.

"I have told the people of the area to recycle such material as bricks and the cement mixture which is cleared off the bricks could be reused to make concrete blocks or to be used as a filler when paving roads.

"I have promised to pay the people for such work", he added.

However, people in the east had ignored his request while in the South, the process of recycling debris such as metal, plastics was being done, he said.

People tried to dump the claims into the sea, rivers and canals, but we banned it. In Galle, the process of clearing up the debris by recycling it has been done satisfactorily.

The question of dumping the claims is being studied and we are looking at curtain sites. However initially the clay pits are being filled with the cement powder obtained from broken walls in the affected areas. The trees which have been uprooted will be left to decay and became manure. The process is a slow one and it is expected that 75 percent of the debris could be recycled, Minister Fowzie concluded.

"We have asked people involved in the recycled merchandise trade to remove such items which they can dispose off and make some money", said Director General of the Central Environmental Authority Ms. Manel Jayamanne.

This is happening now and the debris is being cleared. We have insisted that Plastics, Rubber and PVC should not be burnt since it could cause cancer due to the ammonium of dioxane and furan gases.

However the problem is more deep seated, our people are not civic minded and consider that the disposal of their garbage is somebody else’s problem and throw it on to the roads. A person’s garbage is his own responsibility and he must take steps to dispose of it in a manner which is not injurious to the environment.

Kitchen garbage must never be thrown away since it can be convented into compost, similarly if we spend a few minutes in sorting out our garbage it can be disposed of to those who make a living act of dealing in items which can be recycled. It only needs a little thoughtfulness on the part of the people. "We have time to cook and eat but do not have time to attend to the garbage which we produce" she added.

"Recently I met a lady who has throwing garbage on to the road, close to my office at about 10 p.m. When I spoke to her she said that she was a lecturer at the Medical College, but did not have the time to sort out her garbage" Ms. Jayamanne added.