Crows Island beach today
I went to Crows Island two years ago and found it had a swimmable if slightly dirty beach. Went back yesterday and my God, it’s polluted beyond recognition. Plastic and garbage has entirely covered the beach and pier in parts. It’s disgusting, and a damn shame.
The beach in April, 2010
My peculiar dream is that North Colombo will develop, if only because it makes the most sense on a map. Colombo commerce and culture fled south of Fort, but in the old days the city seemed to be growing North. Crows Island, where the Kelaniya meets the sea, seems like an ideal spot for habitation, but that area and Mattakulliya have become synonymous with slum. Yet they still have a rare beauty. Or did.
Woman sitting on garbage
The beach at Crows Island is naturally swimmable, but it seems to have been artificially wrecked. There’s a huge park down the way also and it’s near to kovils, churches and a fair amount of culture and human commerce. It was neglected, but now it seems to have completely gone to shit.
Man sleeping rough near Whist house
It’s really quite sad. With a bit of upkeep this could be a beautiful beach that serves a lot of people. Independence Square and all are great, but beautification needs to extend to Colombo North as well. I hope some attention gets there soon. I’m used to things getting better slowly, but Crows Island seems to be getting worse.
Typical Sri Lanka – dirty, crowded with no hygiene standards.
weird the names we choose for islands – slave island, crow island, pigeon island..and they remain relatively derelict.
one of the things that has become a personal peeve is the lack of communication/education that has been targeted at the public towards maintaining sri lanka’s natural and man-made beauty spots. Case in point – galle face green an amazing spot ruined by people dumping their garbage/plastic bags on the green for someone else to carry it away. i think the SLPA currently undertakes that role along with the CMC but the green actually belongs to the people of colombo. look at independence sq – the transformation has been simply amazing and functional – i hope it wins an architectural award but it is religiously policed – to prevent the crows they prevent the garbage and thereby not allowing the food sellers. there are now signs up saying animals must be on a leash and take their poop away with you. how long will this continue and what happens when some politico and his hangers on think it becomes their play yard – we are ok as long as GR runs the UDA but what happens then? sustainability is has to be brought back in and not by oversight but by a change of mind and then action.
Indi, this is fantastic; not the state of Crow Island, but the fact that you are travelling around the city and capturing images like this to make us all aware of parts of the city that most people dont visit too often.
Omr, dont you think that you are being a bit too harsh. For the most part, Sri Lanka is a clean country compared to our neighbors. Most people who visit Sri Lanka comment on this as well and it is one of the things about Sri Lanka that I brag about (especially to the Indians). I am not saying that we are Singapore and I agree that there are a lot areas to work on but saying; “Typical Sri Lanka – dirty, crowded with no hygiene standards.” is a bit exaggerated no? Maybe I am wrong and missing something so can you to elaborate on it?
I have some access to folks at the CMC and sent the following email:
Hi,
Can you please take a look at the link below.
http://indi.ca/2012/02/crows-island-beach-in-shambles/
Regards,
A concerned citizen of Colombo.
I received the following:
Ur late. We r already on it :) most of the work is being done.
I responded with:
can you give me details of the proposed plan (details of what you are doing?)
Currently, I am waiting on a response. Lets see what they have to say.
People need to be educated NOT to live like animals in filth? One would have thought this is basic common sense – obviously not in Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the general population seems to enjoy living in squalour. Have rubbish? Just chuck it on the road. Want to spit? Why not on public walls? The dirtier the better, the grimier the better. The general population also has absolutely no sense of aesthetics. So you see fugly buildings put up with no concern as to how big of an eye sore they are. So much is hideous in the country and it’s all due to humans, not nature.
We need a link to the “Dirty Indian” post you did sometime ago, and an equivalent effort!
The response I got:
prevention of dengue – going from house to house etc
clean the drains, beach etc
cmc together with land reclamation n navy are working on this
Maybe I am being a little bit too harsh, but I think it is justified. It is absolutely silly to compare Sri Lanka in that manner to the “neighbours” when, for example in India, people still defecate on the streets in the cities, kill their baby girls, burn witches, sacrifice children to gods etc. That Sri Lankans don’t shit on the sides of roads or don’t engage in any of other stuff is nothing to boast about or be proud of – it is the norm elsewhere in the world. Similarly, Sri Lanka maybe cleaner in comparison to India, but that is not saying much is it? To be honest, Sri Lanka is a very dirty country with poor standards of hygiene. India is the last country Sri Lanka should be comparing itself with when it comes to cleanliness. I don’t know if you have travelled much but most Sri Lankan cities and towns are hell holes, with no proper garbage collection and people littering/spitting/pissing all over the place. Add to that the incessant crowds, narrow roads, crappy smoke-belching vehicles, horning, crows, flies, heat and humidity and you have a veritable vision of hell.
I live in hope that things will improve of course.
It’s great to see your initiative in taking the issue to the CMC, but I just love how the CMC replied back with SMS English along with a smiley. Someone ought to teach them about being professional. lol.
I’d be happy if they repair the roads in Colombo North first. Beautifying can come later.
yeah, the roads are a major problem. They’re also insanely narrow at vital points and get impassable at traffic times