‘Lassana Werala’ from Mt. Lavinia to Colombo Port City

Thursday, 10 December 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

‘Lassana Werala’ is a collaborative project initiated by the Colombo Port City and the Wana Arana Foundation. This milestone project marks its first anniversary on 4 December.

As part of the core activities of Lassana Werala, the teams engaged in daily beach clean-ups along the beach from Mount Lavinia to the Wellawatte beach. The clean-up was carried out by a team of five employees on a daily basis under the supervision of the Department of Coast

Conservation and Coastal Resource Management, Coast Guard Sri Lanka, Police Environmental

Protection Division and the Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council.

Given the extent of the work carried out thus far, the Lassana Werala project has been lauded by residents, tourists, hotels, entrepreneurs, and the fisher community of the Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia and Wellawatte areas as well as from across the country. Several hotels also have come forward to provide lunch to the workers of the project at the request of the local communities, which was indeed a great encouragement to the workers and an impetus to the initiative itself.

According to the residents and local communities, the Wana Arana Foundation has played a pivotal role in cleaning up the beaches, especially, the recent pile up of garbage and refuse that left the beaches of Mt. Lavinia polluted. Both the Colombo Port City and the Wana Arana Foundation, based on the feedback received from various stakeholders believe that the initiative has made a significant contribution towards the upkeep of the alluring beaches of these areas.

The Colombo Port City and the Wana Arana Foundation say that although several programs were to be launched to coincide with the 4 December anniversary, the current unprecedented situation has stalled all plans. Stemming from the success of the project thus far, it is with delight that we note that the Colombo Port City has decided to extend this program up to the Port City of Colombo starting 4 December. This special task too has already been handed over to the Wana Arana Foundation. It is the mission of Wana Arana to help create a Lassana Werala in our motherland.