Web of Life

Deputy Minister of Housing, Construction Industry, Eastern Province Education and Irrigation Development said at the moment when the International Conference of the World Habitat Day is held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, exactly one half of the population of Colombo consisting of 80,000 families are dwellers of slums and shanties.

Deputy Minister, Chandrasiri Gajadheera made this statement at the National Conference of the World Habitat Day held at 'Sausiripaya' in which he participated as the chief guest.

Mr. Gajadheera also said that the state of affairs is common in the cities of developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

"Population density, lack of funds to provide basic amenities, lack of infrastructure facilities, the absence of proper drainage and sewage facilities and the lack of housing facilities were the common problems in these cities," he said and added that it was a problem faced by Sri Lankans too.

"World Habitat Day is commemorated all over the world by the United Nations Human Habitat Commission since 1986 with the objective of making the world community aware of the need to contemplate deeply about the state of world Habitats, and to remind the authorities about the collective responsibility of states regarding human rights of every individual to possess sufficient housing facilities".

In 1986 discussions were conducted under the theme "I have a right to possess a house" and since then, annually problems on this subject had been discussed under various themes throughout eighteen years. This year's theme is 'the city is the life line of rural development'.

About 65% of Sri Lanka's population still live in rural areas. People in the rural areas suffer due to the lack of facilities such as roads, water, electricity and communication for their houses rather than due to acute shortage of houses.

Hence if the theme 'city is the life line of rural development' is to be made a reality, our attention should be drawn to the need to provide urban facilities to all the villages.

About two hundred thousand families in the estate sector of our country still live in line rooms which are about 200 years old. Apart from the original settlers the family members, their second and third generations live in huts and shanties covered with gunny bags or polythene.

Therefore, when we commemorate the World Habitat Day, our attention should be drawn to the need for acceleration of the programme of improving the habitats in the estate sector too.

While commemorating the world Habitat Day our attention should be drawn to the fact that the people in the North and East as well as those in adjoining areas had been compelled to leave their homes and to find dwellings in refugee camps or to go abroad having been displaced due to two decades of ethnic war. About one hundred and fifty thousand persons live in refugee camps and about 25% of them have been born in these refugee camps.

The theme could be made a reality only by building close relations between the village and the city.

This will facilitate the development of the rural production and provide a market in the city which will encourage production function in rural area.

The 'villages' that are developed in this manner would be converted to 'small towns".