Harsha Samaranayake, SGM, Brand and Media, Group Marketing, Dialog Axiata PLC and Rizly Illiyas, President, SLR leading the way at the beach cleanup.
On a balmy Thursday afternoon, Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog), Sri
Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, together with Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR)
inaugurated the first phase of the ‘Sayura Rakina Rella’ sustainable beach
clean-up programme by the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA)
deployed to protect and preserve our oceans. The initiative kickstarted with
the collection of over 770 kilograms (KG) of waste material from the Sarakkuwa
beach (Negombo) which was handed over to the Wattala Pradeshiya Sabha for its
safe and sustainable disposal.
Players from the present
Sri Lanka men’s and women’s Rugby teams as well as former Tuskers such as Asoka
Jayasena, Hisham Abdeen, Dilroy Perera, Ajith Upawansa, RMS Rathnayake and Jude
Pillai, MEPA goodwill ambassadors, musical artists Bathiya & Santhush,
young rugby players from the Western Lions Academy, officials from SLR together
with the Dialog team volunteered for two-hour to restore the beach to a
pristine condition.
According to a pollution
index transcribed by the World Bank in 2015, Sri Lanka ranked as the 5th worst
beach polluter of the world, mainly due to poor disposal of plastic waste. On
average, a Sri Lankan produces 500g of non-degradable waste per day resulting
in a mammoth amount of 100 million KGs of solid waste added into Sri Lanka’s
coastal waters, according to 2017 records. During the total two-hour collection
process at ‘Sayura Rakina Rella’, 275.89 KG of plastic, 102.6 KG of metal, 83
KG of glass, 250 KG of organic and 63 KG of paper waste was collected.
“We are thankful for
Dialog and SLR for coming forward for this important initiative to safeguard
Sri Lanka’s natural assets. We at MEPA sincerely hope that these initiatives,
in the long run, inspire other sporting bodies, corporates and civil society to
come forth and do their civic duty and we believe that initiatives of this
nature enable corporates to be an agent of change in building a better
tomorrow. We hope that by paving the way for initiatives of this nature, we can
turnaround the present status quo especially as the country is on the cusp of
opening its borders for tourism,” Dharshani Lahandapura, Chairperson of
MEPA said.
“Rugby 7s giants in the Pacific Ocean like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga
play most of their rugby on the beaches. They play touch rugby especially on
the beach to develop their mind-blowing ball handling skills, which is
something that I don’t see much today in Sri Lanka,” Rizly Iliyas, President of
SLR said. He further elaborated, “When we were school children, we used to come
to the beach often to play touch rugby. However, due to increased pollution,
the beaches are not safe to come to as one can easily hurt themselves from
household waste that is buried in the sand. Under this sustainability
initiative, we would like to discourage the public from polluting and to take
on their roles as responsible citizens by following proper garbage disposal
methods”.
“As the proud sponsor of
Sri Lanka Rugby, Dialog Axiata is pleased to join hands with SLR and MEPA to
conserve our marine resources which have been under threat as a result of
careless waste disposal,” Harsha Samaranayake, Senior General Manager, Brand
and Media, Group Marketing at Dialog Axiata PLC said. “It is our belief that
sports, like Rugby with a large following, will be a game changer in
influencing its followers and the public on the necessity of preserving one of
our country’s greatest natural assets” he added.
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