Colombo; the devil’s city………?
Accumulating by Dispossession
Sixty three percent of the Colombo city population, the “superior” majority, live in huts, slums or unauthorised structures, and they only occupy nine percent of land from the total area of the Colombo District. The 2001 survey carried out by the Colombo Municipal Council has identified a total of 77,612 families living in 1,614 low-income settlements in the city, but no action has been taken by Local or International hypocritical power houses to rectify the appalling human crisis.
The present Colombo city infrastructure, though used by a mammoth population of about 642,000 (2001) and a daily floating population of another 400,000, making it a city of over one million population (Department of Census and Statistics, 2001), was created over 100 years ago for a city population of only 35,000. Sixty three percent of Colombo city population –the “superior” majority- live in huts, slums or unauthorised structures. The 2001 survey carried out by the Colombo Municipal Council and SEVANATHA NGO has identified a total of 77,612 families living in 1,614 low-income settlements in the city. According to statistics, people in slums dwell in some 1,000 acres of State land and other reserves.
Owner occupancy was considered significant in respect of the Sri Lankan approach. But it was found that only 23 per cent of families have ownership rights to their land— and that means the rest are “illegally occupied”, while it is “legal” within the present system to exploit the physical and physiological strength of the people who are the sole victims of neo-liberalism and its embedded global (West) parasitism. Out of the estimated 1,000 acres, 71% have been taken over by those living in shanties and huts. Colombo has some 63 slum areas which reflect a massive housing problem. This is empirically evident in Colombo as 63% of its population live in slums and they only occupy nine percent of the total area of Colombo District.Further more, 73% of the population in Colombo North & Central live in tents, slums and ghettoes. This proves the fact that this is not a marginal phenomenon, but rather the fast growth of a population outside state control, living in conditions half outside the law, in terrible need of the minimal forms of self-organization.
In 1995 there were about 10,000 children in the age group of 6-14 years that were sexually exploited for commercial purposes. A major source of children for exploitation is the slums in and around the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo. According to UNICEF and International Labor Organisation (ILO) statistics, in 2003 there were nearly 40,000 child prostitutes in the country while 5,000 to 30,000 Sri Lankan boys were used by Western pedophile sex tourists in Sri Lanka.
According to Mrs. Maureen Senevirtane, the chairperson and a founder of Protecting Environment and Children Everywhere (PEACE), “Children are taken out of these slums and are never heard from again.”
Access to Water
Thirty per cent of families have difficult access to drinking water while only 44 per cent have individual house connection. 24-hour availability of piped water covers only 56 per cent of the urban poor families in the city. About 10 per cent of the families receive less than 10 hours of water per day. This shows that provision of improved water supplies to a majority (56 per cent) of urban poor is a critical issue in Colombo.
Access to Sanitation
The availability of the city sewerage network was recorded for about 70 per cent families (a majority of individual toilets and some common toilets were connected to the sewer network. However, in Colombo North Districts (District 1, 2A, 2B) where a large number of low-income settlements located, a sewerage network connection was available for only 51 per cent families. The remaining 30 per cent without sewage connection facilities used septic tanks and soak pits while some families directly discharged sewer into canals. As such, improving sanitation conditions in low-income settlements located in Colombo North district is more critical than in Colombo South district where about 70 per cent of families have access to the city sewer network.
Access to Municipal Waste Collection
These figures show that extending the solid waste collection service to about 66 per cent of the low-income families is necessary.
Literacy Rate
Over 90 per cent of people are literate. The younger generation is more literate than older.
Some people are capable of using more than one language. There is no significant difference between male and female literacy rates in the community.
Slum dwellers—suppressed labourers, superfluous civil servants and ex-peasants—are incorporated into the economy in numerous ways, many of us working as informal wage workers or self-employed entrepreneurs, with no adequate health or social security coverage. Our existence is the true “symptom” of slogans like “Development,” “Modernization,” “Poverty” and “World Market.” We, the slum dwellers are the counter-class to the other newly emerging class, the so-called “symbolic class” (managers, journalists, academics, artists, etc.) that is also uprooted and that perceives itself as directly universal. Would not this so-called “symbolic class” witness the slum community as the death of their own symbolic evolution? <!– D([“mb”,”–>\n The present Colombo city infrastructure, though used by a mammoth population, was created over 100 years ago for a city population of 35,000. According to the article published by Dilrukshi Handunnetti on 16 FEB 2006 in the www.lankalibrary.com \n web site, recent surveys reveal that 54% of the Colombo city population lives in huts, slums or unauthorised structures. According to statistics, some 1,000 acres of state land and other reserves are being occupied by these people — and that means they are illegally occupied. Out of the estimated 1,000 acres, 71% have been taken over by those living in shanties and huts. Colombo has some 63 slum areas which reflect a massive housing problem. This is empirically evident in Colombo as 54% of its population live in slums and they only occupy 7% of the total area of Colombo District. Further more, according to \nwww.un.org web site 99% of the population in Colombo North live in tents, slums ghettoes. This proves the fact that this is not a marginal phenomenon, but rather the fast growth of a population outside state control, living in conditions half outside the law, in terrible need of the minimal forms of self-organization.\n \n \n Slums came into existence with the expansion of export trade associated with the rubber boom after World War II, especially during the Korean War in 1953. The character of Colombo changed in keeping with the new economic demands for warehousing, workers\’ housing and road networks. Colombo became more congested and the city elite moved out into more spacious residential areas in the suburbs. The central part of Colombo became characterized by predominantly low-income residential areas, mainly slums, and the Northern and Eastern parts contained most of the shanties. Slums and shanties are the most common types, with slums on the high lands of the old city that consist of the oldest low-income housing – mostly from the 1930s and with a definite legal occupancy status. Shanties along canal banks and road reserves have emerged since independence in 1948 onwards, and consist of unauthorized and improvised shelter without legal rights of occupancy of the land and structures.
- League of Slum Dwellers (L.S.D)- ColomboNorthGallows@gmail.com
