News

Lanka awash with face masks a new headache

Published

on

by Ifham Nizam

The government was concerned about the importation of 140 million face masks weighing more than 495 tonnes between March 17 and October 31, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.

Amaraweera told the media yesterday if those masks were not properly disposed, that would lead to serious environmental issues.

The health sector has reported that about 100 companies have approved the import of 15 million KN 95 masks by the end of November, the Minister said.

 Amaraweera also said the Covid-19 pandemic was likely to get worse in the future and the virus could spread to water sources, thus the manner of disposing face masks was of great concern.

He also noted that a number of face mask factories had been set up in the country and all those could add to serious environmental problems.

Environment Ministry Secretary, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, said that the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) had submitted a series of guidelines to local government institutions on the proper disposal of face masks.

 The matter should be regulated by the Ministry of Health, but in the future the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Health would take steps to put in place a mechanism to tackle the issue, he said.

Himantha Randiva Wimalaratne, a Grade Nine student of Ananda College, Colombo, presented to the Minister a new invention which could destroy contaminants including face masks.

 Minister appreciated the interest shown by the media in new inventions, and presented a certificate of appreciation to the student for introducing a useful new invention to the country without wasting time when schools are closed due to Covid-19.

The Minister was the first to appreciate the child’s talent. Ananda College Principal, S. M. Keerthiratne expressed his gratitude to the Minister and to Dr. Anil Jasinghe, the Secretary to the Ministry, who is an old Anandian.

 The Student’s mother Anoma Ranjani Jayatilake and the teacher in charge of the class, Darshani Perera were also present.

Click to comment

Trending

Exit mobile version