Life style

The fight to save Sri Lanka’s natural flood buffers

Published

2 years ago

2024/11/3

Thilina Walpola

Besides clearing rubbish from the wetlands, volunteers are also removing invasive water hyacinths

By Zinara Rathnayake

Pay Drechsel is going for his daily morning walk around Talangama Wetland, in Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo. The sun casts a warm glow over flowering pink water lilies as a farmer scrubs down his water buffalo. A kingfisher hovers nearby. Soon, photographers will arrive to capture curved-necked egrets, waders probing for crawling worms, and little cormorants diving for freshwater fish.

Talangama Wetland and its surrounding swamps, reedbeds, canals and rice fields teem with life. But this hasn’t always been the case. About 15 years ago, these ecosystems were degraded and filled with rubbish. They were “dirty, very dirty”, says Drechsel, interim country manager at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Colombo.

He recalls how he spent one Christmas almost a decade ago cleaning the lake, scouring for piles of rotting garbage leaking contaminants into the water, and sorting waste for recycling. To his surprise, passersby stopped and started helping him. “I realized it’s not only me, locals also appreciate it,” he says. “But like me over all the years, they may have been waiting for someone to take the lead.”

The community came together to keep the massive wetland complex clean, forming the Talangama Wetland Watch. Residents organize weekly collection runs, piling up sorted waste at a small collection unit which the municipality sends off for recycling. School kids volunteer, kayaking through the lake to dig up invasive water hyacinth.

Home to over two million residents, Colombo is built on and around a massive network of wetlands. In 2018, Colombo became one of the 18 Ramsar wetland cities in the world – an accreditation which recognizes cities for their commitment to restore, safeguard and value wetlands, with 25 new cities added to the list in 2022.

As Colombo is located in a river basin, the city is naturally prone to floods. Colombo’s wetlands act as a flood buffer, with 40% of floodwaters draining into wetland areas. They also sink carbon, purify the air and control temperatures. As temperatures warm and rains become more erratic, “wetlands are important to the city to mitigate climate change impacts”, says Chethika Gunasiri, an environmental scientist at the University of Tokyo who was part of Colombo’s Ramsar application. “Wetlands help Colombo mitigate pollution and natural disasters. They help reduce human stress as more and more people are now living in high rise buildings,” she adds.

Historically, wetlands were a “part and parcel of people’s lives in Colombo,” says Missaka Hettiarachchi, a senior fellow at the World Wildlife Fund’s environment and disaster management programme, who has been studying wetlands in Colombo for several years. Ancient kingdoms thrived in a well-managed wetland system where people used them for transport and to grow food, Hettiarachchi says.

Their downturn began in the British colonial period from the late 18th Century. When industries grew, people acquired wetlands to drain for building housing and businesses. A flood retention scheme introduced during British rule in 1924 led to the creation of man made drainage canals, preventing people from travelling through the wetlands. Although they are regularly cleaned, many of these canals are now polluted and choked with invasive plants.

: The restoration has boosted wildlife populations in Colombo’s wetlands

: Thalangama Wetland in Colombo used to be filled with rubbish but is now teeming with life

“The canals are no longer enough to prevent Colombo from flooding,” says Gunasiri.

After independence in 1948, subsequent governments declared some wetlands for flood buffering, and filled up others to make space for living, Hettiarachchi says. “And people thought wetlands were also a very, very attractive space for garbage dumps, because, you know, no one is living there, right?” This meant that people dumped everything from food waste to solid waste and chemicals while releasing sewage into the wetlands.

From the 1980s, massive rubbish mountains began to appear in natural wetlands, such as Meethotamulla in the Colombo metropolitan area, which spans 100,000 sq m (107,639 sq ft) and stands 60m (197 ft) tall. The wetland was closed after one of the rubbish mountains collapsed and killed 32 people in 2017.

During the civil war (1983-2009), the encroachment of wetlands continued, as they were sold to internally displaced people, Hettiarachchi says. Some marshy wetlands turned into shrub habitats that couldn’t hold enough water to protect the city from flooding, he says. According to one study, Kolonnawa Marsh, which forms the largest part of Colombo’s flood retention belt, has lost 65% of its area since the 1800s. A 2014 study concluded that 44% of the marsh has turned into a shrubland. The soil too has changed, reducing its capacity to absorb and drain water, leading to increased flooding and disasters.

By the 2000s, the city’s wetlands were “a bloody mess”, Hettiarachchi says. During his PhD, he would ask residents living near the degraded wetlands about these ecosystems, and they would respond: “No, we don’t know any wetlands.”

The decline of the wetlands made Colombo more prone to flooding. In 2010, a series of disastrous floods affected nearly 700,000 people and submerged the country’s parliament. This led to a shift in government policy. “I think it took a few significant flooding events for the government to realize, okay, wetlands are a significant flood control mechanism, so we need to do something about it,” says Radheeka Jirasinha, a freshwater and wetland management researcher at IWMI.

15 years ago, Colombo’s wetlands were degraded and filled with rubbish

As part of the ongoing revival, the government introduced the metro Colombo wetland management strategy in 2016, which aims to include wetlands in urban planning, prevent further wetland loss, restore the ecosystems and involve the local community in their conservation. Following that, wetlands were incorporated into urban infrastructure by constructing cycling tracks, jogging paths and recreational areas around them.

“The idea was to bring people to the wetlands,” Gunasiri says. The government initiatives pulled up invasive species like water hyacinth and introduced new soil and wetland plants to attract birds and other animals.

Today, Colombo is home to four wetland parks and several other recreational spaces linked by wetlands. These restored wetlands look very different from those left untended. Photographer Nazly Ahmed says that when he went to Kotte, a Colombo suburb and the administrative hub of the country, in the late 1990s to play cricket with friends, the wetlands were covered entirely by water hyacinth. This invasive weed clogs waterways, grows over native plants, reduces oxygen and creates breeding grounds for mosquitoes, and their growth is linked to poor water quality and high pollution levels.

This Colombo suburb is now home to jogging paths and bird watching spots built around the wetlands and waterways. “No one knew about wetlands then, but people are talking about wetlands now,” says Ahmed.

Gunasiri says these green infrastructure projects have helped people to engage with the city’s wetlands again and that people now flock to the urban wetland parks for an evening jog. “When these natural systems become public areas, people start to have a sense of ownership,” she says.

Jirasinha agrees. People feel that they can use these spaces now, she says. “They’re concerned about what is happening. And suddenly, people look at the water and are like, ‘Hey, it’s polluted…where is that coming from’?”

It’s not only the government that is managing Colombo’s wetlands. Community initiatives like the Talangama Wetland Watch have started to take responsibility too. “If you keep wetlands free from rubbish and maintain them, they increase the property value in urban areas,” says Drechsel, who believes people are willing to pay twice as much for land with wetland views.

Colombo is prone to flooding and the wetlands act as an important buffer

Although there’s an attitude shift and residents are now aware of the value the wetlands add to the city, problems are far from over, Hettiarachchi says. After the civil war ended in 2009, Colombo’s urban population expanded rapidly. Developments sprung up, leading to the draining of wetlands for housing, businesses and infrastructure. Since 2009, Colombo has lost 2.12 sq km (0.8 sq miles) of its wetlands.

According to a 2024 study, wetlands absorb 62.1mm more floodwater than built up areas in Colombo. Despite collective efforts to clean and restore some of the city’s wetlands, the overall loss of wetland area means that Colombo is becoming more vulnerable to floods, the 2024 study notes.

The Ramsar accreditation pushed the state government to temporarily suspend filling and destroying any wetlands. “So there’s definitely proactive action to safeguard the city’s wetlands, but we need a coordinated effort from government, non-profits and communities to stop their degradation,” says Chaturangi Wickramaratne, a freshwater ecologist at IWMI.

Gunasiri explains that wetland education is vital for citizens to understand their importance in urban resilience. “More and more wetlands need to be a part of the city’s functions, linked to people’s well-being, so people begin to care about them more,” she says.

Wetlands can also help with the city’s food shortages, says Hettiarachchi. “You don’t need irrigation systems to grow food, you can use these ecosystems – they are also fabulous breeding grounds for fish,” he says.

Behind the new use of Colombo’s wetlands for people’s well-being, Gunasiri notes an underlying urgency to protect these ecosystems. “If we lose our wetlands, Colombo will be unliveable.

“BBC”

All News Advertisement

Life style

Taste of the Swiss Alps comes to Colombo

Published

1 day ago

2026/07/19

Thilina Walpola

Chef Heinz: Master of Alpine cooking

High in the Swiss Alps, where mountain landscapes shape both life and cuisine, Chef Heinz Rufibach spent more than four decades mastering the art of Alpine cooking. From the grand hotels of St. Moritz and Gstaad to the peaks of Zermatt, his career has been defined by a deep respect for tradition, local flavours and the quiet precision of Swiss craftsmanship.

Now, the chef. affectionately known as Le Cuisinier de Zermatt. brings that remarkable culinary heritage to Colombo for an exclusive Swiss dining experience at Bistro des Marées, Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams Sri Lanka.

From 23 to 26 July, guests will have the opportunity to experience a specially curated menu by Chef Rufibach, celebrating the authentic flavours of Switzerland’s Alpine regions and the dishes that have shaped his lifelong connection with the mountains.

A former Executive Chef of the Grand Hotel Zermatterhof, Chef Rufibach has built a reputation as one of Switzerland’s celebrated culinary figures. Named Swiss Chef of the Year and a holder of a Michelin star for six consecutive years, his cooking reflects the balance between fine dining precision and the warmth of the traditional Alpine table.

For Chef Rufibach, Swiss cuisine is more than a collection of recipes. It is a reflection of place, people and generations of culinary heritage.

“Swiss cuisine is built on tradition, seasonality and a deep connection to the land. Through this menu, I hope to share the flavours and stories of the Alps with guests in Colombo and offer them a true taste of Switzerland,” he said.

The menu at Bistro des Marées takes guests on a journey through Switzerland’s diverse culinary regions, beginning with elegant starters, such as dried meat tartare with green asparagus and Parmesan, marinated salmon with mustard sauce and herbs, and the traditional Gommer Cholera, a Valais speciality of apple, leek and cheese baked in puff pastry.

The experience continues with comforting Swiss classics, including Valais white wine soup with dried apricots and Bündner barley soup, before moving into signature dishes, such as Swiss cheese fondue with bread cubes and potatoes, raclette with traditional accompaniments, and Zürcher Geschnetzeltes with rösti. Other highlights include Basel-style salmon with papet vaudois and fried onions, saffron-infused lamb ragout with mashed potato, and Ghackets mit Hörnli, a beloved Swiss comfort dish of braised beef mince, pasta and apple sauce.

Life style

Goodbye dearest Maria!

Published

1 day ago

2026/07/19

Thilina Walpola

Mariazelle Goonetilleke PHOTOCREDIT: Dayan Witharana

My dearest Maria. I never thought I would have to write this, this soon but then I realised, I owe it to you.

Remember the very first day I met you ? It was way back in 1981. I was 19, working at Lake House and writing to the Sunday Observer’s “Sat Mag” magazine. You were 23.

I made a prior appointment with you on the old rotary dial phone and arrived at Ekanayake Mawatha, Nugegoda, sharp on time. I waited and waited. There were (either) dogs or cats playing around me, with their fur flying all around me. That irritated me. I waited and waited. I wanted to, but could not walk out because the Editor was waiting for the article.

You sailed in one wretched hour late. I was furious. You never apologised either. That’s how we began our friendship. Rather a rocky start wasn’t it ?

What struck me most was NOT the fact that you were the highly celebrated Kandy Lamissi at that time, but rather the sparkle in your eyes and the warmth of your smile. It came from the depths of your heart and radiated outwards to everyone you came into contact with – both those who liked you and those who did not like you.

You radiated that sparkle and smile during the best of times and even the most difficult of times. You had your fair share of both in your 68 years. That smile was your trademark. It stayed on until the end.

We were neighbours, too, in Nugegoda. You were on that side of the junction and I was on this side of the junction. Remember in the mid-1990s when fitness fever hit us and we ambitiously started those 6.00 am early morning walks. They were alas short lived when children in passing school vans began shouting “Aunty Aunty” or “Kandy Lamissiiiiii”. That put an end to our walks and we reverted back to being unfit.

You also had a very, very wicked sense of humour which I loved to bits. Remember that evening when, with dead pan faces, you and I walked into the Metro Cinema Nugegoda and bought two balcony tickets for the 6.30 pm show. The man at the ticket counter couldn’t not believe his eyes. And how we, again with dead pan faces, slowly crept upstairs and sat in the (last row) middle seats much to the shock of all those lovers around us.

You were the Star. I was much lesser known to them than you. They were shocked and looked at you in great disbelief. I remember at one intense moment of the film, we asked the couple next to us, “Meh, excuse me. Aney welaawa keeyada?”. They only didn’t slap us.

And then, during the movie we crunched on and made a helluva din with the prawn crackers, much to the irritation of those around us.

We hadn’t come to watch the film. We just wanted to shock and annoy those lovers. Mission accomplished, we sailed out in the Interval, our sides splitting with laughter. We could not remember the movie either.

Remember those incessantly chats we used to have on a variety of topics? You could hold forth on practically any topic. Those chats sometimes went on till well past midnight and we hadn’t finished talking either.

Teshan your son was the apple of your eye, to use a cliché. How proud you were of him and how very much you used to talk about him. You took pride in his academic success and the fine young man he has turned out to be.

In our 46-year friendship, you and I have had our misgivings, too. Remember Mariazelle how we didn’t speak to each other for about three years?

And then in December 2015 you were a guest artiste and I the emcee at the Break-Away New Year’s Eve Ball organised by (your cousin) Sohan Weerasinghe and Corrine Almeida. We were still not talking to each other, but then, just after the countdown to midnight, you came up to me, hugged me and wished me with tears in your eyes. My respect for you hit the ceiling that night. Our friendship became rock solid from that day onwards.

We last met over dinner at Harpos Commons in Kotte, just before illness dragged you down. You had medical problems but you never complained. Remember the stories we traded and how much we laughed and laughed, at times much to the displeasure of the other diners. Harpo might have got the complaints but he never told me either.

And now you’re gone. Gone just like that. Before I close, I’d like to quote a few lines from your dear friend Aruna Siriwardhana’s tribute :

“I take a moment to mention two special beings in Mariazelle’s life. One is surgeon Prof. Srinath Chandrasekera (a musician himself) who for the past six months or so, together with his team at the Kalubowila Hospital, took indescribably attentive care of her. The other is singer Dinu, who virtually placed her life and work on hold, to care for Mariazelle”.

It was heart-breaking to see you lie in that coffin at Barney Raymonds last Monday (13 July). You were dressed in ivory and gold. You looked peaceful. You were free from suffering and free from pain.

“Kandy Lamissi” will ALWAYS be sung at parties and weddings and home comings and dinner dances and batch get-togethers. “Kandy Lamissi” and You have an unlimited life span. You will both go on forever!

And I will always remember that sparkle in your eyes and the warmth of your smile. That to me was You.

Goodbye my dearest Maria. May your journey in Samsara be speedy.

by Kumar de Silva ✍️

Life style

20-year-old filmmaker Joshua Alailima breaks into Hollywood

Published

1 day ago

2026/07/19

Thilina Walpola

Cast of Missing Threads

Production has officially begun on Missing Threads, marking it the first time a Sri Lankan production has been aimed first and foremost at an American audience. On Tuesday the 7th of July, a dinner was held bringing together the cast, crew, funders, and friends and family to mark the occasion.

The evening opened with guests arriving to chatter and press photography. Talavou Alailima opened proceedings, and a selection of Director Joshua Alailima’s previous films were screened, between speeches from key figures behind the production. The night closed with a large buffet and the signing of contracts.

Missing Threads

is an investigative crime thriller compared to films such as Zodiac and Se7en. The film follows journalist Maya Perera as she unravels a string of lies, all tying back to the mega corporation Verdeon, leading to a far more sinister truth about the internal affairs of the country at large.

This marks a significant milestone for Sri Lanka. It is the first time a Sri Lankan film has targeted primarily the USA Hollywood audience. This will further foreign relations, opening the door to industry expansion and significant economic potential.

Missing Threads

brings together a standout cast of actors, including Kaushalya Fernando (The Forsaken Land), Buddika Jayaratne (Sunny’s Mansion), Dharmapriya Dias (Machan), and Shyam Fernando (Paradise). It is led by international Sri Lankan actress Rebecca Munasinghe and leading social media influencer “Neesh.” Missing Threads is produced by Talavou Alailima, founder of Power World Gyms and Edge Nutrition.

Director Joshua Alailima is currently studying at one of the top film universities in America, Biola University, whose alumni network includes Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson and world famous influencer Zach King.

Joshua has been directing since he was a young teenager. He is now 20 and directing his feature debut, a rare feat by Hollywood industry standards.

Missing Threads

brings in an international crew, with people from the USA, Sri Lanka, and Australia flying in to work on the project. Post production will take place in Sri Lanka, India, and the USA. The film is shot on the Arri Alexa LF, the same camera used for the movie Dune. It is the only one currently in Sri Lanka.