After residents and fisher folk of Puttalam district, some 140 km north of Colombo, reported sighting medical waste along their coast, Sri Lankan authorities who inspected the spot have said the items originated from India.
Officials of the Colombo-based Marine Environment Protection Authority said teams that investigated the waste floating near the shore found from the labels in the bottles and instruments that they were from Kerala. “About 10 kg of clinical waste has been removed today. Additionally, there were a lot old drugs, plastic bags and so on…about 50 kgs of waste,” General Manager at the Authority Terney Pradeep Kumara told The Hindu on Tuesday.
Officials said a letter with details of the waste sighted would be formally handed over to the Indian High Commission here.
“Due of the floods in Kerala and perhaps strong winds we suspect that the tides carried the waste towards our coast,” Dr. Pradeep Kumara said.
Puttalam district, located in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province, is home to over 7,50,000 people, where fishing is a key sector.
