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PM to mark World Population Day today

03 Oct 2022

By Dinitha Rathnayake   The national celebration of World Population Day is scheduled for today (3) at 9.30 a.m. at Temple Trees under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. This will also be the first national commemoration event to be held at the Temple Trees after the “aragalaya”. Minister of Urban Development and Housing Prasanna Ranatunga, State Ministers Arundika Fernando and Thenuka Vidanagamage, and United Nations Human Settlements Programme Head Laxman Perera will participate in this event. Ranatunga had noted that more than half of the world's population lives in urban environments and by 2030, 60% of the world's population is predicted to be urban. This situation is also common to Sri Lanka. Due to this situation, the people of the world, as well as Sri Lankans, will have to face many problems in the future such as informal settlements, insufficient infrastructure, housing shortage, land ownership issues, traffic congestion, waste pollution, environmental pollution, health and sanitation, employment, and limited land. Recognising this problem, a programme was initiated to confirm the right of the underprivileged people of Colombo to live in standardised apartments. Through this programme, which has been underway since 2010, a number of 7,619 families have been given the opportunity to live in settlements.  By the end of 2022, plans have been made to create a living environment for another 20,192 families in a settlement. According to the Minister, this programme is also being implemented simultaneously for communities living in less-facilitated settlements within other urban areas as well.


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