ComBank partners BSL’s ‘Life to Our Beaches’ maintains stretch of Kalutara beach

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has ‘adopted’ a stretch of the Kalutara beach to ensure its maintenance in pristine condition free of waste and pollutants via a partnership with Biodiversity Sri Lanka (BSL).

As a corporate partner of BSL’s ‘Life to Our Beaches’ initiative, one of Sri Lanka’s largest private sector bank will fund the clean-up and continuing upkeep by a beach caretaker family, of a 500-metre stretch within the Kalutara Beach Park area, opposite the Kalutara South Railway Station.

The ‘Life to Our Beaches’ programme brings together the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), the Department of Samurdhi Development (DoSD), Biodiversity Sri Lanka and corporate entities in a collective effort to clean up beaches and ensure the responsible disposalof collected waste, thereby contributing to the national objectives of biodiversity andenvironmental conservation.

Commercial Bank’s support will cover monthly payments to the beach caretaker family identified from Samurdhi beneficiaries in the area, the cost of equipment and other consumables and the management and supervision of the maintenance of the beach.

According to BSL, the bulk of marine litter originates from mismanaged land based human activities, but the solid waste found on our shores is often not only of local origin but also washed up from overseas.

The plastic, glass, aluminum, and rubber-based material found on beaches can be turned into valuable resources through upcycling and recycling, if collected and directed appropriately.

Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon neutral bank, Commercial Bank has supported numerous environment-related corporate and social responsibility activities, including a mangrove restoration project in Koggala, a marine turtle conservation initiative in Panama and the reforestation of a 100-hectare swath of degraded habitat belonging to the Kandegama forest in the Dimbulagala range of the Polonnaruwa District.

Biodiversity Sri Lanka is a national platform entirely owned and driven by companies from Sri Lanka’s private sector which have joined, and continue to support the cause of BSL, as its members.

The mission of Biodiversity Sri Lanka, which began as the Sri Lanka Business and Biodiversity Platform (SLBBP) in August 2012, is ‘to mainstream biodiversity into the core business of companies through transformational approaches that involve multiple stakeholder collaborations as well as local, regional and international interactions.”

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