Nokunu A vision to make Colombo a cleaner city

6 August 2018 10:12 am Words : Kamanthi Wickramasinghe What if Colombo was a greener and a cleaner city? A city where everybody could breathe in fresh air? These seem to be dreams that are far from being achieved, especially due to the rapid phase of development. The Beira Lake for instance keeps being polluted due to careless discharge of waste from people living in its banks. The coastal belts and even the drainage systems seem to be polluted almost all the time. Sewage pits keep overflowing in the greater Colombo areas and people in slums are living in rather unhygienic conditions. However, for Sumi Moonesinghe, seeing Colombo as a clean city was something more than a dream. Her visit to Morocco earlier this year, encouraged her to make it an achievable dream. This was the beginning of the ‘Nokunu’ initiative. Sumi : The face behind the initiative. Sumi Moonesinghe passed out as an engineer from the University of Colombo, Engineering Faculty in 1966 and was a lecturer at the University for one year. Her first job outside university was at Radio Ceylon as a studio engineer. She then obtained her Master’s Degree in Electronics from the University of Southampton England and then returned to Sri Lanka. Sumi was then appointed as the Founder/Managing Director of Anchor which was part of the Maharaja group and the business was extremely successful. The Anchor brand was launched in 1984 and by 1996 the group had gained 70% market share with Raththi and Anchor brands. The shareholders decided to sell it to the New Zealand dairy board when she decided to retire. Please click on the link below to read full article., https://www.magzter.com/LK/Wijeya-Newspapers-Ltd./Lanka-Woman/Women’s-Interest/