The Colombo Municipal Council says it will take legal action against unauthorised constructions that cause parts of the capital to flood even in light rain, and has begun removing structures already identified.

Engineer Manoj Ranasinghe, Director of the CMC’s Water Supply and Drainage Division, said unauthorised constructions identified at Sri Wickrama Road in Mattakkuliya and at Bimelwatte Road have been removed, NewsFirst reported on Monday.

Steps have been taken to issue notices at other locations where such constructions have been detected, Ranasinghe said.

First enforcement in the flood response

The announcement is the first enforcement measure to emerge from the response to the 6 November flash floods, which left Pettah, Dematagoda, Orugodawatte, Kollupitiya, Bambalapitiya and Kompanna Veediya under water for hours.

When state agencies launched a joint drainage-clearing operation on Sunday, they listed unauthorised construction and land reclamation among the causes of the flooding, alongside poor drainage maintenance, unplanned urban development and the dumping of waste into canals. That operation identified 60 points where drainage is obstructed across five Colombo electoral divisions, but announced no action against the buildings themselves.

Monday’s statement supplies that missing element. The Colombo Municipal Council said the volume of rain is not the only factor: parts of the city now flood during rainfall that the drainage network was built to carry.

Not reported

NewsFirst does not say how many unauthorised structures have been identified in total, how many notices will be issued, or under what ordinance the CMC will prosecute. It does not say who owns the Mattakkuliya and Bimelwatte Road structures, whether owners were compensated or given notice before removal, or whether any case has been filed. No timeline or budget is given, and the report does not say how the enforcement drive relates to the special task force ordered last week.

Context

Drainage capacity has been the central question since the November floods. The CMC has said 129mm of rain fell in a single hour against a network designed for far less, while the opposition blamed the government for unmaintained drains and ignored warnings. The Met Department has separately named blocked and obstructed drainage as a contributing factor.