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January 2018 | Report

 

Written By Mina Zhan

 

By 2025, Beira Lake will be transformed from a polluted waterbody today into a scenic asset of Colombo City. This is the vision that the Sri Lankan Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development Colombo unveiled in November 2017 as part of a plan to develop the city’s Central Business District.

 

This all began when several senior Sri Lankan government officials participated in the Temasek Foundation International Leaders in Urban Governance Programme (TFILUGP) between 2012 and 2014. Impressed by Singapore’s successful urban transformation, the officials from the country’s then Ministry of Defence and Urban Development were keen for more of its officers to benefit from this 5-day programme curated by the CLC and funded by the Temasek Foundation International (TFI).

 

The result is the Sri Lanka Urban Planning and Governance Programme, a tailor-made capability development engagement co-funded by TFI and the Government of Sri Lanka. As the knowledge partner and overall content curator, the CLC jointly delivered the programme with the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise (SCE). As part of this two-year partnership that concluded in November 2017, a series of deep-dive workshops were conducted for over 200 officials from Sri Lanka’s various ministries, agencies and municipal councils to enhance their capacities, particularly in the areas of Master Plan Review & Government Land Sales, Water Infrastructure & Greening, and Housing Design and Community Building.

 

Beira Lake Transformation Project
The opportunity to regenerate the prime area around Beira Lake in downtown Colombo came about during the programme as participants were encouraged to explore how key lessons learnt could be applied to address the actual urban challenges that they faced on ground. Similar to Beira Lake, the Singapore River used to be heavily polluted until the 1980s when it was transformed to a clean and beautiful waterway through a whole-of-government effort. The CLC team felt that Singapore’s experiences in successfully regenerating its river — once lined with squatters, street hawkers and small businesses that directly discharged their wastes into the river — could be useful to the Sri Lanka government in planning for an exciting new future for Beira Lake and its vicinity. This became a case study project for the programme after Sri Lankan Prime Minister Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe visited the Singapore River in July 2016 and supported the idea of sending a core team of Sri Lankan officials to Singapore for a workshop

 

The five-day workshop resulted in detailed plans and strategies for three key action areas, namely cleaning, planning and execution, and these were presented as key outcomes to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, Hon. Champika Ranawaka.

 

Between 5 to 9 September 2016, over 30 Sri Lankan officials represented by key stakeholder agencies in the planning, transport, environment and housing sectors attended a leadership workshop guided by urban pioneers and experts from Singapore. They participated in an extensive visioning and planning exercise, which facilitated closer collaboration amongst representing agencies and introduced participants to planning and developing urban systems holistically when tackling complex and interdisciplinary challenges. The five-day workshop resulted in detailed plans and strategies for three key action areas, namely cleaning, planning and execution, and these were presented as key outcomes to Sri Lanka’s Minister of Megapolis and Western Development, Hon. Champika Ranawaka. These plans and strategies were fine-tuned by the Sri Lankan project teams with the guidance of experts from the CLC over the following months as they prepared for the final launch of the development proposals

 

The Beira Lake Intervention Area Development Plan was unveiled on 27 November 2017, in conjunction with the closing workshop of the Sri Lanka Urban Planning and Governance Programme in Colombo.

 

The two-year capacity building programme has provided a platform for close cooperation between Singapore and Sri Lanka in supporting the latter in its sustainable urban development agenda.

 

“The Development Plan that we launch today represents a vital element of the master plan to develop the Central Business District of Colombo,” said Minister Ranawaka during the launch. “Nobody sees Beira Lake anymore as an urban backyard or a sink. Instead, everybody appreciates today the enormous potential that it offers in improving the quality of physical infrastructure, improving the natural environment, enhancing the economic value of the properties in the vicinity, and, in the meantime, opening more space for general public to enjoy vistas, relax and entertain."

 

Much efforts have already made on ground. Almost 400 families living in the under-served area have been resettled. Additional investment is expected to go into the protection of the lake bank and the dredging of east lake. There is also plan to make more land available for development in 2018.

 

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