Solid waste management is an obligatory function of all the Local Authorities in Sri Lanka and there are three categories included into the LA system namely; Municipal Councils, Urban Councils, and Pradesiya Sabhas. The service on solid waste management is poorly performed by many Local Authorities resulting in many problems in areas of health, sanitation and environmental degradation. Country’s urban population has been steadily increasing over the past few years to its present level and the rate of urbanization at 2-2.5% far exceeds the annual population growth rate of 1.5%. Further, the urban population is expected to increase from the present 30% to 45% of the population by 2015.  With the rapid pace of urbanization, the situation is becoming uncontrollable with time. Institutional weaknesses, lack of social responsibility and environmental accountability, inadequate financial resources, lack of technical competency, improper choice of technology and public apathy towards solid waste management has attributed to this service far from satisfactory.

But there are some LAs who have done a great effort towards MSW management and some success stories in Local Authority level. At this juncture it is important to share such experience with other communities, institutions, professionals, academicians and LA’s so forth. The Central Environmental Authority and the University of Sri Jayewardenepura jointly organized   Solid Waste Management secession in the 14^th International Symposium of Forestry and Environment held in December 2009 in Sri Lanka at which three Local Authorities namely Balangoda UC, Puttalam UC and Kaduwella Pradesiya Sabha presented their experience on Waste Management at the Symposium. For Abstracts visit website www.environmentlanka.com/sympo