The morning sun had barely risen over the Dehiwala coastline when the first volunteers began arriving, plastic bags and gloves in hand, their feet sinking into sand littered with bottle caps, polythene fragments and tangled fishing line. Among them were university students who had never participated in a beach cleanup before, standing shoulder to shoulder with young volunteers from the National Youth Services Council, all drawn together by a shared purpose.

This was Project අර්ණව, a beach cleanup initiative that brought more than 100 volunteers to the Dehiwala coastal area to confront the visible reality of plastic pollution along one of Sri Lanka’s most accessible urban shorelines. Organized by the ZeroPlastic Colombo Community at the University of Colombo, the initiative was carried out in collaboration with the National Youth Services Council, combining the energy of undergraduate students with the structured commitment of a national youth body.

Where the Work Happened

Dehiwala’s coastal stretch, located just south of Colombo, is a place where families gather on weekends and fishermen haul in their catch at dawn. But like many urban beaches in Sri Lanka, it bears the scars of consumer waste carried in by tides and left behind by visitors. For the volunteers who arrived that morning, the scale of the problem became personal the moment they started picking through the debris.

University of Colombo undergraduates formed the core of the volunteer force, many of them members of the ZeroPlastic Colombo Community, which operates as part of the broader ZeroPlastic Movement. Their work was reinforced by volunteers mobilized through the National Youth Services Council, a government body dedicated to empowering young Sri Lankans through civic engagement and skill development.

More Than a Cleanup

What distinguished Project අර්ණ…