Two man holes in Isipathana Mawatha in Colombo 5 have exposed spewing out their filth with the intensity of a fountain working at full throttle

The volume of the outflow per day can be expressed in barrels and not in gallons!

All this is at a very busy junction leading to shops and fast food outlets, and no one can wade across this fetid sludge. So the residents are literally marooned unless they have vehicles to get them across. The potential health hazard is not limited to the fly nuisance.

The prospect for the residents is bleak. If the authorities could not prevent the flooding of the intensive care unit of The National Hospital, what chance have we of redress. We may be reduced to our own devices. Frankly, I was thinking in terms of modified "Boru Kakul" for people who needed to walk across this mass of faecal flood. But a neighbour - a more practical man than I, has invested in a pair of Wellington boots, and he makes this trek to the shops and provisions as usual.

So, this is an appeal to the Municipality. Could you please consider our plight, and give us a rebate on the taxes, to enable every resident to invest in Wellington boots.