Huge billboards and posters are found everywhere. You see them along the main roads, at every street corner, “polluting” the city of Colombo and all the big towns and even in villages.
Private tutories often exhibit huge advertisements in public places to attract students. Death notices with photographs of the dead are often displayed on signboards, public walls and lamp-posts.
During election times, the situation is even worse, with political candidates putting up campaign posters in public places, on public transport (buses and trains), and on the walls of government offices.
You also find political parties getting their names and symbols painted in big bold white letters on the tarred surface of public highways.
It is disheartening that most of these political campaigners don’t see that their poster campaigns are spoiling the beauty of our environment. They don’t seem to realise that this kind of blatant pollution of our cities, towns, villages and the countryside could be counter-productive, resulting in their losing votes, not gaining votes.
The teachers at private tutories should know better than to pollute the environment with their garish signboards and posters.
The authorities should crack down on those responsible for poster pollution and formulate laws to limit such crude forms of advertising and self-promotion.
Don Sarath Abeysekera,
Bandarawela |
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