Negombo Lagoon, where waves meet waste, is caught in a silent crisis

Standing at the edge of the Negombo Lagoon, I was hit with a mix of beauty and heartbreak. This lagoon should’ve been paradise—a beautiful spot with fishermen’s boats dotting the horizon, where the ocean and sky meet. But up close, it was something else entirely. Garbage lined the shores, tangled fishing nets snagged plastic bags, and empty bottles floated by like ghosts. 

Globally, about 80% of wastewater isn’t treated, just sent straight into oceans, rivers, and lagoons—basically turning our waters into liquid dumpsters. Here in Sri Lanka, 1.5 million tons of plastic waste piles up each year. Where does it all go? Well, places like the Negombo Lagoon catch a good chunk of it. And it’s a painful cycle: hotels pollute, fish disappear, fishermen suffer, tourists complain, and the economy takes a hit. 

It’s easy to dismiss pollution as someone else’s problem, but standing by that lagoon, it felt personal. Every piece of trash, every slick of oil on the water, was like a jab to the soul. The lagoon is a lifeline for the people here, and it deserves better than being treated as collateral damage. 




This isn’t a problem we can just gloss over or hide behind closed hotel doors. Because as long as we stand by and let this happen, we’re all complicit in the slow, painful death of places like Negombo. 



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