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Address by Minister of Power and Energy Karu Jayasuriya at the workshop on Sustainable Energy and Transport Policy Options for Sri Lanka recently.

There is a severe crisis in the power sector. The transport system needs a complete overhaul.

When the new administration took over in December 2001, there was no money to pay the salaries of CEB employees. The Treasury nor the banks were able to assist us. Therefore we had to look for ways and means of keeping the organization going. We took over an administration which was completely distrupted and financially running at a deficit.

We had to start from the bottom. My political culture would not permit me to blame the past. Therefore from the day of assuming duties I have refrained from blaming persons for what happened in the past, and looking for who is responsible, who is accountable, etc.

I am very fortunate that I have Prof. Munasinghe who is also associated with me as Chief Advisor. One of the first things that we did in the Ministry was to bring outside expertise. We brought in a new Secretary with a proven track record, Prof. K. K. Y. W. Perera, he was in the Ministry before as Secretary and also as the Chairman of the CEB.

We completely revamped the CEB. We brought in professionals and we didn't look at their political affiliations, their race or religion, we thought we should get the best available in the market. I am very happy to say that the CEB is looked upon as one of the best Boards in the country.

However, we had to face a few obstacles as disruptive elements within the system were raising their head. CEB needed complete revamping, a new vision and a new culture. We are very fortunate that international lending institutions like the World Bank, ADB and IMF looked positively at the new administration of which Prof. Munasinghe is a member. These international institutions were confident of the capability, the capacity and the commitment of the new team.

We want to ensure that there is transparency in all our transactions because at the end of the day we are accountable to the people and it is the people's money that we are spending. All of us in the new administration want to maintain high standards and a good reputation. We have come with clean hands and we want to leave with clean hands.

Therefore every transaction will be transparent. We are conscious that we are accountable to the people and we will strictly follow this principle. It creates pain of mind for us to impose an additional power cut. This decision was taken as there was no alternative.

If some of the machinery that was purchased earlier had been functioning fully from last year we would not have faced this power cut. The GT 87 plant is not operational from August 01 and had given constant problems to the CEB. With the greatest difficulty we have been able to solve a long outstanding issue. We contacted the Sri Lanka Embassy in the country concerned and enlisted the support of the government and we succeeded in resolving the issue. We are confident that this plant will be operational for generation by June 2002.

We have an energy plan covering a period of 10 years which will be revised depending on the need. We do not intend to over depend on hydro or thermal power. In planning for energy, I am mindful of the sustainable development triangle which Prof. Munasinghe talks about, the environment, the society and the economy.

The theme of the new government is that the government will govern and the generation of the wealth will be left in the hands of the private sector. We have tremendous hope and faith in the private sector of this country.

We also want to ensure that there is just and fair government. When we were in the opposition during last 7 years we have been crying for democracy and now we are in the government and we have to ensure that those demands that we made are fulfilled. We owe it to the society. Democracy in the last several years after the independence has gone through various stages of battering.

It is for this reason we have been advocating the establishment of independent commissions. It took a long time. For the last 3 years we have been pursuing this. But it was only towards the end of last year that we succeeded in getting the support of the entire opposition and got a response for our cry for democracy. That is how the setting up of the independent commissions were approved in Parliament just before its dissolution last year.

We faced a little set back in setting up the Constitutional Council. What we initially suggested was a constitutional council comprising of the Prime Minister, Speaker, Leader of the Opposition and 5 eminent citizens. The latter group was to represent various communities. Then we had to accommodate one nominee to represent the Muslim community, one representative to represent the Ceylon Tamil Community, another represent the Indian Tamil Community and another representative to safeguard the interests of small parties.

It was our intention to get the best 5 available citizens irrespective of whatever race, religion or caste they belong to. Now we are waiting for the nominee of the President and once this is received we will be able to set up the Independent Public Service Commission, Police Service Commission, Independent Judicial Service Commission and Independent Election Commission.

We have given enough power to the election commissioner to conduct a free and fair election. We have seen in the past how lives were sacrificed, limbs were broken in the name of democracy. We don't want to see this happening again. We are crying for a just society. As Prof. Munasinghe mentioned we owe it to the people.

We are mindful of the fact that more than half of the population is below the poverty line. The gap between the rich and the poor should not exceed reasonable limits. We have seen two insurrections in the country- 1971 and 1989 by the educated youth who were looking for a life free of want and these aspirations must be met. Otherwise these may come up again.

We are going through a major peace effort. The Prime Minister has taken the bold step, devoting his entire time, to see an end to the ethnic crisis in the country.

I was born to the pre-independent Sri Lanka and at that time we never had a problem of this nature. Whether you are a Sinhalese, Tamil, Muslim or a Burger we went to the same school, we studied together, we fought together and at the end of the day we are all Sri Lankans.

But today schools are divided, there are Sinhala schools, Tamil schools, Muslim schools and from birth you are divided. The time must come that this distrust is cleared and once it happens this country can have a new lease of life.

After 53 years of independence we should be very sad that we are still sone of the poorest countries in the world and we are far behind other countries in Asia. This country needs a new vision. The new government and the Prime Minister have taken a bold initiative and we are already reaping its benefits.

With the dawn of peace the whole economy will improve. The people will enjoy a sense of security and start travelling. The hopes and aspirations of people will change. There is already a surge of economic activity and resultantly we have seen a huge jump in the consumption of electricity, over 100MW.

In the power sector we hope to implement an ambitious program. We have a dream to provide electricity to 45% of the population which does not enjoy this facility at present. It requires investment, planning and determination to achieve this target. We want to ensure that there are no more power cuts in the country after the end of June.

That's one of the pledges that we have given. I have given that personal assurance and if it fails, I will make way for a new Minister of Power to come in and solve the problem. I stand by what I said.

Although it is an ambitious program I am confident that we will be able to fulfil our pledge with the dedicated team working with us. Although there are few minuses CEB has a good team. There are lot of talents within the CEB which we hope to harness it in the period ahead. CEB needs guidance and leadership.

We have been able to purchase power so far at very reasonable price levels which are affordable by the CEB and will not become a burden to the people of this country. We are proud of that. This is through transparency. We are requesting the private sector to join hands.

We have plans for a Thermal power plant at Kerawalapitiya 300MW. We are looking at a Coal plant and the private sector has been invited to participate. The government has decided that it should be left in the hands of the private sector. We have several mini hydros that are available for generation by the private sector. The large hydro projects will be undertaken by the government.

We are very happy to report that the government of Japan has already made a pledge for the upper Kotmale project of 33 billion yen, it will be signed officially this month and hopefully we should be able to start without further delay.

Kukule Ganga project which has a capacity of 80MW will come into operation in 2003. There have been several delays but after the new administration came in we were able to cut back some of the delays through timely intervention.

For long-term sustainability we do not want to depend on a few sources of generation such as hydro, thermal or coal. we are planning to develop other sources of energy. We have already made a policy announcement with regard to wind power. When we talk about alternative sources of energy, such as wind power, solar power, dendro power some people tend to be sceptical.

We are aware that these cannot help us in the immediate crisis. In long-term energy planning a country has to look at the security considerations and global trends in the sector. It is always prudent to have alternative sources of energy to fall back on, if the regular sources fail to generate the required power for want of raw material.

I am planning to sign up for a minimum of 20-30 MW of wind power this year.

Renowned international companies, very respected large local companies, have joined hands in this exercise. We are looking at a target of 200MW to be developed short term. A trial project has been implemented for generation of solar power and we are looking for World Bank assistance to provide electricity to areas that are not accessible by CEB. There is an ambitious program to supply solar panels to about 200,000 houses.

We have the dendro power project and we are fortunate that Dr Ray Wijewardene is associated with us in this program. The Wold Bank, has suggested that we try out a 500 hectare trial project and they are prepared to assist us. The European Union has shown interest in this.

In the dendro project we are planning to extend to approximately 500,000 hectares of land. There are large number of abandoned chenas in the northcentral province and with a contractual arrangement to purchase the power generated from the dendro project, large number of rural people will find employment and it is estimated that they could earn about Rs. 10,000 per month. Of course these are very ambitious long term plans.

I am quite confident that the CEB would go through these difficult times. The month of March will be the most difficult period for the CEB. With the power cut today as minister in charge, I will be one of the most unpopular for the time being. We have no alternative.

I hadn't the heart to do this. Both Prime Minister and I were very keen to avoid a power cut. If we hadn't done it, it would have been at the expense of the supply to the residents of Colombo, Kandy and the poor farmers in many areas. If we didn't release water to the farmers at the most critical time, they would have lost their crop completely.

We have to take whatever decisions with a sense of utmost responsibility. When we were in the opposition we always said that if we are going to depend on the rain to give power, there is no necessity to have a Ministry of Power. We strictly believe in that theory even now. But under the new management there will be better water management, there will be prudent planning and we will also ensure that there will be adequate conservation measures.

There are lot of waste, losses. There are 375,000 householders using electricity without meters, It is a very unfortunate situation. These are not only residential premises. They run garages, Chinese restaurants, laundries. They use even heaters for bathing and pay only Rs. 100 or Rs. 150 per month. When I was the Mayor of Colombo I found the Borella market was without metres. The rent that we received was only 1/2 of the electricity bill.

And the place is still without metres. This system must change. There is a lot of bureaucracy and we have been desperately trying to buy metres. If I remember right there is a lot of red tape involved. So we want to cut this red tape. It takes a little time but we have a very cautious approach we don't want to make too many changes too soon, too fast. Of course politically look at Shah of Persia.

He was trying to bring in too many changes too soon then see what happened. We have given new meaning to the CEB and we are settling down well with my able team. We have identified where the disease is and the surgery will take place at the appropriate time. We will bring the dying patient back to life. I am confident of that.

I also must speak a few words on transport. I am not an expert on transport but in the city of Colombo and in the whole country the entire transport system needs revamp. I am very happy that we have two experts today on both these fields.

But here again it is not the government of Sri Lanka that would come into the transport sector eventually but the private sector. We were looking at the possibility of a special transport service in the city of Colombo. Studies were done by the Colombo Municipality and I do hope under the new administration that this aspect will be further pursued.

Ladies and gentlemen I am very happy that very eminent people would address you and also there is a very eminent participation. I do hope that your deliberations would not only help you but also help our country in our forward journey.

The journey is not an easy journey, the road is not easy but we are prepared to take the challenges. Prime Minister and the new government are determined to offer the people a just Government, a better life and also 'power' without power cuts.

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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