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| Friday, 12 March 2004 |
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Resplendent frontiers opened by PA in urban development by a correspondent
It has been projected that by 2010, almost half of Sri Lanka's total population of 20 million would be living in urban areas. About 55 percent of the population in Colombo live in areas with meagre support services, despite their important role in the urban economy. Realising the needs created by urbanisation, the PA Government launched a project to identify unproductive and vacant lands in the city of Colombo for expansion of urban services. With the long-term objective of developing the city of Colombo, as a commercial centre, the Government planned to shift most administrative institutions out of Colombo. Several urban development projects were also identified under the Colombo City Development Plan. Under this Plan were the development of the Beira Lake and Galle Face Green Redevelopment Program. The Galle Face Green Redevelopment Project was completed in 2001 at a cost of Rs. 76 million and opened to the public in October 2001. Expansion of the water supply coverage in the island is another area which had been given prominence in the PA Government's development agenda. Accordingly, there were 269 water supply schemes with 667,805 water connections under the purview of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) by end 2001. The total volume of water supplied by NWSDB increased by 3 percent to 343 million cubic meters in 2001 over the previous year. The number of new connections provided by the Board grew by 14 percent to 86,640 in 2001. The NWSDB implemented 46 upgrading and rehabilitation projects during 2001. The same year, the Board invested a sum of Rs. 3,896 million in the water supply sector, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year. Of the total investment, 74 percent was on new projects while the balance was on the rehabilitation of existing projects. Foreign funding agencies such as ADB, JBIC, IDA and KFW provided 56 percent of the total investment on concessionary terms. The Small Towns Water Supply Project is one of the major projects undertaken by the Water Board during this time. Financially assisted by the ADB the project was aimed at providing water supply and sanitation facilities to 47 small towns in Kalutara, Kegalle, Anuradhapura, Moneragala, Puttalam and Hambantota districts. The Towns South of Colombo Water Supply Project was in progress when the Government changed hands. A population of 260,000 was expected to benefit through this project. In addition, the Towns North of Colombo Water Supply Project funded by JBIC, the Nuwara Eliya Water Supply Augmentation Project funded by the Japanese Government, the Ampara District Eastern Coastal Area Water Supply Project funded by the Australian Government, the Greater Kandy Water Supply and Environmental Improvement Project funded by JBIC and the Kalu Ganga Water Supply Project funded by JBIC, continued during 2001. The PA Government took several other measures to meet the demands of the future water supply. According to various surveys, the proportion of households with access to safe drinking water is about 67 percent and only about 35 percent have access to pipe borne water. Noting this serious issue, the Government through the NWSDB drew out plans to expand water supply coverage to about 80 percent by 2005 and to achieve universal coverage by 2010. (Source: Central Bank of Sri Lanka) |
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Produced by Lake House |
The urban development sector received a boost when the PA Government
took initiatives to launch several massive development projects and laid a
solid foundation to face the future challenges of rapid urbanisation,
during its tenure from 1994 to 2001.
