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| Wednesday, 30 June 2004 |
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The first phase of the Greater Kandy Water Supply Project will cost Rs.5000 million and the money for the project has been released by the Japanese Government by way of a loan on the request of the Sri Lanka Government, Finance Ministry sources said. The water supply scheme will ease the people who presently suffer severe shortage of drinking water. The people living in seven Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Patha Dumbara, Gangawata Korale, Akurana, Pujapitiya, Harispattuwa, Udunuwara and Yatinuwara will benefit from the project, sources added. Finance Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama who is keen to see the completion of the project toured the area recently and inspected the water purifying plant now being constructed at Kondadeniya, Kandy. Urban Development and Water Supply Minister Dinesh Gunawardna and officials of the two Ministries were present. The water tank is constructed at Thekkawatta Road, Halloluwa in Katugastota. The water pumped into the tank from the Mahaweli Ganga will be purified at the purifying plant at Kondadeniya. Dr. Amunugama said that the scheme will provide pure drinking water to 200,000 persons at the completion of the first phase and when the entire project is completed it will provide drinking water to over 700,000 people in the city and outskirts of the city of Kandy. "We will have `small water supply schemes' for the benefit of the people living in the mountain areas who do not benefit from the proposed scheme", Urban Development and Water Supply Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said. Ministry sources said that a feasible study was carried out by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 1998 and the report handed over to the Sri Lanka Government in February 1999 had proposed to implement the Greater Kandy Water Supply Project in three stages. Responding to a request by the Government of Sri Lanka Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) agreed to provide the necessary money. The Bank issued Rs.4,820 Million and the contract of the project was awarded to Taisei Hitachi Plant Consortium in November, 2003. Phase one of the project is expected to be completed by May, 2006. The city dwellers and those living in the outskirts of the city had experienced severe shortage of water in the past decade and the Kandy Municipal Council had to bear the responsibility of providing them with drinking water and the National Water Supply and Drainage Board had to provide drinking water to the people living in the outskirts of the city, despite there being 21 small water supply schemes and many shallow wells spread around the suburbs. Both the KMC and the NWS&DB would be relieved of their burden once the water supply scheme now in progress is completed. Those who have registered to obtain pipe borne water and are in the waiting list for many years will have their water supply connections at the completion of this project. |
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