|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Thursday, 1 July 2004 |
 |
|
 |
News | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
Government to rehabilitate 10,000 tanks by Nadira Gunatilleke The Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation Ministry has made arrangements to rehabilitate 10,000 small and medium scale tanks at a cost of Rs.700 million to bring back ancient glory to the rural villages and cultivate paddy in 30,000 acres in both Yala and Maha seasons, said Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation Minister Anura Dissanayake. Addressing the media at his Ministry yesterday, Minister Dissanayake said that the main intention of this project was not only to rehabilitate tanks but also to establish ancient healthy environment in the villages where the tanks preserve water for agricultural activities and other needs of the village and at the same time maintain the moisture of the lands. In the first phase of this project 1000 tanks (664 tanks and 356 anikets) will be rehabilitated within the next six months. The rehabilitation work will be completed by the end of this year. Rs.300,000 will be spent to rehabilitate one tank. Arrangements have been made to rehabilitate 2000 tanks in 2005 and another 3000 tanks in 2006. The ministry will rehabilitate 4000 tanks in 2007 in the final phase of the same project. After independence this is the first time that a large number of tanks are to be rehabilitated at once, he added. Explaining the mechanism behind the project the minister said that a certain percentage of funds allocated to rehabilitate one tank will be set aside to maintain the tanks after rehabilitation and the maintenance will be carried out by farmers' associations. Agrarian Services Department and the Irrigation Department will be the formal contributors to this project. Business community, Technologists and the general public have already expressed their willingness to contribute to this project. A bank account has been opened at the People's Bank (Battaramulla branch) under account number 161-0000-668 to collect funds from the public for this project. The public can also contribute towards this project by providing their heavy machinery for this project. Funds will be obtained from the Government, Presidents fund and from the Ministry itself by cancelling or cutting down funds allocated for ongoing projects which bear no results. "This is one of the promises given in the United Peoples' Freedom Alliance mainfesto. After 1978 the small and medium scale irrigation systems of the country were totally neglected. The government paid its attention only to large scale irrigation projects which was not practical", the minister added. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
