Wari Pubuduwa to renovate 100 tanks

Nimal WIJESINGHE - Anuradhapura Additional district group corr.

"The Wari Pubuduwa is not just a project confined only for the rehabilitation of tanks and anicuts.

It is an amalgamated endeavour to renovate and rehabilitate 100 tanks while developing the agriculture production and stimulating the farmers within the project jurisdictions to take to income generating self-employment ventures simultaneously.

"The 'Wari Pubuduwa' management, having scrutinised the problems being faced by farmers in securing capital to initiate self-employment has decided to extend a low interest loan scheme as a remedial measure," said Engineer Neil Bandara, Wari Pubuduwa Project Director at a conference held at the Central Bank auditorium, Anuradhapura recently.

Officials of the Wari Pubuduwa project and the representatives of farmer organisations were present at the event.

Wari Pubuduwa is a Sri Lanka-Japan joint irrigation development enterprise envisaging to rehabilitate 8 major tanks, 12 medium scale tanks along with 80 small scale tanks located in Anuradhapura and Kurunegala districts. The estimated cost to be incurred for the completion of the project is Rs. 5,039 million.

A sum of Rs. 100 million is being reserved to energise the newly structured loan programme. The micro interest loans up to Rs. 20,000 are granted through the relevant farmer organisations with concession to the members of the farmer organisations to sign as sureties for each other.

Apart from this facility with two sureties acceptable to the banks loan facilities from Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 200,000 will be granted by Rajarata and Wayamba Development Banks.

The recommendation of the farmer organisation is compulsory in the execution of loans, according to Upali Ratnayake who is in charge of the new loan scheme.

Ratnayake said that a large number of farmers and young school leavers in the villages come under the tanks earmarked for rehabilitation, are interested in starting self-employment ventures in the fields of processing of qualitative rice at domestic level, dairy farming, poultry, inland fishery industry, growing ornamental flowers, betel cultivation, brooms industry and cashew cultivation and processing.

Under the first phase nearly 10,000 who are determined to take to self-employment for the empowerment of their livelihood will be benefitted under the loan scheme.

Already the Wari Pubuduwa management has been able to train nearly 2,000 farmers in self-employment techniques to enable them to handle their ventures successfully.

The management envisages to elevate the standard of 25,000 farmer families to a highly satisfactory level at the completion of Wari Pubuduwa project by March 2010.