Plans afoot to rehabilitate northern tanks

WALTER LIYANARACHCHI

The Irrigation Department is in the process of drafting a masterplan to rehabilitate two partly abandoned major irrigation tanks in the Northern Province spending Rs. 635 million on the instructions of Ports, Aviation and Irrigation Minister Chamal Rajapaksa.

The Government is moving ahead expeditiously to resettle the displaced families in their original places of living. Since the majority of the community displaced in the North are farmers producing paddy and agriculture-based products, the Government has planned to rehabilitate the identified irrigation tanks to cater to water needs of those farmers in the North, the sources said.

The first phase of the proposed plan is to rehabilitate the Giant’s Tank (Yoda Wewa) and Akatthinuruppu tank in the Mannar District. The Giant Tank located in Manthai (West) DS Division is to be rehabilitated utilising Rs. 385 million World Bank funds.

Irrigation Department Assets Management Director N. Indrasenan, who is in charge of the Northern Province irrigation project, told the Daily News that it has been estimated when the tank is rehabilitated 25,000 acres of land could be cultivated benefitting 7,000 farmer families. Sufficient water should be ready on demand no sooner those families return to their homes, he said.

The second project is Akatthinuruppu tank in Musali DS Division which is to be rehabilitated with Rs. 250 million funded by the Japanese Agency JICA under the Pro-poor Economic Advancement and Community Enhancement (PEACE) scheme.