Hundred tanks rehabilitation expedited

Nimal Wijesinghe

The Government has initiated action to accelerate the 100 tanks rehabilitation project, Wari Pubuduwa in consideration of the very slow progress of the construction work by farmer organizations.

The Wari Pubuduwa is a joint irrigational development venture handled by the Irrigation Department of Sri Lanka and the Japanese Governmental Organisations such as JIBC.

The project envisages to rehabilitate 100 large and medium scale tanks in Anuradhapura and Kurunegala districts at a cost of Rs. 5,029 million. The program started in 2006 is expected to be completed by March 2010, according to the master plan.

Wari Pubuduwa Project Engineer W.A. Karunadasa said the project’s special feature was the large scale involvement of 189 farmer organisations in the construction, reconstructions restoration and rehabilitation of distribution and field canals network under the 100 tanks earmarked for rehabilitation.

Deviating from the tradition of offering contracts to outsiders, the farmer organizations were entrusted with the work with agreements being signed between the farmer organizations and the Irrigation Department, he said. “During the last two years we have offered 462 construction contracts worth Rs. 561 million to the farmer organizations,” he said.