After conflict:

People reawaken in North-East

Anura MAITIPE

The Re-wakening Project launched under the Ministry of Nation Building with financial assistance of Rs. 1800 million from the World Bank is a community driven development project which has launched livelihood development projects in 300 selected focal villages in the conflict affected districts of Anuradhapura, Ampara, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam, Moneragala, Mannar, Vavuniya, Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Mulaithvu, Project Director P.H. Sugthadasa said.

The main aim of this project is to re-create the lost assets of conflict affected people and keep them away from the dependence syndrome.

These people have been addicted to a dependence type of life style following their long stay at temporary camps by receiving free things from various organizations, he added.

The main objective of this project is to strengthen the community and help them re-gain their pride which had been lost due to the prolonged conflict situation in the Northern and Eastern provinces. Although it was a difficult task the project has very successfully met its target, he said.

The project has provided an equal opportunity and full authority to the community at village level in planning, monitoring and implementation of selected long term livelihood development activities to increase their income. Under this program the project has provided the required funds for medium scale infrastructure development works such as rehabilitation of roads, irrigation tanks, drainage and canals etc.

The Re-awakening Project has also undertaken the rehabilitation of seven Major Irrigation Projects in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Allai in the Trincomalee district, Rugam in the Batticaloa district, Karavahu in the Ampara district, Giants Tank in the Mannar district, Pavatkulam in the Vavuniya district, Valukkaiaru in the Jaffna district, and Iranamadu in the Kilinochchi district are being rehabilitated.

The rehabilitation work at Allai, Karavahu and Valukkaiaru is nearing completion and the rehabilitation of other schemes excluding Iranamadu is also in progress.

These are the main irrigation schemes situated in Northern and Eastern Provinces which provide irrigation facilities for thousands of hectares of paddy land. With the completion of these projects farmers living in the North and East will be benefited.

However construction work of Iranamadu was delayed due to the conflict situation in the area. It will commence soon with the clearance of mines by the Armed Forces.

Apart from this over 70 kilometers of access roads to paddy fields and distribution channels in all these irrigation schemes are under rehabilitation.