Community participation key to development - Minister

Suraj A. Bandara

Water Supply and Drainage Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said the new approach to address the issues of the poorest is through community participation. “We must encourage adults, youth and women to play an active role in community driven development programs to address poverty. This is the new approach,” he said.

The Minister was speaking on the occasion of the handing over of two alternative energy ‘wind and solar power’ water projects to the communities in Minniya and Alankuda built by World Vision at a cost of Rs 26.5 million.

The two projects will provide pure drinking water for over 350 families in the area. The community contribution to the project was Rs1.5 million.

Minister commended the approach followed by World Vision in the implementation of the water project and said the Government sees the community participation in the projects as an important practice.

“This is different to traditional approaches we have followed,” the Minister said.

He said the use of alternative energies like wind and solar power as a source of power for the water purification plant is in line with President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s policy to explore alternative sources of power for the future. World Vision Lanka’s National Director Suresh Bartlett said “Our focus is children, the future generation of the country.

We want to work closely with the Government to ensure the communities are benefited through World Vision programs, he said.

National Water Supply Board Chairman Karunasena Hettiarachchi said the biggest challenge in providing drinking water for families in Kalpitiya is to find an uncontaminated water source. “Water sources in this area are either contaminated with agro chemicals or unusable due to sea water,” he said.