Over Rs five billion for renovation:

Irrigation system hit hard

Disna MUDALIGE

About Rs five billion is required to renovate the damages caused to the irrigation system in the island due to bad weather and floods, said Irrigation and Water Resources Management Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva.

Minister Nimal Siripala

Addressing a press conference held at the Mahaweli Centre yesterday the Minister said that the Treasury has already agreed to provide this amount for the salvation of the irrigation system. He noted that damages caused to tanks and reservoirs belong to the Irrigation Department and Mahaweli Authority are estimated to be about rupees three billion. About Rs two billion damage has been caused to the small scale irrigation system, he said.

The Minister pointed out that the recent rainfalls had brought over ten times water than the retention capacity of some tanks.

"However proving the strength of our historical irrigation system no major damage was caused to any main tank or reservoir. About 500 small tanks were affected over the island. With the prevailing situation we have a challenge to supply water required for the Yala season in April. We have started an accelerated program to renovate and clear blocked water ways. We have disbursed money to every Irrigation Engineering Office for this purpose. We have to accomplish this task within next two months," he said.

With the lessons learned from the previous disaster the Ministry has also paid attention to grant alternative lands for the people living in low lying areas near main irrigation systems.

Those people were the worst affected and most of them were living in unauthorized constructions, he said. The attention is also directed to plan alternative ways to flow excess water from tanks to the Mahaweli river causing minimum effect to the people.

The Minister also noted that studies will be conducted to broaden water ways and increase the number of spill gates to resist severe weather conditions.

The plans of new irrigation projects such as Uma Oya, Rabaken Oya, Moragahakanda and Maduru Oya will be reconsidered and they will be altered to suit changing weather patterns, he noted. He also revealed that a rock lining will be created to save tank bunts from rough waves during heavy rain falls since most of the ancient tanks were built using clay and soil.

He said that the renovation work has started using newly imported machines worth Rs 200 million.

The Ministry has also taken a policy decision to offer projects to farmer organizations without waiting for contractors. To find the human resources needed for the expedited work the Ministry has decided to recruit irrigation technical officers within next month while recruiting 100 trainees for Galgamuwa Training Center today.