A solution to our water problems

Cecil De Mel

From my very young days I was fascinated with water. I used to watch for hours the raindrops falling on puddles and splashing in beautiful spikes making perfect circles which quickly disappeared. (Now I realize that it is an excellent subject for contemplating impermanence.) Later on as a child I made water wheels which rotated by the outflow of water from gutter downpipes.

Fearing a Japanese invasion during World War II, we retreated to Rilhena group Pelmadulla where my uncle was the Estate Apothecary in charge of its hospital.

I have nostalgic memories of this period where I braved the leeches to bathe in the foaming white streams in this estate. My horoscope is supposed to have predicted that I will be involved with liquids and true to this prediction I secured employment in the Shell Company of Ceylon Ltd, the market leader in Sri Lanka, selling petroleum at that time, which was the life blood of our entire country. The training provided by this company and my experiences for a good part of my life in the oil and gas industry is enormous.

The Sinhala kings were masters of a hydraulic civilization. They built huge reservoirs and canals and had mastered the art of water storage to serve a purely agricultural economy. If the country was not overrun by foreign imperialist powers they would have developed this expertise further. But even the knowledge which was already available in ola scripts was destroyed by our enemies.

The huge university libraries which were the repositories of this knowledge were destroyed by fire, which raged for more than six months and for nearly 500 years we were enslaved under the yoke of our imperialist masters who did nothing other than exploit our vast resources. They destroyed and laid waste as they wished whenever our people rose up against them and continued a policy of divide and rule setting up one group of people against another, which is still at the root of all our problems, which never existed during the period of our great kings.

President Mahinda Rajapaksha who had served the country as a whole, and unified it under one banner, has a great responsibility. Apart from developing the visible infrastructure he should do everything possible to solve the water problems in this country, especially irrigation water. Actually there is no water problem as such, in this country as we have plenty of water.

But it is positioned to go waste and flow into the sea. There should be a national plan to minimize or even stop this outflow and divert the water to places where it is most wanted. Oil is transported thousands of miles. It used to be called “black gold”. Water which is far more precious and our virtual “White Gold” should deserve complete attention. Not a drop should be wasted and allowed to flow into the sea.

The first oil well, Well No 1 in the Middle East was dug in Bahrain, close to “ Banagas “ gas plant where I worked in the Eighties. They were not digging for oil, but they were digging for water and out came oil. An entire oil industry developed in the Middle East after that and huge pipelines transport oil. We can do the same for our “White Gold”. Transport the water through pipelines with minimum losses through evaporation. A national plan should be developed to tap the waters of the Kalu Ganga which has the highest flow and send it round avoiding the hills, to the north and North east via the south by making use of gravity to sustain the flow of water.

The entire river systems should be interconnected by pipelines at a little above sea level so that the pipeline is almost level right round our coast. We need to raise the water only a few feet at intervals to make it flow by gravity and only very little pumping is required. If at all it is necessary we can resort to animal power. Remember the Chekku which was used to extract coconut oil from poonac. A sophisticated chekku with ball racers and a flywheel, can drive a pump beautifully, and we can save the electricity.

The pipeline itself will be like a river flowing right round Sri Lanka from which we can divert the water as we like, to places where it is most necessary. In this manner all reservoirs should be interconnected with a national pipeline network, just like the national electricity grid, with control valves in position to deal with emergency breakdowns. An entire new industry is bound to start and flourish creating new employment and agricultural outputs from the lands presently starved of water.

Our Sinhalese Kings used elephants for most of their heavy work. Preparing the strong foundation for the Ruwanweli Maha Seya was the work of elephants. The Vijithapura fortress was destroyed by King Dutugemunu’s Royal elephant ‘Kadol Atha’.

It is said that King Alexander was stopped in his march to India by driving wild elephants in the jungles to charge against the oncoming army, a strategy well thought out by the Gurukula Brahmins. We too have the capability to use the strength of these animals to turn pumps and generators. We only have to feed and look after them. The Romans used slaves in their galleys to row their ships. This was the most cruel punishment for convicts as well.

As a Buddhist country we should never abuse even animal rights. They should be used sparingly with periods of rest in between.

In all our endeavours it is essential that we use local expertise. It is all there. Only our political will is absent. These are not matters for the ‘no can do’ negative types, but to those “Can do’s” who are optimistic and sense the future ahead without oil. We have ample resources and know-how already, which should be harnessed and set to work.

The Universities should be funded to invent and design the machinery and the Government workshops should be asked to turn out machines to run on animal power. These are not simple like bullock carts, but a more sophisticated stationary type of capital asset which can be adapted for various utility jobs including the generation of electricity.

The Survey Department should be asked to provide a comprehensive ‘National Pipeline Trace’ to transport the water by gravity from the mouths of rivers right round the island using the minimum of pumping. Remember the ‘Yodha Ela’ gradient of two inches for a mile. We should also approach the countries who are friendly to help us with government to government assistance. After all we are talking of a pipeline of approximately 1600 Kilometers, which is nothing when compared with the huge pipelines transporting oil. There is one great big factor in carrying out huge projects of this magnitude.

They should all be headed by persons who have a proven track record, but the responsibility should be borne by the Head of State. The security for such projects should be provided by the armed services, whose Engineers could also chip in to solve the technical problems that may arise. They know the strategic importance of water from their experiences in “Elephant Pass” and “Mavil Aru” and they could be relied upon to deliver what is required.

A whole lot of work is involved in a large project of this scale and it is essential to ensure that we are not straddled with political and constitutional problems. Constitutional Law should ensure the inviolability of our sovereign country which belongs to all its people, who should have the freedom to settle anywhere.

The National Water Pipeline System should come under the Central Government and ultimately connect Kilinochchi, Mannar, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa , Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and down through the east coast to Hambantota. The time span for such a project should be anything up to seven years, as laying pipelines on the surface is much faster. Acquisition of land and other administrative matters could be expedited by a process of educating the people that water is the most important and the closest to their lives, which they already know by experience throughout millennia.

Let all persons who love our country put aside all their differences and unite to share in an all-embracing unifying project of this nature and they will be remembered for eternity. An investment of this magnitude, in water transportation, will last for hundreds of generations.