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| Sunday, 13 October 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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'Diya Henaya' at Puwakgahawela : When the earth moved by Jayanthi Liyanage and Vimukthi Fernando
The mist rolls in, covering the hilltops. A lone blue mormon flitters about. A buffalo calf seeking warmth snuggles closer to his mother. A farmer squats with a vacant look on a face lined with hardship and pain. A pink saree blouse with a safety pin still attached... a tattered black tiered skirt... pieces from a saree - white and red flowers on a pink background... lay strewn across. A paddy field covered with fine sand, tomatoes, green, orange, red, left untouched on the sand. A dead kitten about to be trampled by the busy inquisitive feet. Logs large and long lay scattered obstructing the shadows of an anicut. Gad flies, worms, foul smells, two female bodies, brown and bloated and bark like hang naked from the debris along the banks of a stream... Five miles upstream the road ends suddenly. Stones, rubble and logs take the place of the bridge which used to be there for years. Two huge boulders substitute two houses which stood there for generations. Sights and scenes of the latest and perhaps the worst earth slip disaster at Puwakgahawela.
This is not the first time such a tragedy has occurred here. And in expert opinion, it won't be the last time either. How ever one factor that has emerged crystal clear from the rubble, is, it is high time Sri Lanka, especially the relevant authorities took some action on landslides, earthslips and mudflows ravaging the heart of the country threatening the very basics of its mere existence. The Puwakgahawela (between Belihuloya and Babulla) tragedy is one of the five major landslides recorded during the year 2002 within the Badulla district. Though the number of lives it claimed amounts to six, the damage it had done downstream is yet to be estimated. So far (at the time this article was going to press), the damage was calculated at 89 acres of paddy with about 50% of it irrecoverable; seven anicuts destroyed, with farmers depending on four other anicuts and stranded for want of water; and over 20 acres of tomato and other cultivations totally destroyed. The landslide and mudflow, also badly affected the income and future cultivation prospects of ninety two farmer families; left about 250 families without potable water; destroyed the electricity and communication facilities of the whole area; washed away the land, houses and belongings of three families completely; and left a lone man, D.W.M. Gunasekera, hovering between life and death at Badulla hospital - the sole survivor of the whole tumult.
"We are trying to bring the situation back to normal", says Gamini Pahalawatte, OIC of Pambahinna Police station and Indika Upendra, Grama Niladhari of the Puwakgahawela Division present at the site of destruction. According to him, a survey is being carried out with the help of the Department of Social Services to compensate the affected and "cooked food" is being distributed. The roadway "will become motorable by Wednesday" according to the OIC. But, "No one visited this area to see whether we even need any assistance," complain farmers downstream. With no clean water, a harvest washed away and their cultivation plots under 3 feet of sand... They fear that "the din will die down, with the repairing of the road and compensation to those who lost their houses." Compensation, perhaps long term relief... But then what? The million dollar question here is how and why it happened. Puwakgahawela residents believe the culprit to be a "diya henaya." B.M.W. Bandara, eye witness to the calamity says he heard noises, as if heavy vehicles were trudging by. He came out to see why the sound seemed to be non-ending. "I saw water and debris in my garden, called my wife and climbed to the balcony" at that moment, "There was a huge gush of water about 100 feet higher than the usual stream level, charging downstream, carrying logs. I heard a blast which sounded like a plane crash. I thought the mountain was coming down." As the rocks hurled down, he saw massive boulders crashing on to the bridge, ripping it apart. "I believe this 'Diya Henaya', was a blasting of a pocket of water collected throughout the years, between the top soil and rocks. When thunder and lighting struck, the pocket would have blasted off" he suggests. K.M. Bandara, Engineering Geologist, from the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) offers a scientific explanation. "Soil, specially clay, particles are bound together by inter-granular Vandavalle forces of positive charges, creating a fish net structure. When rain infiltrates "voids", soil particles and negative charges supplied by rain water surround them, weakening the Vandavalle forces keeping the particles together.
The result is the sudden fragmentation of the net with a blast." "Within half and hour to 45 minutes the whole thing was over" says resident Bandara, eyewitness to the episode. The flowing river of rock, earth, trees and other debris saturated with water spread over about 200 meters hit the valley with roaring force. Landslides occur when masses of rock, earth, or debris move down a slope. It could either be at slow or at very high speeds. Activated by storms, fires and by human modification of the land. Landslides commonly occur during rainstorms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and various other damaging human activities. Mudflows, associated with landslides result with water rapidly accumulating in the ground. The water flowing down slopes can travel several miles from its source, growing in size as it picks up trees, and other material along the way, and can strike with little or no warning at avalanche speeds. Nature, started warning them 30 years ago. It was March 29, 1971 that another young man was buried under a landslide. P. Palitha Muththettuwagama, recalls memories of his childhood. The body of K.A. Asela, the 21 year old young man hit by the mudflow, while working at his tomato plot, lies close by. And B.M.K. Chandraratne, the 77 year old farmer and then representative of Muththettuwagama and Puwakgahawela, of the old Kachcheri agrees. "Thereafter about two times, within say... the last five years" he adds. "It was in 1995, the first earthslip destroyed my tea nursery with 40,000 plants" says Bandara in agreement. Another slide, destroyed two acres of tea at the same location. According to him, the Ratnapura Pradeshiya Sabha, Imbulpe Divisional Secretariat, Tea Small Holders Association Ratnapura, Crop Exporters Association of the Small Farmers and the office of the Department of Highways had been warned of the threat at the time "to no avail." The official warnings from the National Building Research Organization (NBRO) came six years ago, in the form of awareness programs, workshops and seminars at the local authority level. Its Landslide Hazard Zonation Mapping Project mapped out the area's high risk potential. But, "No warning came from the authorities. The residents understood the danger only by what they saw" say Indika Upendra, Grama Niladhari of the Puwakgahawela Division. Something had gone wrong somewhere... the people did not get the warning.... But, it cannot be said that the authorities did not know.... It was four years ago, in 1998, that environmental experts speaking of Environmental Concerns of the Accelerated Mahaweli Project warned of the impacts to the Upper Mahaweli Catchment which includes watersheds and sub-watersheds of Kotmale Oya, Maha Oya, Uma Oya, Beli-hul Oya. The vital water sources for hydropower and irrigation projects. Among the threats, was the "deforestation for chena cultivation in the steep slopes coupled with the high water table prevalent in the area resulting in earthslips and landslides." "Improper land-use practices on ground of questionable stability, particularly in mountain and canyon regions, are the root cause of earthslips, landslides and mudflows. They can create and accelerate serious landslide problems" say experts. And the area devoid of its natural forest coverage, was dotted with tea plantations. Setting fire to the 'Mana' grass and the bush for slash and burn cultivation was a regular practice. "Cultivators and constructors had denuded the mountain of its tree cover and top soil", points out Bandara, NBRO's Engineering Geologist. "Danger is imminent when an onslaught of rain saturates the soil layer which has no 'natural plug' of bush or tree cover to ward off the sudden infiltration. Human activity had also disturbed the area's ancestral surface drainage system which would have been the most effective way of diverting such infiltration. The soil also had a colluvium layer of soil brought on by landslides of thousands of years ago and any activity on such deposits is extremely dangerous." The destruction continued.... and continues.... When will we see an end to it? Or are we to wait for the next earthslip, landslide or mudflow? Where is the Disaster Mitigation Plan, so talked of by the Department of Social Services just one year ago, when the drought hit Hambantota? It is no joke to let earthslip rip the mountains apart because it is the heart of our country. The destruction of mountain eco systems pose several threats. While landslides, earthslips and mudflows cost us millions of rupees, at the base is the primary issue of water and watersheds - affecting cultivation, potable water, and power generation, in other words the mere existence of the citizenry. The Agenda 21, adopted at the Earth Summit, 10 years ago at Rio de Janeiro convention, to which Sri Lanka is a signatory, recognises the susceptibility of the mountain eco systems to accelerated soil erosion, landslides and rapid loss of habitat and genetic diversity and proposes measures to manage these fragile eco systems under its chapter 13. However, Sri Lanka, in its National Report to the World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg in August 2002, confessed "About 30% of the population live in mountain areas defined as critical..." and "most mountain areas are suffering from severe environmental degradation... there are some serious constraints in the implementation of policies due to absence of a holistic approach to mountain ecosystem protection and management." It is time that we take action, collectively. It has become imperative that the relevant authorities take a holistic approach in preserving and conserving the few mountain ecosystems we have, for soon will be the day when irrigation and power generation systems built spending billions of rupees lie waste for wont of water if no action is taken at least at this late stage. |
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