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| Sunday, 14 December 2003 |
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Despite protests, work begins on Kotmale hydro project by P. Krishnaswamy Biodiversity of the central hill country and its scenic beauty will be greatly affected if the Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project (UKHP) was implemented, Fr. Guy de Fontgalland, Director of the Bandarawela-based NGO, Leo Marga Ashram, who last week led a protest demonstration against the project, told the "Sunday Observer". Seven major waterfalls - St. Clair, Devon, Ramboda, Puna Oya, Pundal Oya and St. Andrew's - which contribute immensely to both the scenic and ecological aspects of the hills will be destroyed, 200 acres of fertile tea plantation will be submerged and 450 families will be displaced owing to this controversial project, he said. Alternative proposals submitted to the government by their organisation and other plantation NGOs were not accepted, he added. Representatives of Non-Governmental Organisations, trade unions and community-based organisations of the plantations staged a demonstration in Talawakelle last Wednesday in protest against the UKHP. Fr. Fontgalland, who is also the convenor of the Plantation Sector Social Forum, said that about 2,000 people joined the campaign undeterred by threats and efforts of 'interested external elements' to disrupt it. Their organisation, together with progressive TUs and NGOs, constantly agitated and held seminars and meetings in the hill country towns against the environmental hazards of the project, he said. Earthslips and land cracks are bound to occur in the land stretch from Hatton to Nanu-oya according to environmental reports they have obtained, he said. Authoritative sources of the Ministry of Power and Energy said that the implementation process had already started with the presence of engineering consultants and their limited workforce at the project site and the project would get into full swing during early next year, he said. Ceylon Workers' Congress (CWC) stalwart and Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Muthu Sivalingam, said that they were still opposed to the project and had submitted to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe an alternative proposal under which the same quantum of power, as envisaged under the original proposal, would be generated with much less environmental impacts. |
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