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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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Great scarcity of sand for construction works by Anura Maitipe The country needs annually over 8 million cubes of sand for civil construction works. Out of this 4 million cubes used for construction sites in the Colombo city. Over 5 million cubes of sand annually excavated from Kalani Ganga, Kalu Ganga and Maoya for use of construction works in and around Colombo. The rest of 8 million cubes of sand mainly excavated from Mahawali Ganga, Nilwala Ganga, Gin ganga, Walawe Ganga, Daduru Oya and Kirindi Oya for construction work in other parts of the country. During our recent visit to these areas it was revealed that there is a great scarcity of sand in these rivers and this has resulted due to excessive excavation of sand from these rivers during past few years. A sand dealer R.M. Oderis (age 70) who lives in Polgahawella said, "we have been excavating sand from Maoya for last 60 years. Those days we had enough sand in Maoya. But now we are running short of sand and this has resulted due to mass excavation of sand with the utilisation of excavator". "Following mushrooming of multi-storey buildings and highways there was a big demand of sand and big time businessman intervene in the trade with the blessing of politicians and started mass excavation of sand with the help of excavator machines. And this has created problems for us". After monsoonal rains a new layer of sand with gradual erosion of soil is formed. We excavated sand only from selected places in the river where sand comes and deposit. But this concept was changed with the introduction of excavators and now they dig everywhere in the river whereever possible for excavator to reach. W.M. Piyadasa (age 54) in Kaduwela said "we have been engaged in this trade for last fifty years and we used to get sand from Mahawali River unlike those days now sandy areas in the river are very less and this has resulted due to use of excavators. Some people use excavators and excavate to the very bottom of river. Now lower areas of most of these rivers are below the sea level and this has resulted flow of sea water into these rivers during dry season. The Kelani, Kalu Ganga, Gin Ganga, Nilwala Ganga and Walawe Ganga are main five revers which provide drinking water for millions of people living in large part of the country. The mass excavation of sand in these rivers have caused flow of sea water into these rivers and in turn it has created great scarcity of drinking water for people living in these areas during dry season. |
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