Going with the flow

by Aditha Dissanayake

Standing on the bridge at the Thalawakelle town, staring at the first stages of the dam being built across the Kothmale river, now that the Upper Kothmale Hydro Power project is on its way, it is hard to keep my mind from roving back into the past, to the reign of King Parakaramabahu, to the days when he first started to build his inland ocean, the Parakarama Samudraya. Who would have planned the construction work?

Who would have felled the trees, cleared the ground, built the tank? Would the peasants who had to give up their land have protested against the changes that were taking place? Were they happy in their new settlements? Would the Officers-in-Charge have convinced them that all this was in the name of development?

Would the statesmen have taken bribes throughout every phase of the building process? But above all, would there have been scribes like me, staring by the roadside, wondering if this is construction or destruction, and realizing with a sinking heart, whatever the answer is, there is no turning back?

Yet, the end result? The magnificent blue waters of the Parakrama Samudraya. If so, would this Destruction, staring at me right now, from the gleaming yellow helmets of the workers to the stumps of avocado trees, from every drop of water splashed onto the road at intervals to keep the dust at bay, to the dark, rich soil on the mountain banks, scraped, thumped and moulded to widen the existing roads in order to bring the new machinery, one day, turnout to be a magnificent source of energy?

After all the 'beauty' of hydropower is that, its renewable, inexpensive and emission-free (no fuel combustion = no air pollution). If so, though the negative consequences of damming the Kothmale river is not in the best interest of the natural environment, now that the project has begun, there is only one way left to look - forward.

"The new houses are superb" says Hema, whose present home will be swallowed by the water when the project is completed and who is looking forward to moving into her dream house.

"From the green coloured roofs to the wash basins and the green lawns...living in one of the houses would be a dream come true."

Even though there are minor obstacles (where would she keep the cattle? Where would she grow her vegetables?) ecstatic over the compact little building she will possess, on what used to be the playground of the Holyrood Estate, Thalawakelle, Hema is determined "Raththi and Suddi" (her cows) will somehow fit into their new home. As for the plots of cabbages, carrots and beans she will have to give up, she says she will find some other means of earning a living to supplement the income of her husband, who works as an assistant at a petrol station in the Thalawakelle town.

But those like Sumith, (name changed) a bourgeois businessman in the Thalawakelle town are not too pleased with the new houses, small as they are, and greatly resembling the green coloured plastic squares found inside Monopoly sets.

"I asked the construction workers not to forget to build a hook to one of the walls of each house so that they can hang their plucking baskets on it". He says in disgruntled tones.

For Jambe who used to eke out a living by fishing on the Kothmale river in Thawalanthanna, the transformations that are taking place around him, are proving to be quite lucrative.

He is now earning twice as much as what he earned in the past by running a Kade to provide tea and meals for the construction workers involved in widening the road from Thawalanthanna to Hatton.

He says most of his contemporaries too have joined the Project and chuckles over the antics of one of his friends whose task is to wave a green or red flag throughout the day to indicate if the road ahead is passable or not to the oncoming traffic. "There are times when he mixes the flags up and stops vehicles even when the road is clear".

In spite of the dust and the destruction, the metamorphosis the entire region of the hill country seems to be going through due to the Upper Kothmale Project is after all a feature of development - a feature one must learn to live with, in the same way one must live with traffic jams and mosquitos.

As Jawaharlal Nehru said to the villagers who were to be displaced by the Hirakud Dam in 1948, "If you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country".

Now that the project cannot be stopped here's hoping the thousands of pounds of concrete that will go into building the Upper Kothmale Dam will be worth it - that it will turnout to be a structure of utility as well as beauty.

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