Grand plan to revive Lunawa lagoon

by Deepal Warnakulasuriya

Lunawa Lagoon and its catchment area which was blessed by nature two to three decades ago by now has completely been changed and its beauty is no more. The whole system has turned upside down, preventing anyone to boast of Lunawa Lake's blue water, various water lilies, singing birds, wild flowers or shady mangroves.

Lunawa lake is in the south of the Colombo District covering 6.15 km from the Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council area in the North to the Moratuwa Municipal Council area in the South. The government in July 2000, launched the Lunawa Environment Improvement and Community Development Project with international funding, when the lagoon was heading for disaster.

In the proposed project area, the Lunawa Ela is the main canal, which runs through the low-lying area extending from North to South and flows into the Lunawa lake. The basin is composed of many minor basins which drains storm water directly into the lake in the Western and Southern parts of the lake. The Lunawa lake is connected to the sea under the railway bridge located to the south of the Angulana Railway Station.

The main objective of the project is the alleviation of flood damage in Lunawa area, through the improvement of the storm water drainage systems, and making the community's living conditions hygienic. The surveys show that over 10,000 families in the areas are affected by floods.

The lake was seen most of the time landlocked due to the sandbar formation under the railway bridge at Angulana inviting floods as well as health hazards.

The agreement for the implementation of the Lunawa Environment Improvement and Community Development Project was signed by the government and the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) in 2001. The JBIC is providing seven billion yen while the government has to provide the balance three billion yen as the project has been estimated to cost 10 billion yen. The project period is six years and will be implemented and supervised by the Urban Development and Sacred Areas Development Ministry.

Mainly, the project comes with two components the Technical Component Which is handled by Project Director Keerthi Jayewardena and the Human Settlement and Community Development Component handled by its Project Director Anura Dassanayake.

The Storm Water Drainage Improvement which is the construction part of the project comes under the Technical Component. It includes improvement of drainage canals, culverts and ditches comprising 6.42 km of main canals, 6.73 km of secondary canals and 59.1 km of tertiary drains. Furthermore, construction of a peripheral road and linear park around the Lunawa lagoon which was a long-felt need of the area for recreational activities.

Relocation of about 450 families providing necessary community infrastructure facilities with new houses comes under the second component of the Human Settlement and Community Development Component. Senior Community Development Co-ordinator Ranjith Samarasinghe told the Sunday Observer that their functions come under three major categories; Resettlement, Community Upgrading and Solid Waste Management. He said that thinking on the maintenance of the constructions , they have also planned a road network making easy access for all.

According to Mr.Samarasinghe, they have also introduced a flexible compensation structure those affected by the project. "What we are doing is transforming the project affected people into project beneficiaries", that is the voice of Mr. Samarasinghe. "When the compensation issue we have always considered the replacement value with a bottom line of Rs 400,000. But no maximum line. The assessments are done by a committee comprising 13 personnel including the Chief Valuer and personnel from the relevant departments and organisations", Mr. Samarasinghe added.

Another most important issue of the project is they have joined hands with several organisations to work on the same job. At present, the Fisheries Ministry conducts a project on Coastal Resource Management and the Moratuwa Municipal Council conducts another project Habitat Good Governance. "We had discussions on how to share resources and reach our final targets. Communication and understanding will help us to do a lot. Very simply we all have one ID card which says that we are that Lunawa Project Team. We are guided by a National Steering Committee headed by the Ministry Secretary," Mr. Samarasinghe said.

In addition to the compensation, they are also given Rs 15,000 as allowance, another Rs 9,000 to attend the secondary options of new house building, finding a new place. Officials have made all the arrangements to provide their basic needs and infrastructure to build their houses in new places. Four resettlement areas have been named as Lake View Garden, River Side Garden, Green View Garden and Hyke Terrace. But the speciality is all resettlement are within 1 km to where they lived. The officials from the site office confirmed that over 60 per cent of the project work has already been completed.

Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia and Moratuwa Municipal Councils are direct partners of the project and they have entrusted with an important duty in the resettlement process. Moratuwa Mayor, Samanlal Fernando who spoke to the Sunday Observer said that almost 85 families have been resettled in three selected areas out of four identified resettlement areas.

In addition to the 450 new houses in three selected places, 421 other constructions such as six bridges, walls etc will be built under the project. According to them all the unauthorised structures at the lake or the lagoon in the development area have been demolished. The project authorities also said that at the beginning there were some misunderstanding, but now people have got to know the importance of the project. They also said that if there are any other unauthorised constructions, those will have to be removed.

The Urban Development and Sacred Areas Development Ministry officials said that due to some reasons the work of the project was progressing slowly but now the work has been accelerated. They also said that they would be able to complete the project by the end of next year.

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