Kalawewa de-silting project, a boon to NCP farmers

By Gamini WARUSHAMANA

Work on the Kalawewa de-silting project has been accelerated to achieve the target of increasing water capacity of the tank by 750 acre feet before the north-eastern monsoon rain activates. The Director, River Basin Development and Reservoirs of the Mahaweli Authority H.H. Padmasiri said that over 175 tippers and 25 excavators, loaders and other heavy vehicles have been deployed for the work.

The project was launched on August 3 covering large and small tanks in the area. Rs. 375 million has been allocated for the de-silting of Kalawewa alone and the Ministry of Economic Development funds the project.

Rs. 500,000 will be spent for de-silting an acre-foot and the expected capacity increase is 0.75 percent. The economic viability of the project is debatable under these circumstances. Due to the size of the Kalawewa, the expected capacity increase is less than one percent. However, this project was launched in response to the demand of the farmers. Farmers said that de-silting small tanks is more productive as the capacity of small tanks has reduced significantly due to accumulation of silt. Kalawewa, the largest tank in the Anuradhapura district with 100,000 acre feet capacity has dried up creating economic, social and environmental issues.

Farmers said that they suffered huge losses as their paddy cultivation was destroyed due to lack of water and some farmers said that they did not cultivate their fields as the authorities did not assure an uninterrupted water supply. Officials said that farmers had cultivated over 80 percent of their paddy fields ignoring instructions to limit it to 40 percent.Engineer Udayantha Priyantha of the Mahaweli Authority said that in the Mahaweli H Zone, 80 percent of the 25,360 hectares of paddy lands have been cultivated this Yala season. Around 11,291 hectares were cultivated in the right bank, 5,314 hectares in the left bank and 1,904 hectares in Kala Oya.

Although the official figures have not been released, farmers said that around 90 percent of the paddy cultivation in the area have been destroyed. Over 100,000 farmer families live in the Mahaweli ‘H’ Zone.L.B. Rajakaruna, a farmer said that his field was destroyed and he had incurred a loss over Rs. 80,000. We did not receive water for 15-20 days and as a result paddy as well as other crops such as maize have been destroyed, he said.

O. Nalim, a farmer organisation chairman said that when the Yala season started there was only 46,000 acre feet water capacity in the tank. The long drought resulted in Kalawewa not receiving water from Mahaweli system.

The use of irrigation water for drinking and other purposes is another reason for the water shortage. Priority has to be given to water supply for domestic usage and water has been released from Kalawewa to Tissawewa and Nuwarawewa tanks in Anuradhapura during the festival season in June.

Nalim said that government has provided funds to farmer organisations to dig 3,000 agro-wells, at the rate Rs. 10,000 each.

Over 250 farmer organisations in the area have received Rs. 100,000 each to clean the irrigation canal system. Farmers said that de-silting alone cannot address the issue and long-term measures have to be taken to prevent silting. Unauthorised constructions, cultivation and human activities in the catchment areas of the tanks have created this issue.