'Dam renovation ahead of schedule'

By Gamini Warushamana

The Dam Safety and Water Resources Planning Project (DSWRPP) has achieved 86.38 percent progress in fund disbursement and 72 percent physical progress, a year ahead of schedule, said Project Director D.C.S. Elakanda.

Renovated dam of the Kandalama tank

He said that it was a significant achievement in respect of foreign funded projects.

World Bank Vice President for the South Asian region, Philippe Le Houerou, during his recent visit to Sri Lanka, lauded the DSWRPP achievement.

He inspected the Kantale dam, which collapsed in 1986 causing major destruction and was happy with the improved dam safety measures after renovation. The DSWRPP is funded by the World Bank and it provided a Rs. 7,545 million interest free credit facility for phase one of the project, while the Government provided Rs. 642 million, he said.

"Under phase one, 32 major reservoirs were selected and initially the project was due to be completed by 2013. However, the implementation of the sub projects was behind schedule because engineering works were complicated due to several reasons.

To renovate these dams water in the reservoirs had to be discharged and these decisions were associated with huge socio-economic costs. For instance the livelihood of the farmer community and fishers, drinking water supply to towns or electricity generation were affected and we had to introduce various measures to minimise socio-economic costs.

Therefore, the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resource Planning sought extension of project duration by two years.

Accordingly, the project was rescheduled to be completed by June 2015.

We carried out the work efficiently to achieve the target and are happy with the progress and are confident that we will complete the project on schedule," Elakanda said.

He said that the project has already averted several possible catastrophes caused by the impact of climate change. There was a possibility of a catastrophe during the 2011 flood in several large reservoirs such as Ridiyagama, Tabbowa and Usgala Siyambalangamuwa that were vulnerable due to weak and dilapidated dams.

These dams had been identified as high-risk dams and renovation work was accelerated after scientific studies on the stability of the dam and spill and sluice gates were made.

As some of these reservoirs now receive water from the Mahaweli system their dams had to be strengthened. Renovation work includes strengthening the dam and improving operational efficiency of the spill and sluice gates.

The World Bank has also recognised the livelihood support mechanism used by the DSWRPP as a model to be replicated in similar projects funded by the bank worldwide.

This mechanism was used to support communities that were affected due to the renovation of Tabbowa, Ridegama and Usgala Siyabalangamuwa.

Additional funding for renovation of another 30 dams have been received, due to these achievements. The same methodology will be used in the renovation of these dams.

He said that in these 30 sub projects, several large tanks in the Northern province have also been included in the second phase and Pandivirichchan and Muthu Iyan Kaddu tanks in the Mulathivu, Koorai tank in the Mannar district are among them.

These tanks were neglected for several decades due to terrorism and essential renovation hadn't been done.

According to Elakanda, as a result of these achievements in the renovation of dams, the World Bank and the government have given more responsibilities to the DSWRPP.

The renovation work of two tanks of the Kandy water supply scheme under the Strategic Cities Project have also been given to the DSWRPP and additional funds amounting to Rs. 83 million were allocated.

The government now considers dam safety as a continuous process and not a one-off project. Therefore, the sustainability of the project should be ensured by continuous maintenance.

For this purpose, the DSWRPP has initiated a human resource development program for partner organisations.

"We obtained foreign consultancy at a cost for this project and we hope to train our own experts to continue operations. Accordingly, two training institutes will be developed. The training institute of the Irrigation Department in Galgamuwa will be developed at a cost of Rs. 200 million.

Rs. 450 million will be spent to upgrade the technical officers training institute of the Mahaweli Authority in Kotmale to international level," Elakanda said.

He said that the shortage of human resources, especially engineers and technical officers is a huge issue in keeping up this widespread irrigation network.

"We have funds for the development of the irrigation network in the country but there is a lack of human resource," he said.

Departments and institutions involved in water resource management such as the Irrigation Department, Mahaweli Authority, Water Supply and Drainage Board and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) are now partners of the DSWRPP with the implementation of the DSWRPP multi-sector water resources planning and management system. The project has invested on capacity building of these institutions.

The Tabbowa tank spill gates under renovation

Under the DSWRPP, 122 hydrometric stations have been set up islandwide to monitor rainfall, water level and water flow to reservoirs. These centres collect several sets of data regularly and send them to the Department of Irrigation and the Mahaweli Authority via satellite.

This data will help avert a catastrophe in heavy rain and flood situations. Data is collected manually at present. In the future, water levels in the whole network of reservoirs will be monitored from a single centre.

Since the cost of obtaining this data is borne by public funds, the DSWRPP will make maximum use of it and share the data with research institutes and universities.

"A German company has set up the hydrometric stations and the training of local staff is also under way.

The project also includes the renovation of two tunnels, Polgolla and New Laxapana owned by the CEB. Since this tunnel renovation is a complex process we obtained foreign consultancy. It was difficult to get the consent to shut down the tunnels due to the huge socio-economic costs.

The renovation brought massive gains to the CEB as there was a huge water leak, estimated at 230 litres per second. The estimated loss to this leak was Rs. 120 million per year.

The investment on the New Laxapana tunnel renovation is Rs.100 million and it could be covered within a year. The renovation work of the tunnel is now under way.

The shut down of the Polgolla tunnel will cause a water cut in Matale town and we have to find an alternative solution before the tunnel is shut down," he said.