Rs. 40 b Upper Kotmale hydropower project gets under way

By P. Krishnaswamy

A viewing gallery for tourists built by the CEB overlooking St. Clair falls.

The treatment plant for chemically and physically treating waste water before releasing into the river.

Some of the independent housing units of the resettled families.

A panoramic view of the St. Clair Waterfall.

Bridge No. 02 constructed over the Kotmale Oya connecting the A7 Road and the Great Western Road. Ninety percent of the work has been completed and the bridge will be open for traffic in March 2012.

The much-awaited Rs.40 billion Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project (UKHP) that was started in 2005 has now been completed and will add 150 MW power to the national grid early next month. The Japanese-funded project was meticulously planned and executed to adequately address all concerns over environment,Bio diversity, displacement of families and the preservation of the landscape and its natural beauty.

The test filling of the reservoir will be completed in the middle of this month followed by connecting to the national grid and a test run.

The Sunday Observer staffer visited the project site in Talawakelle and met Project Director Shavindranath Fernando and senior officials at the site, including the environmental and resettlement officers.

They explained the various aspects of the project, the environmental protection measures, rehabilitation of the large number of displaced families , housing and livelihood assistance that are being provided to them, community welfare measures as well as tree cover and afforestation measures in the catchment areas. The project has invigorated the living standards of the people in the Talawakelle and the surrounding areas. Although it was to be launched in the 1980s, it never saw the light of the day due to political expediency and various other reasons and intimidation, until President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power in 2005 and took the bold decision to proceed with the construction of the project.

On July 27, 2005 the contracts relating to the preparatory work was awarded to the Maeda Corporation of Japan. Since then the project has proceeded smoothly surmounting all obstacles providing a ray of hope to the people of Talawakelle and Kotmale areas and progressing as a pillar of the energy sector that would be one of the significant contributory factors towards achieving the goal of transforming Sri Lanka as the wonder nation of Asia.

Under the project the water of the Kotmale Oya gets diverted from the head pond through the intake, from which the water enters into the 13-km-long headrace mountain tunnel, the longest in the country,The icon of this massive project is the 5.8 M width tunnel that runs cutting through the Talawakelle-Niyamgambora mountain range. The headrace tunnel conveys the water to the powerhouse cavern, through the inclined penstock tunnel, where two Francis turbine units have been installed. The Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) of Japan funded the conceptual design, environmental Impact assessment and the final design.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment gave the final clearance to implement the project subject to the strict adoption of the proposed mitigation measures in accordance with the National Environment Act No.47 of 1980 (Amended Act No.56 of 1988). The Central Environment Authority (CEA) appointed an Environment Monitoring Committee (EMC) to evaluate the implementing of the proposed mitigation measures by the CEB.

Of the total 495 families that were displaced or affected under the project, 430 families have already been resettled in independent or twin modern housing units and compensations were paid those families which had lost their agricultural/home garden plots.

Contracts have already been awarded for the construction of housing units to the remaining 65 families and the work is anticipated to be completed within nine months. Many of them were living in tin-roofed line rooms which had one veranda and a room with no separate kitchen or bathroom facility, forcing many families to use one bathroom.

The most glaring and picturesque sight was the green colour-roofed housing units dotting as several units in the adjoining high elevated areas. The housing complexes include 33 shops, community centers, Hindu temples and churches. Seventy-five percent of these families are Tamils while 22 percent are Sinhalese and three percent Muslims.

The resettlement of the families were done under the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) taking into consideration the magnitude of the social impacts, restoration and improvement of the living standards of the families, enhancement of income earning capacity, increasing levels of production and also uplifting their general well being.

Aside from the home garden program, micro financing schemes and OSD training programs have also been implemented under the Income Enhancement Programs for the families.

Under the home-garden program, fruit plants are being distributed to the families periodically. Pears, mandarin and apple plants and vegetable seeds are being distributed among them.

Agricultural implements such as mammoty, garden fork and watering bucket have also been been distributed to the families. Under a new home garden package three varieties of vegetable seeds and fertilizers are to be distributed to the families for their first crop.

The measures that have been taken to safeguard the environment and mitigation programs implemented by the Environment Management Office (EMO) of the UKHP include monitoring of air quality, noise and vibration at construction sites; surface water quality monitoring of streams of the project area on a monthly basis; implementation of recommendations of Bio diversity assessment conducted by IUCN of the streams impacted by the project ; ground water level and surface water discharge monitoring along the tunnel route on a weekly basis ; map out of the existing landslides and potential areas, within the project, foot prints in order to mitigate any adverse impact ; stream flow measurement and sediment load monitoring ; and standardised photographic record of the St.Clair Waterfall on a monthly basis. A comprehensive Watershed Management Plan that has been prepared by the CEB and implemented by the EMO include gully conservation, conservation-oriented agriculture, increasing the tree cover- afforestation, river bank protection with bamboo tree plantation, tree planting to enhance water table, improvement of poorly managed/degraded tea land, protection of land slide prone areas, fire protection, implementation of fire belts, proper disposal of earth and garbage and conservation of roads, road drains and roadsides.

Under these programs 83,000 bamboo plants have already been established in 16 estates in the catchment areas. 190,000 eucalyptus plants in 13 estates and 14,500 plants of native spices have been cultivated in five estates. Distribution of fruit plants to the resettled families and a large number of trees have been planted under the tree planting campaign.