Aid project will drive 45,000 from homes

Press, 30 March 1983, Page 12

Aid project will drive 45,000 from homes

From

JOHN MADELEY,

in Kandy

The wisdom of a huge Sri Lankan aid project is being questioned after disclosure that it will mean uprooting 45,000 people and might even bankrupt the national economy. The plan includes the damming of the Mahaweli River, thus flooding thousands of homes around the ancient city of Kandy. Known locally as “Victoria’s victim,” after the name of the dam, the people affected were not consulted Before the project began in 1980 and. have no right of appeal. Most families are receiving only 3000 rupees (about 1140) compensation and are being resettled on “new land” 60 miles away. The new land is mostly jungle which the victims themselves are expected to help clear and turn into In all, six towns, 123 villages and 14 Buddhist temples are to be flooded by a 9000-acre reservoir. The largest town, Teldeniya, is home to 10,000 people and has more than 2000 years of history. The dam is part of a $2700 million development scheme, the Accelerated Mahaweli Programme, and observers have pointed to serious deficiencies that threaten the Sri Lankan economy. In all there will be three huge

dams within 40 miles of each other to triple the country’s electric power, provide irrigation to 340,000 acres of land, resettle 1,500,000 people (a tenth of the population), create new jobs, and increase food output. It was expected to cost $9OO million when launched in 1977. Some $6OO million was pledged in foreign aid by Britain, Sweden, West Germany, Japan, and Canada. Since then costs have tripled and instead of finding $3OO million from its own resources, the Sri Lankan Government now has to find $2lOO million — the equivalent ■ of three years export earnings. It is doing this by cutting subsidies to the poorest, borrowing from abroad, and by printing money. Inflation, officially put at less than 20 per cent, is unofficially more than 50 per cent; this is having dire effects on the K wrest Sri Lankans that the ahaweli programme is supposed to help. A Sri Lankan lawyer, Gamini Iriyagolle, said a “gross injustice” was being done to the people being flooded out of their homes by the Victoria Dam. Mr Iriyagolle, who x has made a detailed study of the Mahaweli project, said that although the Government was within its rights in displacing the people, the dam could have been built in a way that would have disturbed far

smaller numbers. Mr Iriyagolle said three height options were considered ahd the decision was taken to go for the very high dam, some 400 feet, to generate the maximum amount of electricity. Indeed, the Victoria Dam will double the amount of electricity that the country has available. “Had the dam been built to a lower height, Teldeniya and many of the other towns and villages would not have been flooded,” Mr Iriyagolle said. “Electricity came before people's homes.” Britain is providing $l5O million towards the dam. The money will go to British firms involved in the project — chiefly the consultants, Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners; the dam contractors, a consortium headed by Balfour Beatty Nuttall; and the builders of the power station, Costain International. The project has already run into difficulties. Floods, rockfalls, and the collapse of a tunnel from the dam to the power station have set back the work. Some 25 people have died in accidents on the dam site, mostly Sri Lankans, but including two British engineers. A Swedish-financed dam, the Kotmale, is being built in a valley which has experienced severe landslides and which some observers feel is unstable. Copyright, London Observer Service.