The
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (I.B.R.D) is the
originator of the M.D.S. The Introduction of the Mahaweli General Report of
1968 mentions that the I.B.R.D. mission which visited Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in May
1961, pointed out that the MDS is a promising multipurpose schema to meet
Ceylon's economic needs". It meant that the MDS would be the answer to all
the economic ills which plagued Ceylon in 1961. Subsequently the UNDP/SF, the
government of Ceylon and the FAO, followed the dictates of the IBRD and in
1968, the FAO presented to the Government of Ceylon the Mahaweli General Report
for the utilization of the Mahaweli Resources for the Irrigation of the dry
zone and hydropower development of the island.
The
implementation of the MDS commenced in 1969 and as the MDS in 49 years old now,
it is opportune to review whether the MDS has fulfilled the aspiration that the
IBRD made in May 1961.
The
utilization of the Mahaweli waters for dry zone agriculture commenced during
the reign of King Vasabha in 67-III AD and continued upto the reign of King
Parakkrama Bahu, The Great (1153 to 1186 AD) . King Vasabha
constrcted the Elahera anicut and a zomile long channel to conduct water
to the Minneriya tank and King Parakkrama Bahu, improved the Angamedilla anicut
and 'Akaga Ganga' channel to deliver
more water to the Parakkrama Samuddra. During the intervening period of about
1119 years between the reigns of these two kings, several kings constructed
more ancients, dams and channels to utilize the Mahaweli waters for the
development of the ancient Rajarata and the Maduru Oya Basin of the dry zone.
(Ref : My-'Ancient Irrigation Schemes based on the Mahaweli Ganga'
mahawelifailure.blogsport.com)
After
a lapse of about seven and a half centauries,
an effort was made by the late Mr. D.S. Senanayake, in 1931, to revive dry zone
agriculture and used the Mahaweli waters again by utilizing the anicient
anicuts at Elahera and Angamedilla on the Amban Ganga and the Minipe anicut on
the Mahaweli ganga.
Without
a doubt, the ways in which the Mahaweli Ganga was used in the Ancient
Irrigation System of the Rajarata has been copied by the MDS but the question
now arises whether the MDS would be equally effective.
During
the past several years, there has been recurrent water shortages in the major
tanks and these prevented the full issues of water needed for paddy cultivation
which affected paddy production in the Mahaweli systems B, C, G and H. Such
water shortages are too frequent to be dismissed casually, saying that they are
due to droughts or dry weather in the Mahaweli catchment areas. The MDS itself
was designed to overcome water shortages for cultivations in the dry zone. In
2016, the paddy production in the paddy production in the Mahaweli area fell below
expectations and the drought throught the country was blamed. By the end of
2016, the drought ended with copious rain which tilled the dried up dry zone
reservoirs again to spill level and many people declared that paddy cultivation would be successful in 2017. But,
again this year, There are difficulties
to provide sufficient water from the major tanks for paddy cultivation, so much
so, that the government is once again forced, as it was in 2016, to immediate
import rice for 2017.
What
happened to all that water in the tanks which reached spill levels in 2016. Is
the demand for water exceeding the capacity of supply from the tanks and their
argumentation sources? Are the augmentation sources failing? Are there
unaccounted, undisclosed discussed and undetected factors operating, causing
losses of water from major tanks?
Such
frequent paddy production shortages in the Mahaweli are contrary to the IBRD
statement that the MDS in a promising multipurpose scheme for Ceylon's economic
needs.
Besides
the, government has also to pay compensation to farmers who had to forego
cultivation or suffered crop losses due to the lack of water issues. When the
MDS was implemented in 1969and continued as the AMDP in 1977, it was believed
that the Mahaweli farmers will feed the Nation, but it now looks the that
during the 48 years of existence, the MDS has evolved into a position that the
nation will here to keep feeling the Mahaweli farmers.
To
understand how the MDS in gradually descending from the Aladin's Magic Lamp in
1968 to almost on mirage by now (2017) it is necessary to compare the water
supply from the Mahaweli Ganga in the Ancient Irrigation System (AIS) with the
MDS.
a)
In the AIS, the
Mahaweli catchment in the wet zone was primeval forest and the pattern of water
flow to the Mahaweli river was proportionately less by runoff during the rains
and more by springs releasing the rain water which had infiltrated into the
soil depths of the forest floor. This would have kept the water levels of the
Mahaweli more constant through the year in ancient times, inspite of the
monthly and yearly variations of the quantity of rainfall in the upper
catchments of the Mahaweli Ganga. In the MDS, the former primeval forests are
replaced completely with Tea and the Mahaweli is fed less by springs and more
by the runoff, resulting in high water levels in the Mahaweli during rains and
very low water levels in the dry seasons.
b)
Mahaweli water
quality in the ANS was devoid of organic and inorganic chemicals (low
eutrophy), which kept the channels, tanks and fields devoid of floating water
plants. In the MDS, the Mahaweli water has a high level of organic and
inorganic chemicals (hyper-eutrophy), resulting in the channels, tanks and
fields becoming covered with floating
water plants like salvinia and Eichornia grandis (Japan Jabera), which increase
water loss from tanks through transpiration, especially during dry weather with
low relative humidities in the dry zone atmosphere which result in the lowering
of water levels. (Ref: my - 'After effects of the MDS - Hyper Eutrophy'.
Mahaweli failure.blogspot.com)
c)
In the AIS, the
Mahaweli water was only for irrigation but in the MDS, the Mahaweli water has
to be at any time, be divided between the requirements of irrigation and
hydropower of the projects at Kotmale, Victoria, Randenigala, Moragahakanda and
Rantambe. When priority is given for irrigation as it happened in 2015,
hydropower suffers and if hydropower
outputs are to be maintained, irrigation has to be regulated and when Mahaweli
water 'Yields' are low, both Suffer.
d)
In the AIS,
evaporation and seepage losses of water was confirmed to the irrigation tanks
and channels only. But in the MDS, the additional reservoirs used to stock
water for hydropower also cause additional evaporation losses which increase
with higher atmospheric temperatures and increase of wind speeds which occur
from June to mid September in the dry zone. Thus, the transpiration,
evaporation and seepage losses of the same quantity of water from the Mahaweli
(which constant for the Alsand MDS) is greater in the MDS than in the AIS and
therefore if unrestricted irrigation from the Mahaweli is contemplated for the
dry zone, there is a strong likely hood that the increased seepage and evaporational
losses in the MDS reservoir systems would affect these operations.
Perhaps,
it is now time to call a halt to all further developments of the MDS, which was
designed to be completed in 30 years, but even after 48 years, it is still
being pushed through, without a review of its past, which indicates the
gradually increasing decay enveloping it. The MDS is the greatest threat to the
survival of our grandest faunal asset, THE ELEPHANT, and over the past few
years, the elephant has developed to be the greatest, priceless and indispensable
economic asset of the dry zone and Sri Lanka and it is our duty that no longer
should it be treated as an agricultural part as the Britishers did in the 19th
century and attempted the genocide of the elephants in the island, Unlike in
the past year (2016), present day state telecasts tend to emphasize that the
elephant is a pest by featuring damages to crops and houses in the dry zone,
and hide the stark realities of the casualties and the harassments to elephants
by farmers and encroachers in the dry zone and creates the impression
equivalent to the 19th century British
colonial view, that the elephants should
be got rid of.
Therefore at this stage, instead of stretching the
'Mahaweli Programme' the an elastic to cover every single square inch of land
in the dry zone, it is far better to leave the balance of the dry zone under
forest and grass as elephant habitats,
for the elephants are our best economic resource to draw thousands and
thousands of tourists, year in and year out, from all over the world, bringing
with them forgive exchange in dollars and pounds, euros and roubles, rupees and
yen for the prosperity of the dry zone and Sri Lanka, which paddy production in
the dry zone under the MDS can never expect to achieve.
Yasantha De Silva.
B.Sc. Agriculture
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