Sri Lanka: From Mavilaru to Moragahakanda
Most of the major rivers flow through two or more provinces before reaching the ocean. The same goes for some irrigation canals. If provincial councils start staking claims to such waterways there will be chaos. It behoves the government to solve this problem once and for all without resorting to prevarication and procrastination.
by Prabath Sahabandu
( August 1, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The so-called Eelam War IV, which lasted nearly three years, had both its beginning and end in water, so to speak. In 2006, a cocky Prabhakaran closed the Mavil Aru anicut, thereby depriving thousands of people of water and throwing down the gauntlet. The conflagration that ensued snuffed out many lives before ending in the shallows of the Nandikadal lagoon, where the LTTE leader met his Waterloo in 2009.
The Mavil Aru incident which plunged the country into a bloodbath is now almost forgotten. But, seven years on, we are likely to face another water dispute, fraught with the danger of leading to a political war of sorts between northern hardliners and their southern counterparts.
The JVP has dismissed, as unacceptable, NPC Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran’s call for signing an MoU between his council and the government on the Moragahakanda water. JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake has deemed the NPC move to share ‘ownership of water’ a severe blow to the fragile national reconciliation process. Taking moral high ground, he has launched into a tirade against Wigneswaran, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Opposition leader R. Sampanthan, Rauff Hakeem and A. Thondaman. He is of the view that all of them don’t believe in reconciliation and are promoting racism to further their political interests. (Interestingly, according to what has been reported of the JVP leader’s recent speech in Colombo he has stopped short of bracketing President Maithripala Sirisena, who also leads the SLFP, with the aforesaid politicians!)
It is a supreme irony that the JVP has a history of co-habiting with all the parties led by the aforesaid politicians at different times during the last two decades or so.
The 13th Amendment has become part of the problem it was intended to solve. The provincial council system which India whimsically crafted to solve its own problems rather than Sri Lanka’s has become a white elephant, gobbling up taxpayers’ money without giving anything in return. Provincial Councils spend almost all their funds to maintain themselves and they, save one, are mere appendages of the ruling coalition and, therefore, avoid conflicts with the centre. The TNA-controlled NPC is a different kettle of fish; antagonising the government seems to be its raison d’etre. It never misses an opportunity to give expression to its antipathy towards the state and that practice has put paid to the country’s reconciliation efforts under the new government.
Unacceptable as the NPC’s call for signing an MoU anent the Moragahakanda water may be, irrigation––water storage and management, drainage and embankments, flood protection, planning of water resources etc––is on the Concurrent List, which is a constitutional grey area. The 13-A says: ‘Every provincial Council may, subject to the provisions of the Constitution, make statutes applicable to the Province for which it is established, with respect to any matter on the Concurrent List, after such consultation with Parliament as it may consider appropriate in the circumstances of each case.’ The NPC is apparently trying to invoke this constitutional provision through its call for an MoU. This No-man’s List, as it were, is problematic as it gives rise to confusion and confrontation. It has been suggested in some quarters that powers listed thereon be clearly divided between the Provincial Councils and the government. But, such action alone won’t help reconcile the centre and the NPC which is becoming increasingly belligerent towards the state.
Most of the major rivers flow through two or more provinces before reaching the ocean. The same goes for some irrigation canals. If provincial councils start staking claims to such waterways there will be chaos. It behoves the government to solve this problem once and for all without resorting to prevarication and procrastination.
( The writer is the chief editor of the Island, where this piece first appeared as an editorial )
