Welcome To The Land Of The Tumpane Modayas
Emil van der Poorten
I have, on several occasions, referred to a completely illegal, neighbourhood garbage dump which is significantly reducing the life expectancy of several families drawing their drinking water from the springs which it has polluted for the past ten years, not to mention the poisoning of the headwaters of the Deduru Oya river into which this rural sewer empties.
Recently, there was yet another outrage.
We were informed that two tanker loads of raw sewage was hauled up the hill and dumped, not even on top of the piled up garbage on the hillside, but adjacent to it, right into one of the stream beds.
This was on the 5th of September and the matter was brought to public notice by a member of the only family able to tolerate the stench, mosquitoes and flies of that particular garbage dump primarily because he and his family have nowhere else to go. Not surprisingly, this individual told me that that the employees of the local body riding on the garbage tractor were very nearly overcome by the stench of raw sewage as hey proceeded up the hill with their loads of (sweeter-smelling?) domestic and hospital garbage! This was indeed a new low even for a jurisdiction which seems to be determined to write the definitive manual on “Impunity in Rural Sri Lanka.”
Of course, the moment efforts were made to identify the tanker trucks which had had to have been hired because none of the local government entities are known to have any, everyone clammed up and, while admitting, there had been a terrible stench which only dissipated after heavy rain took the sewage downstream, could not recall from where the s…t came! Had the silence exhibited by these minions of one of the most corrupt and incompetent local bodies around, operating with the obvious protection of senior politicians, one would only have arrived at the conclusion that some strange extra-terrestrial beings had driven two phantom tanker trucks up a lonely dirt track and dropped off those uniquely-scented loads so that they could stink up a whole, (fortunately sparsely-populated) neighbourhood, from where the effluent could make its merry way into the Dik-Oya which constitutes the sole water supply of people in that part of the North Western Province, in the Weudavilli Hatpattuwa of legend, who would consume it while believing in its pristine purity!
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Resolve The Land Rights Problems In The North
By R.M.B Senanayake -October 20, 2013
R.M.B. Senanayake
According to information from NGOs working in the Vavuniya District there are several inter-ethnic problems relating to the ownership of land in the Vavuniya and Mannar Districts. Fifty years ago before the War the Nedunkerny area was thick jungle and so were the banks of the Ma Oya which serves as the boundary between the Vavuniya and Trincomalee districts. During the war these lands came t be occupied illegally by the Tamils from the northern side and the Sinhalese from the southern side. The former were promoted by the LTTE and the latter by nationalist Sinhalese politicians and the Army which was fighting the LTTE. Similar problems of land occupation exist in Mullaitivu particularly round the Kokilai lagoon. The Sinhalese fishermen from the area north of Negombo would regularly migrate to the Mullaitivu coast during the South West monsoon when fishing was not possible on the west coast. They would go to Mullaitivu for the fishing season there and return to their homes after the season. There were few Tamil fishermen then. Later some of these migrant fishermen settled in areas around the lagoon. There were also other settlements by the Sinhalese promoted by government politicians such as the Dollar and Kent farms in Vavuniya North. These settlers have problems regarding their land rights.
IDPs who returned may find their lands occupied by others. The UNHCR recognizes the property restitution (or property compensation for those unable to return to their places of origin). This principle could be applied in a systematic way by an official body. The NGOs are engaged in rehabilitation work but normalization requires recognition of the land rights of those in occupation of the disputed lands and compensation for the rightful owners who cannot be restored to their original habitations. Protracted situations where the people’s rights to the land occupied by them are not recognized by the rest of the community can prevent IDPs from getting on with a normal life, from reaching their full potential and fully contributing to the community. It can also contribute to the creation of a culture of dependency on NGOs and render parts of the IDP population vulnerable to exploitation.
