Costly Dams Hold Neither Water Nor Power

By Pearl Thevanayagam -December 14, 2013

Pearl Thevanayagam

Costly dams hold neither water nor power: Samanalawewa was doomed from the start

Camelia Nathaniel has re-opened the can of worms afflicting our country’s foolhardy dam projects. While Chogm and war crimes hit the headlines in the last few weeks she wrote an investigative story on the Samanalawewa Dam in the Sunday Leader recently which was obfuscated by politicians and their shenanigans.

Her reporting is a matter of fact and no fluff journalism. “Dam in Danger” she wrote did not attract the attention it deserved although it is of national importance and a serious cause for our environmental concern.

Sri Lanka has already lost two of its landmark waterfalls, Devon and St Clairs, thanks to the then Power and Energy Minister, Anududdha Ratwatte, who believed these natural beauties should be forfeited for small scale hydro-electric power projects. It is heart-breaking to watch these breath-taking waterfalls in all its natural splendour – St Clairs flowing like seven bridal veils and Devon cascading in full strength in the Hatton area – disappear.

Victoria Dam commissioned by Britain with the Queen gracing its opening displaced thousands of farmers whose very sustenance depended on the rivers which provided them with agriculture and its produce to sustain them. Their wails were described in her book Paddy Birds , written by Lalitha Withanachchi, a senior journalist at the Daily News in the nineties. Mahaweli diversion during JRJ’s tenure with Israel’s contribution deprived Kandyan farmers of their livelihood and dispersed them to the East where they became strangers and exposed  to unfamiliar territory they never envisaged.                       Read More