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Canals choked by highway building sand cause flooding
Sand piled up for the construction of the Colombo-Katunayake highway has washed away in pre-monsoonal rains, blocking canals in Peliyagoda and Kelaniya and causing rainwater to flow into houses, residents claim. The Nuge Road and Wanawasala road in Peliyagoda are on marshy land and floods usually affect the area’s residents as the south-west monsoon rains set in but this week floodwater levels rose three to four feet, causing havoc as houses were flooded and people’s belongings destroyed.
Flooded out: Children in the shanty dwellings on Nuga Road in Wanawasala
People in the area blamed the highway constructions for the destruction. Krishan Jayawardena, an engineer who has carried out a survey on floods affecting Kelaniya and Peliyagoda areas agreed but said the filling of low-lying land had been the main cause of flooding.
This year’s floods had affected all categories of houses very badly, damaging property and belongings, he said. The main roads had gone under water, disrupting daily work and school transport early this week. A lack of sanitation and food had caused widespread suffering.
“This time the flooding happened after a short but dense period of rainfall. There was an inadequate area for water retention, and also the sluice gates were only partially open although the river water level was high. Also, most of the canals was blocked by sand and other material on account of the construction of the express highway,” Mr Jayawardena said.
Many residents faced difficulties because their belongings had been destroyed. Chanaka Sampath, 30, father of three and a road development employee from Nuge Road, Peliyagoda, said the floods had been caused by the highway sand stockpiles being washed into the local canals. He said that even though it had only rained for two hours earlier this week, the deluge had resulted in flood levels three feet high.
“I filled my house with sandbags to avoid the floodwater entering the house but the water came in and destroyed all the household equipment. My children and wife are now staying at my mother’s house. My children’s schoolbooks got soaked,” he said. Razline Wickremasinghe, 63, a resident in the area said the canal behind her house was blocked with sand from the highway construction and that she could not find clean water to drink or use for washing.
“We are not in a position even to use the toilets as the area is filled with floodwater and there is no way of getting rid of the water. Since our toilets are overflowing we had to walk over half a kilometre in search of toilets,” she said. She suspected that diseases would begin circulating because dirty canal water had entered homes.
Razline and her family (incet) wait outside their humble abode that was filled with flood waters and mud
Mr. Jayawardena’s view is that while the construction sandpiles were partly to blame, the main cause for flooding was the reduction in marshy lowland area for water retention. Over a period of time this retention area had been filled in to build highways, a fish market and other development.
Previously, he said, this low-lying land had the capacity to accommodate a couple of weeks of rainfall until this water gradually flowed down to the Kelani River through waterways and canals. “At present, a fair percentage of the water retention area is filled for many development projects, and the canals and water ways leading to the river are blocked, and flooding takes place even with a couple of hours’ hard rain.” The building of the Katunayake expressway had reduced the area for water retention by many thousand cubic metres, he said.
The engineer warned that the situation could become worse if water levels reached unexpected levels, endangering human life and causing irreparable losses. The only workable solution was to install a high-capacity pumping station to pump floodwater quickly to the river at times when the sluice gates in the canals could not be opened to draw stormwater into the river. The waterway leading to this pumping station should be cleared and well connected to cover the whole area with adequate draining capacity.
Peliyagoda Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman, Nihal Ananda, promised that the authorities would start pumping floodwater from the area very soon with the help of the Gampaha Municipal Council.
Strengthening winds will end baking heat
The warm winds blowing across the country will soon strengthen and conclusively end the hot season, the Director General of the Department of Meteorology, S.H Kariyawasam, said adding that the current weather fluctuations would last another fortnight.
“The winds are not very strong yet. Once it becomes strong the hot season will not prevail any more,” Mr Kariyawasam said.
“This is the pre south-west monsoon period. During this period the atmosphere of our area is quite unstable. Small weather patterns would keep developing that will produce rain, which will dissipate later.”
The south-west will experience dawn rains with occasional thunder and lightning, and other areas could have rain – often thunder showers – in the afternoon, the Met Department said. The full south west monsoon is expected to begin towards the end of this month.
A low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal has intensified into a depression and is directed towards the south–east of Hambantota. This could bring more rain over south-western Sri Lanka
The fishing community has been asked to stay vigilant and not go out to sea if the weather worsens. The highest rainfall recorded on Monday (May 6) in Colombo was 197.5 mm. The bad weather has affected some 10,638 people, and two deaths have occurred in Dimbulagala and Kelaniya.
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