Town that sweeps the
nation - Waskaduwa
By Chathuri Dissanayake
Since the 1960s, Waskaduwa came to be popular
for the many saw mills it had with which emerged as a virtual cottage
industry for brooms that were distributed around the country. Though
a small town located between Panadura and Kalutara, Waskaduwa’s
‘lee mudalalis’ travelled across the land with their
products.
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A wayside shop. Pix by J. Weerasekera |
The business which has now come down three generations
was begun by two men Indradasa De Silva better known as Somachandra
Mudalali and Myleris Silva while a third, Saldin Mudalali followed
the trend by starting another saw mill. They made broom handles
and treated rubber timber for pallets for containers. They also
made brooms and ekel brooms which they distributed across the country.
The manufacturers bought the timber from the rubber
plantation and used this timber for their work. Up to today the
reputation of the mills for using only rubber timber still holds.
Myleris De Silva, the only surviving member of
the first generation of businessmen, even created a machine to cut
the broom handles which was used by the saw mills until an advanced
Taiwan-made machine came to the market. His elder son improved the
machine - run by two motors -- to run with just one but he doesn’t
want to share his invention and keeps his technology for himself.
“I went to a carpenter from Moratuwa who made picture frames
and gave him the idea of how to get the stick round shaped. We had
to do it in two halves unlike the foreign machine which is available
now”, said Myleris De Silva
According to him there were no experts in this
work at the beginning and it was this carpenter from Moratuwa who
did the work and gradually other workers have trained under him
and learnt the trade. At the beginning the mills had sawed different
kinds of timber but with time it became limited to rubber.
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Broom handles |
“The broom handle business was started in
1959 by my father and two other men. Contractors provided our saw
mills with 4-feet long planks from all areas Matugama, Agalawatta,
from the Kalutara Ratnapura and Galle districts,” said Sarathweera
De Silva, a son of Somachandra mudalali, explaining how the system
has worked for about 50 years.
Between these three they provided brooms and coir
ropes to almost all parts of the country, Somachandra Mudalali and
Saldin Mudalali travelled to Jafna and the north while Myleris De
Silva supplied to Colombo shops.
“We had most of our business in Jaffna but
after the July 1983 riots that stopped. This area was the first
to provide broom handles for the whole country”, said Sarathweera
obviously proud of the history he himself is a part of.
Then came Sampath Saw Mills owned by G. Siril
Silva the fourth competitor, who started to supply brooms and coir
to the north. He followed in the footsteps of his father who also
has a saw mill.
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A. Sarath Weera De Silva |
Even though trips to the North stopped after 1983
Siril still travels to some areas of the East. “I returned
only yesterday from Trincomalee,” he said last week.
All the sons of these three men have followed
their fathers and ventured into the business and most still hold
on with the hope of a third generation taking it over after them.
Somachandra Mudalali’s four sons all have
saw mills of their own with Sarathweera the second son managing
the father’s original saw mill. “Our mother has done
quite a lot for the business. When my father passed away in 1980
till I took over in 1987 it was our mother who managed the business.
Today she is helping the youngest son in the family to run his business,”
said Sarathweera.
The business trend grew and according to Sarathweera
by the eighties there were about 15 saw mills in the area and in
the nineties it doubled to 30. Many have learnt the trade from its
pioneers and have ventured out to start on their own.
However things are not rosy for the saw mill owners
compared to the situation about 10 years ago. All the businessmen
face an acute shortage of raw material. However this is not because
the country is running out of rubber wood. Timber is available but
is limited in quantity and the competition is too fierce. Many complained
that the prices demanded for a cubic metre of rubber log are too
high for them to buy.
“In the past we quoted the prices for a
log and we were able to look for quality and be choosy; now we have
to buy at whatever the price they say and we can’t do anything
about it. Sometimes the quality is not good and the quantity quoted
is not there, but we can’t complain,” said Siril.
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G. Siril Silva |
Out of the 30 saw mills that were buzzing with
activity a few years ago almost half remain closed. Some of the
owners have ventured into new businesses while the others are trying
hard to survive. Walking around in the area I found out just how
bad the situation is. Many workshops with mills are closed with
no activity except for an occasional stray dog who has taken refuge
in the ‘abandoned’ work sheds.
Some still run the saw mills at a loss because
for many the mills are more than just a business. This is what they
inherited from their fathers and what they want to one day hand
it down to their sons.
“I want to hand this over to my youngest
son, he won't be applying for university for if he does he might
move away from the business,” said Siril. His two elder sons
are both working as engineers.
But questions abound about the future of Waskaduwa.
With changing times and high cost of timber, will there be a business
to run for the next generation and for this town to continue to
be the premier brooms' supplier to the rest of the country?
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