Torn between two towns

Sanjeewani Prabudhika is an attractive young girl living on top of the world, literally. Her home is a picturesque house built on top of a massive hill overlooking the busy streets of Peradeniya. But that lovely location itself may now be a dangerous one. The hill, on top of which her family resides, is a feast to the eyes but there is a catch: it is in close proximity to another hill where a recent landslide caused heavy damage to the area.

"There have been houses on this slope for more than a hundred years and we never had a problem. This is pretty recent. We don't really have a clue as to what caused the landslides," says Sanjeewani.

Professor Kapila Dahanayaka of the Peradeniya University's Geology Department explains that landslides occur in the central highlands of Sri Lanka where the necessary conditions are present. "You need an elevation difference, a particular angle and weak rocks," he says. When the rock is rich in clay it's considered to be weak. When there is rainfall, the clay becomes slippery, leading to landslides.

There is talk of shifting the Peradeniya town to another location (Iriyagama) in view of these landslides. The relocation is scheduled to take place in about five months. The Chairmen of the Yati Nuwara and Gangawata Korale Pradeshiya Sabhas confirm this. But do the townsfolk really want to move?

Sanjeewani's mother doesn't. "We don't want to move. We have places to go and live but we don't want to. Our entire family has been living here for a very long time," she says. This is despite the fact that a narrow and steep flight of steps leads to her house. The journey is by no means an easy task; it's quite hard to fathom that her entire family, including her grandmother, climbs these steps every single day.

Chandana Jayantha, owner of Udaya Stores, a grocery almost right under the hill that came down, says that he and the other businessmen in the area were told by officials that the recent rocks that fell from the hill on to the street and the shops were not due to a landslide but were caused by some kind of soil erosion. "The campus and the hospital is what provide us with business. They should widen the road instead of moving the entire town," he says.

When the rocks came down at around 11 a.m. last November the shop owners in the vicinity closed the road, says Chandana. "The rock was right in the middle of the road," he adds. Even a month after the shops were closed no compensation was paid to them, complains another shopkeeper. Some of them have run out of business and some have been forced to buy new businesses, he says.

The shopkeepers who were affected have got together to help each other in the wake of the disaster. “Our businesses have been heavily affected," says one of them. The hill in question used to be uninhabited with a natural growth of flora and fauna. But about 30 houses had been built on top of it. Waste disposal pits had been dug, and unsuitable trees planted there and these ignorant actions by the unauthorized dwellers on the hill have led to landslides, says a Pradeshiya Sabha member.

Peradeniya falls under two Pradeshiya Sabhas: Gangawata Korale and Yati Nuwara. If the relocation is carried out, eight acres of land will come under the former while ten will come under the latter. Chairman of the Gangawata Korale Pradeshiya Sabha, Mahinda Yatawala says the Peradeniya bus stand, the market and the public toilet system will come under their purview. The current location of the town is not that good as it's not very clean, he says. According to Mr. Yatawala most of the shops in the area dump their waste into the Mahaweli River which flows through Peradeniya. "This is a very unfortunate situation, especially given the fact that the Peradeniya town is along the Colombo - Kandy highway," he says.

The Urban Development Authority (UDA) has promised to make the area a tourist zone, guaranteeing a good income for the 168 affected shops, adds Mr. Yatawala. Chairman of the Yati Nuwara Pradeshiya Sabha, Thusitha Walagedara believes the town is unsafe. "You have the river, and then you have the Botanical Gardens. An experiment was carried out and the results showed that the shops have turned their waste disposal pipes to the river," says Mr. Walagedara.

The Governor has discussed and taken this step with the future of the town in mind, he says. "Whatever people say, our goal is to build a good city in a good location, in a proper and methodical manner," he adds. Mr. Walagedara's wish is certainly the hope of the good people of Peradeniya, so that all of them would have a clean and safe town to inhabit.