News
Discontinuation of projects during my tenure brought on these floods: Champika
View(s):Former Minister of Megapolis and Western Development and Leader of the United Republic Front Patali Champika Ranawaka this week claimed that the main reason for the floods in areas surrounding Colombo was the failure to implement the projects to divert rainwater.
The former minister at a news conference said flood situations which occur during normal monsoonal rains were avoided due to projects carried out via the Ministry of Megapolis during his tenure.
He claimed that no flood situations were experienced during the five years that he held the post and lamented that as the governments which came to power discontinued his projects the country was unable to face the abnormal killer rains.
He insisted that the projects need to be fully concluded to stop the flooding of surrounding areas in Colombo.
“Nowhere in the Colombo City area was affected by floods. Areas outside Colombo City however, were inundated with water,” he said.
Mr. Ranawaka explained that when the Kelani River overflows the Colombo City, Kelaniya, Kaduwela, Hanwella, Malwana, Kolonnawa as well as Thotalanga areas get affected by floods.
The Colombo Municipal Council and the World Bank carried out a scientific study on the matter which identified 15 specific locations. However, the findings were not fully implemented.
According to the study when the Kelani River swells and the water level rises, the excess water would come inland via canals, culverts and floods.
“Secondly, when the water level of the river rises, and the canals too experience heavy rain, there is no way for the water from those canals to flow into the river. This is because the water level of the river is higher than that of the canals. Therefore, as a solution we used tunnels to take some of the flood water to sea. Additionally, we set up three pumping stations so the water could be pumped out to the sea via canals despite the high water level of the river,” Mr. Ranawaka said.
The former minister elaborated that even though there were 15 projects planned only six were completed. None of the other projects has been implemented over the past five years up to now.
“The pumps in the pumping stations had not functioned to full capacity despite the catastrophic flood situation. For example, only two of the five pumps at the Ambathale pumping station had been activated initially, with the number going up to three pumps later on. The delay had occurred as the power supply was compromised due to flooding. We have to go to the next solution and move forward until the end of a project,” said the MP.
Mr Ranawaka said that they had only commenced the initial phases of the projects and said that Kolonnawa and Kaduwela flood retention activities have not been completed.
Meanwhile, Parliament’s Ways and Means under the chairmanship of Mr Ranawaka is to carry out an inspection visit to the Ambathale, Kalu Palama and Thotalanga pumping stations tomorrow (10).
The best way to say that you found the home of your dreams is by finding it on Hitad.lk. We have listings for apartments for sale or rent in Sri Lanka, no matter what locale you're looking for! Whether you live in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Matara, Jaffna and more - we've got them all!