Excerpts from the book "Muthurajawela" by Henry Abeysekara

No longer the romance of Muturajawela

Muturajawela! The word itself has an euphonically romantic resonance. Historians and antiquarians speak of Sri Lanka as the Paradise Island.

The romance of Muturajawela is the story of the incurable urge of man to harness nature for his needs. In this instance, nature in the shape of the Kelani floods and their retention of wetlands resisted these perverse attempts of man which if they had succeeded then would have defaced her beauty and disrupted the placid course of her existence.

In recent times, with the advance of science and the adoption of modern methods of protection from floods, landfills with sand from the seabed with the aid of pumping machinery have succeeded in striking a happy balance between supplying the needs of man, while at the same time refraining from degrading nature.

This, after all, is the essence of sustainable development which has been achieved in Muturajawela today. Its wetlands have been conserved to serve as an area for the undisturbed habitation of its innumerable species of bird, fish, plant and other bio-life.

Having followed the vicissitudes through which attempts at reclaiming and developing Muturajawela had passed, as described, it cannot be considered as remarkable that Muturajawela enthusiasts would have been in a state of animated expectancy to know in which direction the development of Muturajawela, if at all, was likely to proceed. What was the thinking of the government in this matter of national importance not only in respect of its agricultural and commercial potential, but considering its invaluable mangroves and its provision of a flood water retention area, as a very valuable portion of the coastal wetlands of the country?

The government took stock of its position. After incurring an expenditure of nearly Rs. 2,000,000 although the greater portion of this amount had been spent on the acquisition of reclaimable land, the government could not well abandon the scheme. It could not accept failure and admit that it could do no better than the Dutch and British governments that went before. For, was not the National Government extolling its achievements in the dry zone and its capability of emulating the achievements of the builders of the Parakrama Samudra and the Kala Wewa et al? If it abandoned Muturajawela at this stage, it would be a slur on its escutcheon. It decided that the proposal was not without prospects if it was now directed on the proper lines. With the almost total failure of the 1953 crops, after due consideration, the government decided to entrust the matter to the Irrigation Department which was the one which was best equipped to deliver the goods.

The total cost of the improvements proposed by Kahawita was only Rs1,305,000/=. He had worked out the economics of the scheme, and considered that, together with the money already spent, about 4000 acres of Muturajawela could be made cultivable at an approximate cost of Rs 3.6 million or Rs 900 per acre. He was of the opinion that, considering the need for land in the proximity of Colombo, the scheme was economically feasible.

In the meantime the Ministry of Land and Land Development had obtained the services of A. Wajda from the Food and Agricultural Organisation, to make a survey of not only Muturajawela but of similar wetlands in the wet zone coastal belt. Wajda was in agreement with the scheme of pumping for getting rid of excess flood water, drawn up by Kahawita. He had further suggested that the details be looked into by a team of experts which should include among others, an agronomist and a polder specialist. Consultations with Dutch land reclamation specialists thus began. Muturajawela enthusiasts heaved a sigh of relief. Muturajawela was at last getting the attention it deserved in the manner it deserved. The government was on the right track and results could be expected from this practical approach. In the meantime a fresh point of view was being brought to bear on the subject. As Muturajawela had been a paddy producing area which fed the people of the kingdom of Kotte in the not too distant past, although the cutting of canals, for water transport by the Portuguese and the Dutch, the East and West of the tract, was creating problems of salinity in the soil, the government channelled its thinking to the narrow purpose of reclaiming Muturajawela for the purpose of paddy cultivation only notwithstanding the changed circumstances. As the scheme envisaged for the cultivation of paddy only in Muturajawela was found to face fresh problems everyday, it was suggested that government abandons its proposals to reclaim the area for the cultivation of paddy only and that it adopts an entirely new approach to the matter of reclamation.

In addition to the reasonableness of doing so, the activities of a well known American Oil Company to reclaim a part of Muturajawela for a purpose other than paddy cultivation also gave support to the idea. This Company had prospected in the Southern portion of the marsh, where land belonging to private parties was available, with the intention of filling up the area and siting its Oil Refinery there. The Company found, after some investigation that it was faced with several constraints, not the least of which was the enormous cost of the land refill. (The present day method of pumping sand from the seabed lying within close proximity, for the land fill was not known then).

They abandoned the proposal as being impracticable. However, advisors to the government were not at all pessimistic about proceeding with the new thinking of selective multipurpose reclamation. It was suggested that the government might fill up a selected portion of the South of the tract. It was pointed out that if this area which was closest to Colombo was filled up, the value of the land refill was bound to appreciate considerably compensating to some extent at least for the cost of the refill. Government was at that time in the euphoria of post independence, expanding its activities at an accelerated pace and spending considerable sums of money on the acquisition of developed land for its new housing and improvement schemes in the neighbourhood of Colombo.

The land refill, it was pointed out, could be used not only for housing and stores purposes but for the establishment of suitable industrial and live stock breeding units. For instance it was pointed out that the proposed Milk Board Project could with advantage be sited on reclaimed land at Muturajawela. This site was so ideally suited for this purpose that it would be difficult to find a more suitable place. There was the proximity to Colombo by both road and rail, the availability of a plentiful supply of water, the availability of pasture and its suitability for the growth of fodder grasses. If the Milk Board Project was sited here, new avenues for expansion in related fields of activity would open. Market gardening will be a feasible proposition. Centres of population, being close at hand, would provide a ready market. Manure from the Milk Board Project would be available. Land fill reclamation would have to be followed by a well planned land utilisation scheme, and worked out so that the highest return could be obtained from the land.

It is noteworthy that the line of thinking in 1954 of developing Muturajawela for housing, stores, and industrial and commercial purposes was generally the base on which the Master Plan of 1993 was formulated. However in 1954, no thought was given for the planned reservation of conservation area which is perhaps the main attraction in the Master Plan proposals. The thinking was there, but the government after 1954 remained in a state of lifeless inertia. Enthusiasts however urged that, whether the land was used as a reclamation project for housing and similar needs or for mainly agricultural purposes or combination of them, Muturajawela 'redivivus' was not only desirable but necessary. They urged that no independent government worthy of its name which was expanding in all aspects of its national life should abandon to remain as wasteland so large an extent of reclaimable land lying within sight of its capital.

The exhortation fell on deaf ears and Muturajawela remained in a more or less moribund state till 1997 when it awoke to a roseate dawn.

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