15 Responses to “උමාඔය සැලස්ම මෛත්‍රී මහවැලි ඇමති කාලේ මෛත‍්‍රීගේ පින්තූර දමා මුද්‍රණය කල පොතේ තියෙනවා..”

1. Christie Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 4:14 am

   මට මතක් වෙන්නේ ඉන්දියන් පරපෝසිතයන්ගෙන් යැපුන ඇන් ඇම් පෙරේරා පොලොන්නරුව පැත්තේ දුටු අතක් තරම් ලොකු මදුරුවන්ය.

   ඒ මදුරුවන්ට පින්සිදුවෙන්න සිරිසේන උපන්නේය.

   ඇන් ඇම් මෙන්ම ඉන්දියානු අදිරදයෙන් යැපෙන ජෙප්පන්ගෙන් වෙන මොනවද?

2. Leela Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 6:31 am

   පරිසර විශේසඥයන්ගෙ නිර්දේස මත CECB ඉන්ජිනේරැවො අාර්තික විශේසඥයො උමා ඔය ව්‍යාපෘතිය ප්ලෑන් කොලේ බන්ඩාරවෙල ලිං හින්දවන්නද? නැහැ. වෙල් ලක්‍ෂයක් තිබුන වෙල්ලස්සට අත්‍යාවශ්‍ය වතුර දෙන්නය්. මහින්ද පටන් ගත්ත උමා ඔය ව්‍යාපෘතිය අසාර්තක වෙන්නෙ නැහැ. ප්‍රශ්ණයක් පැන නැගිල තියනවා. පවතින රජය ඒකට නිසි පිලියම් යෙදිය යුතුය්.

   කවදාවත් රටට වැඩක් නොල තක්කඩි ජෙප්පන්ගෙ විෂ කතා වලට අහුවෙන්න එපා. චීනයේ යැංගසි ඟග හරස් කොරල ලොකෙ විශාලතම ජල විදුලි නිශ්පාදනය සහ මිරදිය හැතැප්ම 1000ක් දුරට ගෙන යන ත්‍රි ගෝජස් කියල වෙල්ලක් හදපු බව ගඟ වල් හරස් කොරන එක වැරදිය කියන විද්‍යාරත්න ජෙප්ප දන්නෙ නැහැ. මොන සංවර්ධන වැඩේ කවුරැ කලත් කොහේ කලත් පරිසරයට හානියක් සහ කට්ටියකට හානියක් වෙනවමය්. ත්‍රි ගෝජස් ව්‍යාපෘතියෙන් ලක්‍ෂ 12ක් අවතැන් උන බවත් නගර ගම් දනව් ගනනාවක් යට වූ බවත් රහසක් නෙවෙය්. නමුත් හානි අවම කොරගෙන රට අත් කරගත් වාසි කියා නිම කල නොහැකය්.

   ඉතින් මේ වෙනකොට 78%ක් ඉවර කරපු උමා ඔය ව්‍යාපෘතිය දැන් වහන්න බැහැ. සිරිසේන බය්ල කියන්නෙ නැතුව බන්ඩාරවෙල ලිං හිදෙන එකට ප්‍රතිකර්ම යෙදිය යුතුමය්. නමුත් ලිං හිදෙනවා කියල උමා ඔය ව්‍යාපෘතියෙන් රජ කාලෙ වෙල් ලක්‍ෂයක් තිබුන වෙල්ලස්සට වතුර ගෙනල්ලා ගොවිතැන් බත් කලහම රටට වෙන වාසිය අමතක කොරන්න පුලුවන්ද? කොහෙත්ම බැහැ. කට කැඩිච්ච කතා කියන පාර්ලිමේන්තුවෙන් විසිවෙච්ච ජෙප්පා ඔය හදන්නෙ බන්ඩාරවෙල ලිං හිදෙන එකේ පිහිටෙන් ගොඩ එන්නය්.

   දැන් වසර පනහකට අාසන්න කාලයක ඉඳල ජවිපෙ දේසපාලනය කොරනවා. ලපයල විජිතල අැමති තනතුරැ දැරැවා. ප්‍රාදේශිය සභාවකුත් පාලනය කොලා. මෙතුවක් කල් ජෙප්පො රටට කල වැඩ ලිස්ට් එකක් ලියන්න පුලුවන්ද?

   ජෙප්පොන්ට අමතක උනාට 88/89/90 කාලෙ ජෙපි හැත්ත කල දෑ අපට නම් හොඳට මතකය්. 1987 ‘පලා බබා අපිට එපා’ කියල පාසල් ලමය් පාරට බස්සල පලමු පලාත් සභා මැතිවරණෙදි ඉස්සෙල්ලම චන්දෙ දමපු මිනිහ මැරැවා. ජෙප්පො අද කියනවා පලාත් සභාවට වැඩි බලතරල දෙන්න ඔීනැලු. ඊලඟට චිට් බෙදල කඩ, ඔෆිස්, ෆැක්ටරි වැහුවා, ට්‍රාන්ස්ෆෝමර් පිච්චුවා, බස් ගිනි තිබ්බා, දැන් අංශක 180ක් කැරකිලා
   තමන්ගෙ කාඩරයන්ගෙ කටට හුජ්ජ කල සහ ඔලුවට පරාල අැන ගස්සපු රනිලට කඩේ යනවා. ඉන්දියන් බඩු වර්ජන කරමු කියල සීනි අානයනය කල උම්බිච්චි මරපු ජෙප්පො අද ඉන්දියානුවන්ට කඩේ යනවා. දහ ජරා ජෙප්පන්ට බලය දුන්නොත් මොනව නොකරය්ද?

3. Christie Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 8:08 am

   Thanks Leela.

   Do you know one of the Senior engineers involved in Three Gauges Dam project was a Sinhalese. I think he was involved with Mahawel or Galoya.

   The current regime is going after India (Norway) to find solutions.

   Jeppos living off Indians do not know the Indian Green Revolution that feed 1.4 billion is from building dams across rivers in India.

4. Ananda-USA Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 3:52 pm

   The ORIGINAL CONCEPT and MOTIVATION behind the UMA OYA Project is and was sound. The current problems in this project are NOT WITH CONCEPTION, but with its EXECUTION and VERY LONG DELAYS during the construction that allowed water seepage, soil consolidation and soil settlement issues to initiate and aggravate without PROMPT REMEDIAL ACTION.

   As an R&D engineer and an engineering manager who has been intimately associated with geotechnical engineering design of underground tunnels for various defense related and nuclear waste disposal purposes, in a very long multidisciplinary engineering career, I make the following comments.

   When you contruct long tunnels underground, water seepage into the tunnel from unexpetedly permeable strata and fractured rock in fault zones is a NORMAL OCCURRENCE. Sri Lanka has a very tectonically stable DEEP subsurface geology mostly composed of hard rock of metamorphic and igneous origin underlying softer rocks of sedimentary origin nearer the surface. As such, tunnel construction in Sri Lsnka is devoid of the hazards of construction in earthquake prone geotechtonically active regions.

   However, fractued rock and permeable soils snd soft rocks exist everywhere in the eotld, and Sri Lsnks is no dxception. No amount of closely-spaced geologic subsurface sampling and measurements via boreholes and geophysical imaging can catch ALL highly permeable flow zones that are usually intersected by long underground tunnels.

   Furthermore, the stress concentrations created by the removal of rock during tunndl construction induces cracking and fractures along the tunnel surface within a skin layer about a tunnel diameter deep into the rock from the tunnel surface. This acts as a highly permeable water collection flow channel/zone that intersects all fracture zones and permeable strata the tunnel intersects.

   The concrete shell installed at the tunnel surface itself cannot not stop this flow collection behaviour of the cracking induced skin zone. To prevent that, thick CEMENT GROUT should be injected under pressure through boreholes drilled from the tunnel surface into the fault zones and the most permeable strata intersected by the skin zone of the tunnel. This is STANDARD PRACTICE. Such a program of SYSTEMATIC SEALING of the skin zone agsinst penetration of water into it from the fault and permeable zones intersected by the tunnel should have been undertaken in a timely way. That would have prevented the drainage of groundwater from the near-surface soil, it’s consolidation, settlement and cracking.

   President Sirisena stated in one his talks that the problems of the Umajority Oya project t were brought to his attention before his election as President in 2015 but that there was nothing he could do to STOP the project because 2/3 of the project had already been completed!

   I would like to ask, HOW ABOUT FIXING THE PROBLEMS through SEALING the skin zone of the tunnel and NOT WAITING until GROUNDWATER CONTINUED TO DRAIN over nearly 3 MORE YEARS,

   ANY decent team of SRI LANKAN Civil Engineers could have recommended what I have above and EXECUTED IT! The State Engineering Corporation could have done it! THis I’d NOT ROCKET SCIENCE for God’s sake to send off to Germany and to Norway for FOREIGN ENGINEERS when we have in Sri Lanka, and in tbe Sri Lsnkan Diasporas, highly qualified engineers RECOGNIZED the world over as EXPERTS in these areas.

   What is CLEAR is that our HIGHLY COMPETENT ENGINEETS and EMGINEERING MANAGERS are SIDELINED by KNOW-NOTHING DO-NOTHING PARA-GATHI politicians who kow-tow down to foreigners looking for ungloved foreign hands to shake, and delay projects that are of ENORMOUS POTENTIAL BENEFIT to our people living in the Welassa dry zone besides generating some sorely needed electricity!

   In SUMMARY, NOTHING WAS WRONG with the UMA OYA Project as CONCEIVED. Its EXECUTION was BUNGLED in that NORMAL WATER INFILTRATION during tunnel construction was NOT REMEDIED in a TIMELY WAY!

   NINCOMPOOP POLITICIANS SCREWED UP a GREAT PROJECT!

5. Senerath Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 3:57 pm

   Leela,
   You points are valid as a layman.
   Reason for drying of wells is serious. It can finally lead to partial collapse. Drilling a hole in a mountain can lead to serious leaks.
   It is due to leaking of water through the unlined tunnelthat wells are drying as the water table is lowered. It is either an engineering failure to understand the realities or malpractice during construction.
   I beleive these leaks can be grouted and tunnel sealed, then the project will be a sucess.

6. Ananda-USA Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 4:10 pm

   It is my STRONG RECOMMENDATION to the GOSL, that the REMEDIAL ACTION to STOP the water infiltration be PROMPTLY UNDERTAKEN through a SYSTEMATIC PROGRAM of GEOPHYSICAL INVESTIGATIONS to locate the problem areas behind the tunnel surface, and ROCK SEALING with GROUT INJECTION into those zones.

   In addition, steps should be taken to STABILISE the setteked lands through water injection, sealing and reinforcement. People who have suffered damage to land and property should be PROMPTED COMPENSATED and assisted to find repair or replace their homes or relocate to alternative homes as needed.

   The UMA OYA PROJECT should NOT BE STOPPED and ABANDONED! It should be REMEDIED and COMPLETED as ORIGINALLY CONCEIVED to brings the projected benefits to ALL of the citizens of our Motherland.

7. Ananda-USA Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 5:08 pm

   Norwegian experts to consult on Sri Lanka’s crisis-ridden multi-purpose Uma Oya development project

   Sat, Jul 1, 2017, 10:44 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

   July 01, Colombo: Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena has assured that the Government will look into the future activities of the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development project while giving priority to resolve the problems faced by the people affected by the project.

   President Sirisena Friday chaired a special discussion with the representatives of the civil organizations representing the people affected by the multipurpose development project.

   The organizations presented the details of the issues that the people in Uva Province have to face due to the Uma Oya Project in detail to the President at the meeting and the President assured to speedily resolve the issues related to the housing facilities, drinking water and destruction of the crops or agricultural products.

   The President further said that the Government after consulting with an independent technical specialist team will look into the possibility of temporarily halting the works of the project, until solutions are found to alleviate the difficulties faced by the people.

   The President said that a Norwegian Specialist team is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka at the first week of August and a specialist from Germany has already started to investigate the environmental impact of the project.

   He said that adding according to their ideas and suggestions, the Government will consider the possibility of taking forward this project while resolving the existing issues, minimizing the damages and utilizing the modern technology to a maximum level.

   The residents claim that over 7,000 homes have been damaged by the construction of the massive underground tunnels being dug for the project and the fresh water springs and reservoirs have dried up in many areas in the Uva Province.

   The multi-purpose project involves the construction of two reservoirs on tributaries of the Uma Oya, which flows down from central hills and join the Mahaweli River, and one tunnel on the Uma Oya to divert water to a power generator further downstream.

   The water will be diverted to Kirindi Oya basin which will take water to Hambantota through the 25 km long underground tunnel across mountains in Bandarawela by creating a dam at Puhulpola in Welimada and a reservoir in Diaraba.

   The project at an estimated cost of US$ 529 million was launched by the previous government in 2012 with a US$ 450 million loan from Iran.

   Ministers Mahinda Amaraweera, Harin Fernando, Vijith Vijithamuni Soysa, Uva Province Chief Minister Chamara Sampath Dasanayaka, Uva Provincial Councilor Samantha Vidyarathna, Secretary for the Mahaweli Development & Environment Anura Dissanayake, Deputy Project Director of the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development project P.B. Amarasekara also participated in the meeting.

8. Leela Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 5:29 pm

   One need not be a civil engineer to understand what Ananda has explained very articulately above. But I bet our Executive President cannot fathom it.

   During JR’s tenure however, he has appointed a capable young man, Gamini Dissanayake as the minister in charge of the accelerated Mahaweli development. By and large, I believe, he has done a fantastic job. We the people should have noted the services rendered by such people and elect them as the executive President of this country. Instead we bought gossip, fall into lorry talk and elected people like Chandrika and Sirisena who neither has the intellect to abstract complicated matters nor had any proven track record to the highest office.

   Would any Executive President with a sane mind stop large complicated projects like ‘port city’ halfway on flimsy arguments? No. The man just cannot appreciate repercussions on delays and postponements of multitask projects. Only a proven man like Gota can take us out of the present shit hole.

9. Dilrook Says:
   July 1st, 2017 at 7:06 pm

   Sadly once again the national view is lost. It has become a political party battle!

   Uma Oya project was wrong from the start. It should not have happened. Over a dozen feasibility reports were done since 1989. Given the higher environmental damage no government went ahead with it.

   $450 million was borrowed from Iran at the commencement of the project. It was suspended in 2014 after massive damage to people’s property, disruption to water sources and threatening their livelihoods. Bandarawela is a vulnerable Sinhala township in an area colonized by South Indians. Devastating it is an unforgivable crime.

   Though there are other streams that could have been easily diverted to the south-east, Uma Oya was selected as its current beneficiaries are Sinhalese who can be easily fooled using political divisions. The government greatly feared Tamils and Muslims and dared not touch other tributaries that would deprive water to these minorities.

   As the local saying goes, water flows through the lowest (emphasised) place.

   The project must be stopped for good and the damage done must be reversed. It will cost at least another $300 million. The collapse is very similar to what happened to the “floating market” in Colombo, garbage solution (Mattakkuliya to Meethotamulla), Mattala airport, Northern Provincial Council and Suriyawewa stadium – all white elephants.

   “http://www.ft.lk/article/399708/Uma-Oya-project–More-damages-than-benefits”

   Expect no one to take accountability for this massive disaster. Accountability was the first casualty of executive presidency.

10. Ananda-USA Says:
    July 1st, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    Dilrook,

    You begin your criticism of the UMA OYA Project by saying “the UMA OYA Project was wrong from the start” , but all of your subsequent statements are on political considerations

    Politics aside, PRAY TELL ME, what EXACTLY was in your opinion “wrong from the start”?

    There was NOTHING WRONG with the project as CONCEIVED!

    Only the EXECUTION and PROBERT DELAYS created the currrent problems as I have explained above. You can’t leave an UNSEALED tunnel open for YEARS without reaping a DISASTER!

11. Christie Says:
    July 1st, 2017 at 9:47 pm

    Thanks Ananda and Leela.

    Looking at the demonstrations and placards and the Sirisena’s meeting and outcomes one thing is clear.

    As Ananda say solution is simple. Who are the engineers doing this? Were they praying and offering Poojas to Hindu gods.

    Grouting and sealing and reinforcing parts of the tunnel as tunneling progress is part of the Engineering works.

    Then observing side effects like effects on buildings, changes in surface water, effects on the land etc and consolidating with engineering outcomes is part of the management of the project.

    As Amanda say it is going to be more problematic as time goes like ones own water works (kidney, bladder, etc).

    The worst is Indian funded and managed and headed by Indian colonial parasites making political gains from the disaster.

12. Dilrook Says:
    July 1st, 2017 at 11:57 pm

    @Ananda

    I didn’t mention anything political though they have political implications. No one seems to take responsibility than trade blame. The project is a failure from the start.

    Uma Oya project was not conceived by Mahinda. It was discussed long before that. It is not feasible given the geographical challenges and the impact it has on upcountry dry zone. They need water too. Failure of tunnels to carry water was previously seen in Randenigala, etc. This should not have been attempted.

    It was funded by Iran and subsequently (2012) Iran suspended funding when Sri Lanka opted for other oil sources and was unable to make previous loan repayments! Construction was carried out by Iran’s Hadish Engineering Company. It is facing multiple court cases in Kenya and other countries over its shoddy work.

    The next resultant disaster will be worse landslides in an area these have not taken place. If it happens, ethnic Sinhalese will pay with their lives as in Meethotamulla and Ratnapura. We need no enemies with friends like those responsible.

13. Ananda-USA Says:
    July 2nd, 2017 at 12:54 am

    Dilrook,

    You have STILL not said why the UMA OYA Project is bad except that it takes water away from the “upcountry dry zone” and there are some unspecified “geographical challenges” and problem of water leakage in another location at Randenigala.

    NONE of these are VALID enginneering, economic or environmental problems AGAINST the UMA OYA Project.

    1. The upcountry is not in the dry zone; there is plenty of water there for local consumption as well as export to other truly dry areas in the Northern and South Western dry zones.

    2. What are these “geographical” problems you speak of? I see a relatively moderate distance and I see a hilly terrain from which the water has to be
    brought down to the flat Welassa plain. But these are difficulties that an be overcome by engineering, by building canals, underground tunnels through mountain ramgrs and using existing rivers and river basins, suitably dammed to create reservoir storage. That is PRECISELY what was CORTECTLY CONCEIVED in the UMA OYA project.

    3. Water seepage into surrounding rock is also a ROUTINE ENGINEERING PROBLEM for which there are WELL ACCEPTED ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS such as using REINFORCED-CONCRETE LINED TUNNELS and SEALING permeable strata and fraxture zones intercepted by the microcracked skin zone along the tunnel surface. This is where the UMA OYA IMPLEMENTATION FAILED. There was either NO SEALING PROGRAM or it was POORLY DONE! But, that was not a fault of the PROJECT CONCEPTION.

    4. The REAL CRIME in the UMA OYA Project was in NEGLECTING to perform the SEALING and arrest the seepage of water into the tunnel when it was first detected. As I had said, if the water seepage was known 3 years ago, and it was arrested then by REMEDIAL ACTION during the last 3 years, NONE of the damage to the land and buildings now seen would have happened. Thus has been IGNORED for 3 WHOLE YEARS by a government focused solely on hunting down leaders of the previous government. If the Iranian company did shoddy work, that should have been compensated through project witholdings held back until the project is completed and handed over. That is a part of POOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT, but NOT THE PROJECT CONCEPTION as a multiobjective engineering project. That too is probably POLITICAL BUNGLING of a high order.

    FINALLY, I MUST SAY that I am AMAZED that you DENY that most of your criticisms are NOT ABOUT POLITICS. Indeed they are. Who cares where the money came from, or who or when the project was started? I don’t buy your argument that this was some DEEP PLOT to undermine the Sinhala residents of Bandarawela.

    The Uma Oya Project was SIMPLY a WELL CONCEIVED but POORLY EXECUTED project that sought to harness excess water in the Hill Country and bring it to serve the people of the Welassa dry zone while generating some electricity to feed the National Grid along the way.

14. Ananda-USA Says:
    July 2nd, 2017 at 4:26 am

    Oops! I meant to say “truly dry areas of the Northern and South Eastern dry zones” and NOT South Western.

15. Dilrook Says:
    July 2nd, 2017 at 6:06 am

    @Ananda

    Please read the FT article I shared. The link is given.

    Upcountry has two climatic zones – cool wet (Nuwara Eliya) and cool dry (Bandarawela). Wet and dry are based on average annual precipitation. Cool or warm is based on temperature.

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