{"id":117896,"date":"2021-09-07T22:31:21","date_gmt":"2021-09-08T04:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117896"},"modified":"2021-09-07T15:03:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T22:03:11","slug":"damaging-the-prakrama-samudraya-relapanawa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/07\/damaging-the-prakrama-samudraya-relapanawa\/","title":{"rendered":"Damaging the Prakrama Samudraya Relapanawa"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

I\nwonder what the Government Agent at Polonnaruwa was doing while the relapanawa\nwas removed or damaged to make a walkaway. Walk ways have to be appreciated but\nto damage the irrigation heritage that our forefathers have bequeathed to us is\nunforgivable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nG.A\u2019s residence is on the bund and he must have known what was happening. The\nG.A.  is the highest ranking officer in the District\nand to my thinking though the Prakrama Samudra belongs to the Irrigation\nDepartment, it should have been his concern. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPrakrama Samudraya is a masterpiece of irrigation engineering.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My\nknowledge of irrigation work was in the Agrarian Services when minor irrigation\nwork was taken over from the Government Agents and handed over to the Agrarian\nServices Department. I was in charge of minor irrigation work in the\nAnuradhapura District in 1963 and 64, when my team of Technical Assistants and\nCultivation Superintendents did repair and rebuild tanks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tank\nbund is no mean feat. At its base there is a core of puddled mud  mixed and  settled in\nlike concrete. The earth is put over this puddle mud and rammed in.The  relapanawa is to withstand the waves and the\nwater beating on the bund. I have on my inspections seen how the waters beat on\nthe  bunds and the stone relapanawa is an essential\npart of a tank bund to ensure that the earth on the tank bund can withstand the\nbeating it gets from the water of the tank. This is no mean beating when the\ntank is full. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nwonder why no one in the irrigation department talked. The Relapanawa is an\naccepted integral part of any tank.  We should be\nvery thankful for the MahaSangha who took up this cause. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nirrigation works are precious marvels bequeathed to us.  There\nwill be no life in Polonnaruwa if not for the Parakrama Samudraya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\nquote a bit of the marvels in irrigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngradient of the Jaya Ganga, the fifty mile canal that brings water from the\nKalaweva to Nachchaduwa and finally to the City Tanks in Anuradhapura  is on a gradient of six inches to a mile, i.e.\nsix inches  to 5280 feet or to 63,360 inches. It is a\ngradient that defies all engineering knowledge today. This came to the fore\nwhen I presided over at the Cultivators Meeting of the Tanks under the Jaya\nGanga in 1963, when to settle the problem of the water not reaching all tanks\nin time suggested a concrete base for the full length. The District Irrigation\nEngineer was baffled and was silent for over five minutes and then he replied\nthat it cannot be done. How do you attend to repairs on the Jaya Ganga I\nquipped and he admitted that  They would\nnever dare to touch the entirety of Jaya Ganga, but would attend to limited\nwork  in disconnected sections.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me\nclose with a quote from my book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nare all novices in the vast field of irrigation.  The Kashmiri\nChronicle, the Rajatarangani  tells us\nthat King Dighadipa wanted irrigation engineers from Sri Lanka in the ninth\ncentury., Has any one ever heard of the ancient tanks collecting silt. Our\nancient engineers knew the art of designing tanks in such a manner that silt\ndid not collect in them. It has so happened that We do not have the\nadministrative and technical capacity to even maintain the vast irrigation\nsystems  that have been handed over on a platter  to us by our ancient engineers.”\n(From How the IMF Ruined Sri Lanka and Alernative Programmes of\nSuccess,  Godages, 2006, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is\nnecessary to replace the removed relapanawa immediately before the November\nrains. Otherwise  the Prakrama Samudra is very likely to breach.\nIn Nuwarakalaviya it is not the rain we know in Colombo. It is a deluge that\nlasts for days. That will be a major disaster. Further the Relapanawa consists\nof massive rock boulders These boulders settle in and I would expect them to\ngradually sink in.at least a foot.  Thus\neven to restore the removed Relapanawa it is necessary that the new Relapanawa\nis at least a foot higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over\nto the Department of Irrigation. Please restore the Relapanaway in October\nbefore the onset of the monsoon rains if Polonnaruwa is to be saved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvin\nKarunaratne <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former G.A. Maytara.7 th\nSeptember 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Garvin Karunaratne\u00a0 I wonder what the Government Agent at Polonnaruwa was doing while the relapanawa was removed or damaged to make a walkaway. Walk ways have to be appreciated but to damage the irrigation heritage that our forefathers have bequeathed to us is unforgivable.  The G.A\u2019s residence is on the bund and he must […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-garvin-karunaratne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}