RIVER WATER GOES WASTE

Farmers’ organisations in the Polonnaruwa district are perturbed that the heavy rains experienced in the area will not benefit them due to the failure of the authorities to effect repairs to the tanks and irrigation systems designed to preserve water.

The representatives of the farmer organisations who attended a District Agricultural Committee meeting said that paddy cultivators lost the Yala season due to the drought and that they would be in a similar predicament in the Maha season as well despite heavy rain swelling the Amban Ganga. They pointed out that in the absence of conditions to store water to irrigate paddy fields the Amban Ganga carried an enormous quantity of water to the sea.

President of the Elahera Farmers’ Organisation Ananda Edisuriya said the authorities were not in a position to release water for the Maha cultivation or even to hold a farmers’ meeting. “We were in a predicament for want of irrigation facilities in the Yala season, We were in a predicament for want of irrigation facilities in the Yala season, and left to face heavy losses. A similar fate will befall us in the Maha season and left to face heavy losses. A similar fate will befall us in the Maha season,” he added.

President of the farmer s’ organisation in the Minneriya agricultural scheme Wijesuriya Perera accused the authorities of toying with the lives of the farmers.

Zonal Irrigation Engineer R.M.P Karunaratne who did not agree with the farmers’ allegations said that the capacity of the tanks and reservoirs in the district did not permit the release of water for the Maha season. However he admitted that the delay in completing repairs to the tank bunds prevented storing water that flows down the Amban Ganga.