The People of Laggala – resettled or transplanted?
Water was once plentiful in Heerati Oya, Nawa Laggala Pallegala. “Now access to good water has become so difficult,” says Ven Kambarawa Samitha
Thera, Chief Incumbent of Sri Samakethiyaramaya.
He spoke from inside a mud hut erected on land allocated for a new temple. Seven years after resettlement, it is yet to be built.
People from the Mahaweli’s right banks were relocated from inundated or catchment areas like Rambukoluwa into newly established towns like Laggala New Town.
Water comes to town every three days in bowsers. They say it tastes like rust. “More of us have developed pressure, diabetes, and kidney issues,” says Samitha Thera. “Back then we had fresh mountain water.”
The government hands out food rations to resettled families--rice, dhal, dry fish and sugar. “These are people that worked hard, earned their own daily needs,” he observed.
The compensation lands were painfully disproportionate to the amounts of lands people used to own. “Those who had about 16 acres got only half-an-acre from town,” he said. This was increasingly an issue as families grew. In the past, they had enough property to divide among children. Now, they didn’t. They had to cohabit with their parents or buy land from a more urbanised area. That was too costly for daily-wage earners now also hit by farming difficulties.
“There are no factories or big companies around here for people to work in,” Samitha thera said.
Elephant attacks had worsened: “Even I sleep in fear.” This is because the town was on the border of Wasgamuwa National Park. Beyond the mountain, in the town of Handunugamuwa, a bear attacked three people, killing one and injuring the others.
On a positive note, there was easier access to education and more children attended school for longer. In the old village, the school was 9km away, accessible only on foot and had no electricity. Water was from the nearby river.
Now children were becoming more urbanised than when they lived in the forest. But this had increased alcohol abuse even among those as young as 16. Village kids unaccustomed to town life were giving into unhealthy habits.
“Our temple isn’t built yet because we don’t have enough money. As a result, I can’t even ask children to come in the evenings to teach them things,” he sighed. The compensation money wasn’t enough to put up the temple and people didn’t have enough to donate.
A majority of the resettled were farmers. The land they received, however, was unfit for paddy cultivation as irrigation channels were far away. “Paddy grows like needles” said C.M. Rathnayake, a father-of-two from
Laggala. They have to doser off many layers to reach the water table and this means fertile soil is also lost: “We’re left with gravel to plant in.”
Mr. Rathnayake had sowed his land this season. He had low hopes as the agrochemicals ban had hit them in addition to other issues. Water was a challenge. They had thrived on water from the Kalu Ganga. Now, no more. Mainline pipes have been installed but do not function.
“In the village we didn’t pay for electricity. We used the water from the river,” said H M Sudharma, 22. Still, the resettlement gave them better roads and modern opportunities. She completed her A/levels in political science and media two years ago. She is targeting a job in a bag factory the Government said it would set up there.
While the resettled struggle to adjust, business owners find their low spending power a challenge. This is worse when cultivation fails. Nobody buys anything but their basic needs nowadays, said M G Ekanayake, an electronic goods seller in town. Resettlement was welcome but “badly planned”—the police station was in the middle of the town while the hospital was further away. And the town doesn’t have sufficient sanitation facilities.
The water bowser doesn’t cover the whole town, especially where roads are bad like his lane, he continued: “We’ve been living on water from a well we dug up for the past four months because the bowser hasn’t come.”