Fate or man-made?

Farmer rivalry and inter-village disputes compound water problems

By Tharuka Dissanaike

Appuhamy, 60, re-members a time not so long ago, when murder was not too high a price for water. A villager was hacked to death with a mammoty when he had ventured to settle a dispute over unfair distribution of water for irrigation. This time, though, there were no heated altercations, only an eerie fatalism among the farmers as they watched their fields drying up, the young paddy shrivelling in the heat, the parched ground cracking and flaking after six weeks of irregular water supply.

Upstream of the main Giritale channel, about 12 kilometres interior of the Habarana-Polonnaruwa main road, some 100 acres of paddy have been lost for want of irrigation. The paddy lies in large,unsightly heaps, straw-coloured against the foreground of luscious emerald green fields spreading as far as the eye could see.

In the Polonnaruwa district, the Giritale Tank and hence the area irrigated by its waters have suffered the most due to the lack of monsoon rains in the Mahaweli's catchment areas. The picturesque tank, just outside Polonnaruwa, is fed chiefly by the Mahaweli waters through the Elahera anicut. Due to the drought, not much water was released downstream of Polgolla, causing a shortage in supply to the Giritale tank.

The Giritale tank, usually has to be filled up three times during the Yala season to service all the lands cultivated under its scheme. Although it is supposed to provide water for only 7,500 acres, over 12,000 acres are under paddy cultivation using the tank's waters. During the past Yala season, the tank could only be filled up once due to lack of water in the Elahera anicut.

Even this volume of water could have been successfully managed for the season if the farmers had co-operated, said Irrigation Officer P. Marasinghe. But realising the shortage, farmers were not willing to wait for official distribution of water to irrigate the fields they had sown.

While large tracts of paddy began to wither further downstream of the main channel, farmers upstream blocked Irrigation Department officials' attempts to send adequate water to the parched fields. They broke sluices in the night, letting water into their own fields. Villagers growing non-paddy crops, some cultivating tobacco, dug tunnels through the channel bund letting water through to their cultivations.

At a crucial juncture around two weeks ago, policemen had to be stationed at five closed sluices upstream, so that water could flow down to the parched fields down the channel. The police also charged 16 people in the local courts for tampering with the sluices and misappropriating irrigation water.

"The situation is now under control," said Anoma Pannala, engineer-in-charge of the Giritale system. "There is water at the Elahera anicut due to rains up-country and the tank is gradually filling up."

But she admitted that the difficult times of the past six weeks have damaged around 100 acres beyond rejuvenation. Some 50 farmers have been affected by the water scarcity.

Before each cultivation season, a meeting is held between farmers and government field officials aiding agriculture. "We knew the shortage was coming. We tried to persuade farmers to try alternative, less-water-intensive crops like mung bean," an irrigation official said. But farmers had preferred to cultivate the usual rice, instead of other short-term crops with uncertain markets. Little did they anticipate the current crisis in paddy prices.

The water problem also threw light on the fact that many farmer organisations are not managing this precious resource fairly. Managing irrigation water through the smaller channels is now the task of farmer organisations, not government officials. But in many instances this move at empowerment aimed at a future where the farmer would take a lead role in the decision-making on common facilities, has failed due to internal squabbles, farmer rivalry and inter-village disputes. 

In Giritale, the farmer organisations simply threw their hands up in the air as their fields dried up. They did not actively protest when the villagers upstream broke sluice gates, preventing water from flowing down nor did they co-operate with the state officials when they tried to book tobacco and banana cultivators for misappropriating irrigation water meant for paddy. Instead of wielding the power they had through the farmer organisations, the villagers preferred to blame the institutions meant to help them or the gods and devils, then ask plaintively if they would be compensated for the loss.

Bravo, soldier! 

By Lankika de Livera 

A trishaw drew up to the door of the office I was in. The driver instead of getting down, leaned over and reached out to lift out a wheelchair which was folded inside. 

He heaved himself onto it and wheeled himself to the steps of the office. He had no legs.

I was looking at H.D.D.W Gunasekera who at 25 as a Non-Commisioned Officer attached to the explosive disposal unit of the army, lost both his legs to a claymore mine at Mullaitivu. It was October 22, 1985 and Gunasekera was in the Engineering Regiment. Not only were both his legs amputated above the knees, but he also his sight in one eye and hearing in one ear.

Three years later a romance blossomed between him and a relative and they were married. Now he has two sons aged 12 and four.

In his hometown of Bandarawela, he is a familiar figure, where he earns a living with his trishaw. He and his wife have also developed their land with beautiful flowering plants.

Face beaming, he says his elder son who was attending S.Thomas' College, Bandarawela was successful at the Grade 5 scholarship examination and gained admission to Ananda College, Colombo where he is a day scholar. Since then his wife has been in Colombo, while he commutes by bus between Bandarawela and Colombo to see his family. 

My initial reaction when I saw this soldier was tremendous sadness and sympathy. But within seconds it had turned to admiration, not only for his remarkable zest at continuing a life of independence, but also for his courage in surmounting many an obstacle and becoming a contributing member of society. Traumatic though his experience has been, he gets on with his life without fretting and fuming about his 'fate'.

He plans to move to Colombo to be with his family all the time. Then he would enrol for English language and computer classes. "I am blind in one eye, deaf in one ear and have lost both my legs, but any soldier who reads this should not get disheartened. They should take me as an example and get more courage and determination to march forward," were his parting words.

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