20th October 1996

'Your hearts will beat for the poor man'

The second death anniversary of Gamini Dissanayake falls on October 24. We publish here extracts from a speech delivered by Mr. Dissanayake, when he was Minister of Lands, Land Development and Minister of Mahaweli Development at the annual sessions of the Sri Lanka Institute of Architects on Tuesday 14th, February 1984.

It gives me great pleasure today to inaugurate this Seminar on the Environment which, apart from your chosen field, your chosen profession of Architecture is of particular relevance to the age in which we live. I like to start my brief address to you by quoting from a very famous English Statesman, recently elevated to an Earldom, noted in his memoirs when he was spending a brief holiday at 'Chequers' (which is the country residence of all English Prime Ministers) - I refer Mr. Harold McMillan. He stated at a time (when he could afford some time) not merely to think, but to reflect:-

'Ye hours do fly - Full soon we die

In time secure - Ye house and hill alone endure'

It is the house and hill that is relevent in what he had said; not to mention the rivers the dales, the earth, the air and all living things. In our country from the worm to the Elephant - together with the human being, is what we call the environment. You relate that to the four great elements - the water, the air, the earth and fire and through the human commitment or obligation in an organised way to co-ordinate oneself to these elements you realise the secret of contemporary societies commitment, and perhaps the pre-occupation with the enviroment.

I think that I should speak to you something about the Mahaweli programme. The Mahaweli programme is Sri Lanka's largest and the most ambitious project undertaken in the history of our country. To put it very briefly, it will almost treble our hydro energy, and it will bring into new irrigation cultivation just a little over one million acres of land .

It will provide the basis for a settled life, for over a million people in various occupations, primarily, in agriculture.

It will also draw the supporting services from teaching and education, banking, commerce, trade, transport, health, law enforcement, public utilities and services, and other Govermental infra-structure facilities which will necessarily follow new settlement projects. A study undertaken by Professor Scudder of the United States shows that for every farming family settled in a new environment in a new habitat, it is necessary for two other families to move into those areas to give the supporting services of varied dimensions. This has been the history of the old irrigation projects in Polonnaruwa, in Gal Oya, in Walawe, and in Minneriya, during the last 50 years. In other countries in Asia it is called the Trans- migration of people. In Sri Lanka we have been using the terminology of "settlement" of people. Whichever way we describe it, it means the movement of human beings from congested areas into new areas - in short the building up of an infra-structure, a society, a new civilization, on the dimensions of which so much has been said and written.

The problems of the environment, about land, its development the settlement of man, his relationships in the new environment, the preservation of forestry, the preservation of Wild Life, the necessary cropping pattern in the develop land, water management, etc., are all matters in relation to which the most in-depth studies have been undertaken up to now. What I wish to tell you is that apart from the infra-structure development which I referred to just now - namely the construction of huge reservoirs, the construction of hydro- electricity projects, the construction of trans-basin canals and tunnels, the construction of secondary and tertiary canals, the construction of new highway (across 350,000 acres of lands), the construction of hydro-electricity conveyance systems, the construction of new towns, villages and community centres, of Banking and Trade facilities involve a lot of building. This I think is where your profession of Architecture has such a direct relationship with the development process that is taking place under the Mahaweli Accelerated Programme, and other irrigation schemes in the country.

What we seek today in the Accelerated Mahaweli Programme, and the other irrigation systems, that we have undertaken to construct is the creation - of the infra-structure for a sustained growth, leading to the dawn of the next century, and even beyond.

The infra-structure that I refer to may necessarily refer to the physical infra-structure and the energy that is required to sustain it. You would agree with me, however, that there are political and social factors which are even more important than these. But it is not my intention to-day to indulge in a discussion of these areas. The ultimate purpose and the effort of the enormous amount of capital invested on the Mahaweli project is to provide better life for over one million people, principally through agriculture.

The dams and the tanks and the canals are the means to this end. The people who settle in these new areas should not only earn more money, they should live in better houses, they should have better villages, and they should have better towns than those from where they came from. This is what we are trying to create under our programme.Historically, I might say, if our historical ruins and artifacts are any indication we Sri Lankans are a people who had built well, and built intelligently. We now have a historical opportunity to build well and beautifully on a significant and a grand scale. I refer to these aspects specifically since I intend to plant a few thoughts in your minds, and not merely present a feasibility study or a concept for your consideration - The new towns that are emerging in the Mahaweli areas such as Welikanda, Dehiattakandiya, Manampitiya and Karaliyadda, are the first examples of such creativity. In making these efforts to create a new civilization, we have been consciously seeing that certain basic consideration- have been uppermost in our minds. For example no trees will be cut within the areas of the towns, except to actually give way to roads or buildings.

We want the original trees to give shade and ecological protection to the towns.We will be planting thousands of trees as shade trees in the new towns that are emerging. We have seen to it that the monstrosity called the bulldozer does not uproot everything, in its forward march. We do not want the towns to become strips along the main roads, and most Sri Lankan towns are spread along the main roads. For example, the strip of ribbon along the Galle Road, with all the big lorries and through traffic going through the narrow main street of the town is, the largest form of this type of development.

The new town, in contradistinction, will be off the main roads like a loop, so that the heavy traffic will pass by the town, and not through the town ruining the quality of its life, with diesel fumes, noise danger, accidents and congestion.

Each town will take advantage of any natural beauty, like a large rocks, a tank or a paddy field, which is adjacent to it. We are trying to give each town a recognizable quality, of its own.

We are concerned with the quality of house that the settlers can afford. We are, at the moment, examining ways to help the settlers both technically and financially to get a good start on their own houses, because the government is not building houses for the settlers. Good starting loans which can be repaid over a period of time are being arranged. The use of cheap materials, like sundried bricks, and rammed earth bricks, will be encouraged. Some of the most beautiful houses in Sri Lanka, in different parts of the country, are built not by concrete, but with clay. We want to help the settlers to start building a good house. A functional house - a house that will integrate them into the society in which they live.

These we have started, consciously keeping in mind, that architecture is not just a building.

The Mahaweli is all about giving assured irrigation facilities to poor man - 2 1/2 acres of land - But he is the man who will give the purchasing and the buying power to all the great captains of industry, to the industrialists. He is going to give the most necessary element for a growing economy, a sure supply of food. He is the centre of the whole struggle, and yet I am sure when you are waiting for that letter to come from a multi- national commissioning you to build a super grade Hotel over-looking the Victoria Reservoir, or over-looking the Kotmale Reservoir your hearts will beat for the poor man; for this whole exercise was made for him. That is the Government's commitment, and I think that you will show, in your various activities, a very deep commitment to that cause however little or large that might be.

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