UNP @ DEVELOPMENT

The Mahaweli project – testament to

UNP’s political will and commitment
to Nation’s progress

From time
immemorial our
ancestors have
used the water
resources to
develop our
irrigation system.
The Kala Weva,
Parakrama
Samudraya, Tissa
Weva,
Mahaweli River
Basawakkulama,
Thopa Weva, Elahera canal, Jaya Ganga and
many others bear testimony to the irrigation
development achievements of our civilization.

Similarly, right down history the need to harness

the Mahaweli waters flowing into the sea for
National development was also long felt. Our
ancestors for the first time tried to use the
Mahaweli waters to boost paddy cultivation
during the first century after Christ, as stated in Hon. Dudley Senanayake
our ‘Wangsa’ stories.
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It was in 1969, a system to harness the Mahaweli waters for National

development was inaugurated. The long time people’s earnest ambition to
harness the Mahaweli water for development was at last fulfilled by the
United National party (UNP), when the Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake
launched this gigantic project daring all odds. The full credit and honor must
go to the then P.M. Late Dudley Senanayake and former Minister of the UNP,
D.P. De Silva who was the Minister of lands, irrigation, power and energy at
that time.
A group of experts of the United Nations Development program (UNDP) and
the World Food and Agriculture presented the Mahaweli development
blueprint to the SL Govt. in 1969. On the basis of the blueprint, the Mahaweli
project was to be in three phases and be completed in 30 years.

Late Dudley Senanayake under his leadership as the Prime Minister wasted
no time, and began negotiations immediately with the World Bank to secure
aid in this direction. The negotiations were so successful that the World Bank
agreed to grant the loan for the commencement of the prodigious and
ambitious Mahaweli development project, and a pact was signed.

On the 28th of February 1970, at an auspicious time, the Late Dudley

Senanayake laid the foundation stone with his own hands at Polgolla, Kandy
inaugurating the Mahaweli development program formally.

However, unfortunately, in May 1970 the United Front (UF) Alliance Govt.
was installed in power. The alliance which constituted of the SLFP, along
with Lanka Samasamaja (LSSP) and Communist (CP) left oriented parties
viewed this National development program which could boost the economy
and make a major contribution to country’s development with a ‘squint’ eye,
thereby subordinating the all important national interests to parochial selfish
party interests. As a result, the UF alliance postponed the development
UNP @ DEVELOPMENT

project on the false pretext that the pact signed by the UNP with the World
Bank was a betrayal.

Fortunately for the country and the Nation, the UNP was returned to power
with a 5 /6 th majority in 1977. This served as a boon to the entire nation, as
it enabled the Mahaweli accelerated development program to be
commenced under the leadership of the Late
President JR Jayawardena. Late Gamini Dissanayake
who was appointed as the Minister of Irrigation,
energy and Highways undertook to shoulder the full
responsibility cast on him by the Nation to complete
this colossal Mahaweli accelerated development
program.

The UNP which duly discerned the Victoria Dam as the Hon.
e preliminary step in
Gamini Dissanayake
respect of the Mahaweli development accelerated program, constructed this
Dam. The latter facilitated the supply of water to a vast area which covered
an extent of 200,000 acres. This Dam was constructed about four miles
away from the Taldeniya Town.

The Victoria Dam

UNP @ DEVELOPMENT

The Victoria diversion enabled the water flow via the Mahaweli ganga by the
erection of the gigantic Dam. This is the SL’s tallest Dam measuring 338 feet
high and 1400 feet long. A sluice gate at its middle comprises four parts,
each 30 feet high and with a 50 foot base.

The Victoria
Dam
nourished a
land area of
730 square
miles and
could store
four lakhs
15000 cubic
acres of
water. The
water supplied by the dam for irrigation purposes annually is 926 000 cubic
acres. The power grid which was constructed in conjunction with it could
produce 370 megawatts of electricity!

The Mahaweli water collected by the Victoria dam were diverted to the
paddy fields through the Minipe canals. To facilitate this diversion of the
Mahaweli tide to the Minipe canals, a new canal was constructed 500 feet
below. The streams built on the Southern bank of the Canal helped in the
cultivation and in the harvest of paddy fields on 73600 acres of land on both
sides of the canal.

Likewise, the Yoda canal on the Southern Bank of Minipe diverted the
Mahaweli water collected by the Victoria Dam to cultivate 200,000 acres of
land in Mahiyanagana and Maduru Oya.
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It is believed that because the Yoda canal and the Ulhitiya Oya are joined to
the Dam, the amount of water that can be collected is immense. The
reservoir had the capacity to develop 10,000 acres of land.

Because of the UNP’s bold and far sighted decision to design the Mahaweli
development project to develop human resources, massive job opportunities
were generated. Consequent upon this employment boom the economy of
the country thrived. The affluence of the people grew by leaps and bounds.

This project and concept which never received the attention of other Govts.
formed by other parties, made the UNP stand out in history as the only party
which harnessed the hitherto untapped vast natural resources of the
country for the benefit of the people. The giant projects made the country’s
economy blossom on a scale never before witnessed in SL.

To the dismay of all, the subsequent leftist prone Govts. could not develop
these projects to their full potential, whereby the miraculous fruits of the
UNP’s labors were wasted. Not only the Mahaweli, but even the other giant
projects ad programs of the UNP got stuck without progress. Lack of
resourcefulness, vitality and patriotic interests took toll of the country.

The former leader of the UNP, Late JR

Jayawardena who launched a new
economic order for the country fuelled by
the mammoth projects and programs, the
UNP initiated, opened the eyes and minds
of all to the growth and development

Hon. J R Jayawardena
achieved by other countries by introducing
the open economic policies to SL which
proved a tremendous success. JR
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Jayawardena made SL which was considered a puny Island with a feeble

economy into a giant viable economy capable of matching other
economically successful countries in the world.

It is very unfortunate that the left prone Govts. Which came to power after
1994, however could not take advantage of the policies and programs
initiated by the UNP. By continuously following retrograde policies and
parochial ‘chintana’ concepts they turned the clock back on SL’s economic
plans, programs and country’s development. The present economic impasse
is part and parcel of these failures.