While the El Nino is playing hell with the people’s lives, the officials also do the same, making ordinary people’s lives a hell. The rain is continuing, and people still suffer while the officials who are public servants enjoy their lives inside air-conditioned rooms. The Ministers are helpless because it was officials who provided fabricated data/statistics to them totally ignoring people and ground situations. We are talking about rain and floods that do not recede as usual.
According to the ordinary people who lived in the Matara District for more than several decades, they had experienced various levels of floods in 1969, 2003, 2017 etc. They have firsthand experiences. They say that even when the floods hit their roofs, they receded within three days. But after 2022 they experience a totally strange situation, and the floods remain for over a month without receding.
Due to these contaminated floods that remain inside their homes for a month, their day to day lives have turned into hell and they face various health issues and other dangers. They totally blame the Salinity Barrier which was constructed across Nilwala River in 2022.
A total of 16 divisions in the Matara district are under floods and the affected areas are Akuressa, Kamburupitiya, Athuraliya, Malimbada, Matara and Thihagoda. People living in 65 Grama Niladhari Divisions are affected. They live with contaminated flood water for a month with their children, elderly sick family members etc. The uninvited guests are huge crocodiles!
The only question remaining here is who did the feasibility study before constructing this Salinity Barrier and whether ordinary people’s experiences and opinions were obtained before planning this project.
Drought Salinity Barriers are a physical obstacle constructed in strategic delta channels to help prevent saltwater intrusion. Protect water quality and prevent contamination of water supplies for delta agriculture and municipal supplies. But they should NOT force ordinary people to live under contaminated floods for one month. That is a crime because Salinity barriers are NOT natural, and it is manmade.
Instead of solving people’s problems, the public servants are enjoying their thundering salaries and all the other perks inside air-conditioned rooms. Then they blame the politicians who had been misled by them through providing them with fabricated data/statistics and totally wrong information. All projects are constructed using such wrong information.
This situation is everywhere in the country due to illegal constructions. All these illegal constructions take place during droughts and at night. Therefore most of the time the ordinary people or the people who are affected due to such constructions do not notice them and do not have adequate time to take action against them. Culprits do the construction within a few hours at night and creep from the loophole of the existing law. Once constructed, it is impossible to remove it without a long legal procedure which takes ages. This is the existing ground situation.
Most of the time those illegal constructions belong to individuals and families who have contacts with VVIPs in this country. Therefore removing such constructions is not that easy. The affected people realize that they are in trouble only when contaminated floods arrive and not before that. Then it is too late.
On the other hand, all ordinary people like to construct anything illegal. They do not care about other people. All citizens living in the country are extremely selfish. They delete all types of drains that are in legal and registered deeds and construct walls blocking the natural floor of water. This is what happened in Sri Lanka during the past few decades.
There are very simple things that should be done by all relevant authorities, especially Local Government bodies. That is setting up a special powerful committee at Pradeshiya Sabha, Urban Council and Municipal Council levels in order to give the final approval for any project and even for a small wall that needs to be constructed at a private home. This special committee should consist of more than 75 residents from all areas that are covered by the specific committee. This is because it is ONLY the people who exactly know where the water recedes, and it is impossible to bribe 75 people.
This `system’ will not be able to be corrected without the participation of ordinary people. The ignorant public servants who only serve themselves should not be allowed to make any final decision.
People wonder why public servants do NOT consult them while collecting data and doing feasibility studies. During the past 75 years, in all types of official state forms and all the other official state documents, there is no specific place to fill the experiences and opinions of ordinary people. It seems the least importance has been given to the experiences and opinions of ordinary people.
Projects are done for the people without their knowledge, consent and approval. This needs to be changed. People should decide what they need and what they do not need. Officials do not know what people need and what people do not need. It is the people who should decide for themselves, not the officials.
