Edward Upali
I address the issues raised by Dr. Dharmawardene in his essay ……………… https://thuppahis.com/2024/10/09/the-mahaweli-development-project-in-hindsight/#more-85348.
Dr. Dharmawardene says thousands of lives could have been saved if the planners of the Mahaweli Project had provided pipe-borne water supply to the colonists. In hindsight, similar arguments could also be made with respect to the Second World War 2, such as, if some of the European countries were more decisive and united against Germany, millions of lives would have been saved.
As an Engineer, one worked on some parts of the Mahaweli Project, I am aware that planning was done in the late 1970s to provide water supply to Girandurukotte and other new towns to be set up within the Mahaweli Basin, but I doubt whether these plans included supplying drinking water to the colonists.
The policy in Sri Lanka in the 1970s, at the time of the Mahaweli Project, as well as at major projects constructed since the late 1940s, such as Gal Oya, Uda Walawe, Rajangana, Padaviya, etc was to allocate land for homesteaders on high ground near the irrigation canal, but there was no provision for pipe borne water supply for colonists, as at the time CKDu had not been identified as a debilitating disease.
Engineering & planning practices for any project depend to a great extent on the need for the project, available historical data, design criteria, financial resources, time constraints and the cost to benefit ratio of the project. When the implementation of the Mahaweli Project was compressed from 30 years to 5 years by the then newly elected government of Sri Lanka, designers & financial planners, no doubt, had to take some short-cuts, to compress the massive project to a very short time frame. But the provision of water supply to the colonists was not an urgent item on the drawing boards. For example, in the late 1970s, many urban areas in Sri Lanka were also in urgent need of “a proper” water supply, and as such the government spending for water supply projects was directed towards urban areas that required water supply years ago rather than towards areas that needed them in a few years in the future. Further in 1970s, long term environmental modelling was still a developing science.
CKDu, as a disease in Sri Lanka, was first “recognised” in about 1998 in Girandurukotte, about 20 years after the colonists were settled within the Mahaweli Project Area. However, what caused this kidney disease is still unknown even to personnel in Medical Research, hence it is called Kidney Disease of Unknown etiology (CKDu). In hindsight, it is easy to say that if the Designers of the Project had included pipe-borne water supply to the colonists, it could have saved thousands of lives.
My reading of the map of Sri Lanka included with Dr. Dharmawardene’s write up, shows some areas shaded in yellow as areas where CKDu is widely prevalent, and the black dots, I believe, are areas where CKDu cases have been identified. It is noteworthy, that some of these black dots and 3 of the yellow shaded areas are in provinces where the Mahaweli water had no influence, such as the Western, Sabaragamuwa, North-Western, Northern & Southern Provinces. So, the incidence of CKDu at locations outside the Mahaweli Basin are obviously due to some other causes, not attributable to the Mahaweli water.
At locations within the Mahaweli Basin, it is possible that CKDu is a long term effect attributable to the consumption of Mahaweli Water. However, given that the diverted Mahaweli Waters are used in all areas of the Mahaweli Basin, and judging by the distribution of known incidences of CKDu within the Basin, it is more than likely that CKDu is caused by local factors rather than by the consumption of Mahaweli Water.
I have also read that CKDu has been diagnosed at other locations such as India, Middle East, Central America, South America, Africa and also in some European countries.
However, currently there is insufficient information to conclude without doubt that it is the Mahaweli water that is causing CKDu in the Mahaweli Basin, or whether Mahaweli Water has any degree of responsibility at all.
