Failure of the Mahaweli Development Scheme (MDS) on Hydro power in Sri Lanka.

           By 1968, Sri Lankan hydro power engineers had established the tradition of hydro power development, through the projects at Laksapahana (50MW), Nawalakasapahana (100MW), Wimalasurendra (50MW) , samanala (75MW), Canyon I (30MW) and Canyon II (30MW) , which gave a total of 335MW, from the upper attachment area of the Kelani Ganga, Situated in wet zone up country. The catchment of the Mahaweli Ganga in the up country wet zone is several times larger than the Kelani catchment on which the above hydro projects are based.

            In the early 1950s , the Irrigation department started the collection of data for the use of the Mahaweli Ganga water resources by doing the preliminary surveys and the essential investigations. Of the six water flow (current) metering stations on the Mahweli Ganga set up by the irrigation department,  two were located at Agarapatana and Talawakelle for the Kotmale oya flow measurements at about 6000 feet and 5000 feet elevations respectively, higher  than many of the hydro power projects of the 'Laxapana Group'.

            In 1963, the Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Government requested the Special Fund of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP/SF) to explore the possibilities for the complete utilization of the water resources of the Mahaweli Ganga for the purpose of irrigation and hydropower.

            This request could be construed to be a betrayal of the Sri Lankan hydro power engineers, who had proved their calibre with the successes of the ' Laxapana group' of hydropower projects, mentioned in para one of this article.

            The major hydropower  projects planned for the MDS  were as follows;

            Kotmale                      201MW           (67x3)

            Victoria                       210MW           (70x3) 

            Randenigala                126MW           (63x2)

            Rantambe                    50 MW            (25x2)

            Ukuwela                      30MW             (15x2)

            Bowatenne                  40MW             (40x1)

            Moragahakande          75MW

            The reservoirs at Kotmale, Victoria, Randenigala and Moragahakanda involved the inundation of many traditional villages and the displacement of thousands of families. For example, the number of families displaced from Kotmale was 3300 and from Moragahakanda was 3500. Further, Kotmale, a famous Sinhala Settlement with an unbroken and untainted cultural existence of over 2200 years, steeped in the history of the Island as the hideout of prince Dutugemunu, who later went on the become. One of the greatest kings of Sri Lanka in 161 BC, was lost to the nation, as it went, under water for the hydropower project. Kotmale was also an area which escaped the Waste Lands ordinance of the British Colonial Administration when the surrounding areas ended up as coffee and tea estates of the British.

            All the hydro power projects of the MDS were planned by foreigners. The hydro power project of the MDS at the highest elevation, was at Kotmale, where the dam was coustucted at an elevation of 2500 feet, even though the Kotmale oya orginated at than elevation of about 7000 feet and had flowed down about 48.3 miles from its origin to the location of the dam. Thus, the Komale oya was not utilized for hydropower by the MDS, for 4500 feet of its descent, but in about 2013, the same Kotmale oya was dammed at Talawakelle at an elevation of about 5000 feet for   the upper Kotmale hydro power project, which shows that although the Ceylon Governments, request was for complete utilization of Mahweli water resources for hydro power, what the MDS has delivered falls short of complete utilization.

            The upper Kotmale hydropower project also had the additional advantage of only involving the displacement of a comparatively negligible number of families, so low that it was possible to resettle them in a housing scheme constructed by the Project Management in the outskirts of the project.

            The upper Kotmale hydropower indicated conclusively that, there were ample opportunities to construct hydro power projects at higher elevations than the 2500 feet elevation at Kotmale. These opportunities had not been taken by the FAO committee in 1968, although their responsibility was for the complete utilization of the Mahweli resources. Projects such as the Upper Kotmale would also have avoided the displacement of the about 10000 families from the traditional vilalges at Kotmale, Teldeniya, Randenigala and Moragahakanda as for example the upper Kotmale project involved in comparison only a negligible number of families.

            Further though the hydro power projects at higher elevations than Kotmale would have been on a scale comparable to the 'Laxapahana group' of hydropower projects, their power production would have been more reliable and consistent than the power production, of the massive Victoria and Randenigala hydro power projects, both of which seem to have regular curtailed production due to water shortages inspite of their massive reservoirs. The situation would probably aggravate in the future with the additional water increases needed to feed the Moragahakanda's requirements of irrigation and hydropower.

            If Sri Lankan hydropower engineers were utilized to plan the Mahweli water resources for hydro power, a more thorough consideration of the innumerable tributaries of the Mahaweli scattered in the upcountry wet zone and situated at elevations above 2500 feet, they would have made better utilization of the Mahaweli ganga for hydro power than the MDS.

Yasantha De Silva

BSc. (Agriculture)