First
of all, I am a medical guy in retirement with special interest in mother
nature.
I am not an engineer but had many engineering friends than
medical.
I did some reading and research on Mahveli Project in my spare time.
I had direct association with the Engineers who directly contributed to the project from design stage to its completion.
To
begin with, this is an outline and I am going by my memory. I have a one
drawer full of documents in CEYLON and the big Map of the Surveyor General of Ceylon.
I am
now in Australia and I do not have the original material and maps.
Before
leaving Ceylon, I handed over the Surveyor General's Publication, to one
of my kindergarten friends, whose obsession is to go and visit each and
every remote village in this country.
Unlike me he has been to most of the places devastated by the current tragedy.
He must be more shocked than me.
Background
1. We are known for flash floods.
One
cardinal theory of flood management is for every 100 years there going
to be a flood that overtakes the previous worst by many a times.
I forget the parentage but it is many a times but let us imagine it is 30% worse than the previous worst.
2.
The corollary is that the flood plane has to be identified for the next
worse episode and no construction should be allowed, blocking the
drainage plane considered to be the next worst.
3. All the governments including the present government ignore this important presumptive fact.
We were fully under prepared.
4.
If the volume of excess water in any reservoir is considered to be in
excess of the flood plane capacity, that excess volume of water should
be drained off well before the unintended catastrophe in a stepwise pattern.
This can be calculated in advance with a simple mathematical formula.
5. Water is a huge Potential Energy and has unfathomable capacity to cause havoc.
It is a fundamental rule to be feared and prepared for.
6. We have 101 rivers in CEYLON covering the entire length and breath of the country
7. We are known for droughts.
8. When I last investigated the factual base, say in 1995, 10% percent of those rivers had gone dry due to consistent droughts.
These river beds have water only during the monsoons or else bone dry.
9. Because of frequent droughts we tend to ignore the potential of floods.
10. Now let me come to the Mahaveli Project.
11. I was totally against the Kotmale Project with reasons.
I
used to monitor the rain on yearly basis and keep a simple record,
simply because, the approach road to our house goes under water with
torrential rain.
The rain comes down at exact time, during the rainy season
I
come home before the rain and I wait at a higher ground to pick our
daughter who is dropped off from the school van at the Panideniya Junction (not Peradeniya junction which is one and half kilometers away).
Three Wheeler drivers refuse to ply on this road that goes under water very rapidly.
It is due to the sudden release of water from the Kothmale dam.
I remove my shoes and tie them with the lace and put them on my shoulder to prevent them getting soaked. They do not come dry overnight, if wet.
My daughter does the same thing with her white canvas shoes.
12.
One day, my daughter got almost washed away had I not been there to
pull her out. After this incident she cannot leave Panideniya Junction until the water drains off. In 20 minutes the water drains to Mahaveli River.
Not a big ask to wait for a few minutes.
Better option is to beat the rain and come home early
That is why I hate Kothmale Project.
13. Accelerated Mahaveli Project was a disaster.
According to my engineer friends there were many short cuts made to the project proper due to hastening of it.
Proper environmental (flood plane is only one aspect) assessments were not done.
14. I sold my rackety car since our house did not have a garage.
Besides, the access road to our house was built on a stream that had gone dry for many decades. This access road gets flooded with every rain and I cannot park the car on the main road that also gets flooded.
15. I am glad we left CEYLON.
Had
I been there I would have been on this road doing "make shift repairs" to
the drain which gets filled up with soil. The drain blocked, the water flows on to the
road damaging its surface.
Ranil Wickrasinghe gave Rs. 500,000/= for repair work of this road when he was PM under Maithripala, on the condition that a large display board be erected at the entrance showing his frontal (picture).
I am pretty sure it got washed away, this time round.
The new concrete layout not the tar layout which is expensive and difficult maintain.
The 4th house belongs to a guy who projects himself as a UNPier. He pretended he was instrumental in getting the allocation and I have reason to believe him.
Road in front of our house was not repaired.
We did not have pipe born water during Premadsa regime. We had a deep well and pumped water for domestic use and there was a surface well where I used to take a bath. Having retuned home, after work from the University, I used to fedtch water from the well (kids were small and water was scarce), in buckets.
I had 22 fish tanks big and small and I never used chlorine treated poisonous water for fish. I may have fetched up to 30 buckets on the day when I was cleaning the fish tanks. Nobody would have guessed, I was a doctor and I pretended no to be. That guy one day asked me, "Are you a doctor" and I pretended not to be.
I cannot count now how many species of fish I had but my favourite was Guppy Fish.
I started breeding Zebra and Gouramis but marginally successful.
Feeding the fry was my problem.
I progresed to two huge open Cement Fish Tanks. The project was to cut down 85% of the mosquito population which I achieved in two years. I had a huge Arpoco overhead water barrel for the fish tank with automatic refill of the fish tank. I gave up fish keeping and became an Water Lillie enthusiast.
I had 8 to 10 varieties only one did not bloom over 15 years. One that was stolen (not by me) did not bloom and I say that is the "Anann Thariya Kamma" and never steal even a flower.
Only two pieces of Dhamma in this piece.
Never lie like JVP and NPP.
Never steal. They are stealing free donations now.
Far off Mahaveli SAGA but worth like gems.
In the current scene, I may have got even washed away and would have become a piece or an element in the government statistics.
My estimate is that the
main road got flooded during the devastation and I am pretty sure the
access road may have slipped away to the paddy field below.
This scenario is more than likely.
I tried to do an ariel survey using Google but could not. Just curiosity.
There
are 3 houses at the lowest level and two of the owners have cars. They were
obsessed with maintaining this portion of the road simply because of
their cars.
Incidentally, I was the only one
having a car in early 1980s. Others did not except a guy who had an
official jeep belonging to the Department of Agriculture.
One
Sunday, I visited the house of the retired Assistant Registrar Student
Services, to ask him whether, I could park my car in his garage and I
would pay for the services.
He did not say Yes or No.
When,
I went next time round to ask permission, I saw the garage was packed with
firewood. I knew it was a big NO and made my own assessment of his
personalty.
I manged to find an alternative place and his name was Mr. Nissaaka.
Few years alter, he fell sick and I did what I could do when he was admitted to a private hospital. His adopted daughter was a technician in the Department of Forensic whom I did not know much. She had joined after I left Peradeniya University..
the guy mentioned above, did not know I was a doctor at
that time or pretended that he did not know my status in the university.
He may have been a couple of years senior but already retired from his post by
that time. This guy had Herpes zoster a year or two later and he became blind in one eye.
I
did not volunteer Acylovar treatment which could have prevented his
blindness. It is a cardinal principle in our time not to volunteer
treatment unless expressly requested for.
"Pinata beheth denna thahanam".
All these incidents made me to get rid of the car which is by nature was a depreciating asset.
16.
Coming to the floods, the last major flood was in 1954 and I was not
attending primary school, then. But I can very well remember my siblings were at home for over two weeks, not going to schools as usual. We were house bound and I did not know the meaning of floods, then.
I hated rain in any case.
Then
again we had a minor floods in between and I got stuck in Natha Devale
having brought my mother to see Kandy Dalada Perehara.
That day it rained non stop.
That is the last time I went to see Perahara and I told my mother she has come alone, thereafter. She did eventually stop going to watch Perahara.
This part is a bit of a misrepresentation due to my failing memory. It is corrected below.
I had come to Kandy alone.
My obsession was to take photos of Elephants stationed in front of Natha Devale.
17.
I did not have any premonition of this current catastrophic floods and
in any case, it was not due until 2054, according to my statistics.
We are only in to the 70s of that 100 year grace period.
18.
That is why I say this is the CURSE brought on by this NPP/JVP Regime
who are worse than Niganntayan of India but confirmed Niragamikayo who
despise Buddhist way of life.
I am convinced that this catastrophe was brought by an unforeseen CURSE.
19. Irony, is that Buddha was born in Teldeniya which is under water after Victoria Project. Victoria
Project was a deliberate attempt by the British Monarch to bury and
erase the evidence that Buddha was born in CEYLON for good.
Gaminie
Dissanayake paid the price early in his life due to this Mega Mahaveli
Project. In fact, he was instrumental in propagation of the British Process and their Myths and deliberate lies to bury the real history of Buddha.
Chandrika
did know of the LTTE attempt to kill Gamnie Dissanayake and my Guess
Work or Gut Feeling is that she may have done it herself before the
LTTE, for her political gains and reasons.
Of course, she lost one of her eyes as a curse and she was a known proxy of LTTE.
Subtle CURSE befall on all these nasty politicians and JRJ had a nasty cancer which I witnessed at Navaloka Hospital.
S. W. R. D. is another guy I disliked for many reasons. His "Anda Govi Panatha" (Tenant Land Act) is
one of them.
We lost our prime paddy land to the Anda Goviya (Tenant
Farmer) who was a crook. He cheated my mum and one day, I chased him out
and said never cross me again.
I never saw him again and I do
not know who owns that piece of land now.
But I witnessed that the paddy land was filled up and a house
was built on top which was direct violation of the "Paddy Land Act".
This guy S. W. R. D. brought in dissent, and lawlessness.
To
this day, people used to say, his burial site gets hit by lightening as
a part of the CURSE, he brought into this Buddhist country.
Disunity!
Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to violate the above ACT by allowing his goons to fill up paddy land to build houses. This also narrowed flood planes and current devastation demolished these houses built on the reserves. They should not be compensated but they should be made to pay a reasonable fine.
20. I am glad Jayaratne Pathiraarchchi is on overdrive and bearing these facts right and left.
Thank YOU Jayaratne Pathiraarachchi for putting out history in correct perspective.
21.
This piece is out of place, if I do not link to my connection to NPP/JVP
and the Indian RAW.
I think the details are in a separate piece here.
Indians RAW plotted to kill me.
I was 3rd or 4th in their list.
The contract was given to DJVP.
A JVP
guy who was in my staff named Ratnayake alerted me. In return, I told
him Premadasa goons are planning to kill all of you and find a place and
hide. He had kids. He survived but my vegetable vendor and my favorite patient, a little girl of 7 did not.
Neck
of the vegetable vendor was slit and he bled to death. Mahaveli
security guys did not open the gate, so he could get timely treatment.
The little girl also died due to same reason. She had asthma.
The asthma was brought on by the "Fear Psychosis" spread by the DJVP.
Of
course, DJVO guys were rounded up and killed and the doctor at
Manikhinna Hospital used to give me a running commentary of bodies piled up at
his mortuary.
I stopped calling him after 138 bodies.
That number I still remember to this day but real number was far in excess of that number.
The little girl's death made me to revise my treatment protocol.
I give a stock of medicine to last 6 weeks.
I give additional prescriptions with free renewal (notice) up to 3 months.
I
give written instruction in a piece of paper with underlined phrase "do
not look for me" but reach the nearest doctor or the dispenser.
22. RAW was behind me because I was working with Americans.
They knew I had the American Satellite in our Operating Theater.
How they got to know, I do not know.
Most likely guess work.
Only, I knew it was a Satellite.
I
quickly sent the satellite to Colombo for safe keeping. If I remember
right, I accompanied, it under the guise of taking a patient to Colombo.
Indians for ages hampered and undermined our progress.
Do not believe in Indians.
An Indian doctor Metha told me in Sheffield never to believe in Indians.
Indians cheat Indians, so why not cheat non Indians is their moto.
The CRIME Anura has committed is believing in Indians. He is now paying the price for it.
23.
In a previous occasion when I was working in the University, I had only
20 Rupees in my hand. I could then buy a packet of Anchor milk (just to
remind the price of packet of powered milk under 70 years of misrule). These
JVP guys forced the banks to be closed and we made a secret operation
to open them on a Sunday and pay the Salary of the University Staff.
This
was the most secretive operation I was ever involved in.
I took my salary
and resigned immediately.
I knew the JVP guys would be behind my back and 6
months later I joined Navaloka Hospital, not as a doctor but as an administrator.
About the fresh milk packets and dry milk during DJVP mayhem, I collected them and purchased all dry milk in the boutique which were forced to close by DJVP and stocked them in my dispensary cum hospital. Everybody gets a cup of tea if they visit me and the milk packets, I personally delivered to the door step.
I had a stock of vaccines brought from Singapore and all the High Commission guys used come for the vaccinations for their children.
All according to British stsndsrds.
I made a healthy profit to buy milk provisions for the needy children in Digana.
24. I was in charge of Foreign Liqueur during trying time of NPP / JVP insurrection.
This was at IMMI.
But I only used our own VSOA.
Never Whiskey but Gin and Tonic was my standard before a Billiard or Snooker
Game.
I used to celebrate Poya Day with VSOA on those days.
Keys were with me for safe
keeping and if I get a order from a distinguish guy (not politicians), I
give a call to the Bar Boy and dispense the item.
There were 11 foreign country agents with different tastes of alcoholic beverages.
One day, police office came in for a bottle of arrak on a Poya Day.
I refused quoting the law but told the bar tender he can drink as much as he wishes with his uniform on.
He did not stay long but had a drink free of charge.
I
am totally off alcohol now and stopped smoking at 34. Never a single
cigarette in UK. I thank late Mangala Samaraweera and Ranil Wickrasinghe
for my abstinence. When they jacked up taxes on alcohol I abruptly
stopped and never started.
I drink alcohol not taxes is my moto.
25. Chicken was my favorite taste with alcohol.
I hated barbecue.
There was a chicken special in my name in our restaurant.
26. Cleaning the Swimming pool according international standard was one of my major duties to prevent Infectious Hepatitis.
It was endemic then.
With our current disaster Infectious Hepatitis would certainly resurface.
27. Killing the stray dogs was another duty using lethal and inhumane strychnine.
28. Writing an introductory Note Book on Tropical Diseases for foreign visitors was another task.
I did not have a Secretary but used the secretary of the administrator for dictating one piece at a time.
I forgot to keep a copy but years later redid the writing.
My blogging and writing started with it.
29. I was into Maps and Map Reading.
I was good in geography at primary school. I could remember all the countries and capitals by the age of 10.
I had only one inpatient.
She was a Mulsim girl of 12 with over 40% burns with certain fatality. I dressed her twice daily with serum seeping.
My pathology knowledge of granulation tissue and healing process was put to good use. I am still surprised she survived.
I had lot of free time.
There was a big library belonging to IMMI.
I used go to the library and look at all the contour Maps of Ceylon in the library.
I did some calculations, to extrapolate Sea Water Rising due to Polar Ice melting.
Each Map was colour painted according Sea Water Rising.
Just for fun.
These Maps I brought home when IMMI in Digana was unceremoniouly terminate by DJVP insurrection.
30. These DVVP guys over 80 came in to our house and threatened us.
They collected our ID cards.
Stupid guys.
It bumaranged on them.
Police only rounded up the guys possesing the ID cards. They were the ones dumped to Mahaveli River for crocodiles to devour.
31. One thing, I could not do was to get a job in Northern Territories of Australia and work for at least two years.
Instead, I went to West Coast of New Zealand but Maoris were alien to me.
I have a book on Ceylon and Rivers and Waterfalls of Ceylon.
You are free to purchase and read.
This is only an introduction.
32. Mahaveli land was sold for Rs.20/= an acre.
Wijepala Mendis was the Minister of Lands.
He purchased a big portion.
The River Mahaveli fascinates me
Not because of its nature but because of its use by ancient kings to protect Kandy city.
I have a book on Rivers and Water Falls of Ceylon at Amazon, one is advised to read it.
When I was writing this book I did some Research Work and I realized that it's current route is not natural but man made.
There are only two bridges over Mahaveli in Kandy and both were built by the British to protect Kandy from sabotage.
In
my belief Heen Ganga is the only natural stream that flows according to
geographical contours with gradual descent, to the Mahaveli River.
I have forgotten the details now.
Coming back to Floods we had a major flood in Kandy when I was a little kid in 1952 or 1954.
I was not attending school but I could remember for one solid month we were home bound and no schooling for my siblings.
It was very gloomy.
Years later I saw the stone erected in Kandy, Mulgampola to mark the highest water level.
I believe this landmark is no more.
Probably removed by the municipality vandals.
The present Gatambe Vihara was supposed to have not gone under water.
It became famous and prominant, after that fact.
I
can remember only one other time that it rained over two weeks during
Esala Perahera. I hid in the Paththini Devale for over two hours on that
day.
It was my only shelter.
I had to walk home to Ampitiya with no
buses.
My mother came with me was a wrong recollection.
I did not go for Esala Perahera for a very long time after this incident.
Elephants are my favorites but now I say they should not be paraded for display and they belonged to the jungle.
What I remember as a young guy was that every time I went to Colombo by bus even with minor rain Peradeniya and Gatambe go under water for a few hours. The bus stops at Peradeniya and stay until water receds.
Unlike nowadays, rains were heavy.
No problem, if I come by train.
The train track is at a higher level.
This went on until grand Mahaveli Project was completed and the Maskelliya dam came into existence. Only when there is spill over from Maskelliya Dam we tend to have minor floods in Peradeniya.
The Rugger Grounds at Peradeniya goes
under water (not cricket ground, hockey ground and track and field,
they were at a higher level).
No more rugger played there now, mainly due to
clashes of students of the two rival schools in Kandy.
There is a stream
that flows by the side of these grounds and I used to stroll through
this pristine stream looking for Giant Danios.
Rugger ground is the wettest and the muddiest.
My research work lead me to reading large books on geography.
My
particular interest was the stretch of road that leads from Peradeniya
to Panideniya. It goes under water ever so often, even with minor rains.
There is a little stream that comes under Kandy Colombo road
and then flows to Mahaveli River by the side of the Railway Bridge in
Peradeniya.
On the other side of the river is the Peradeniya
University.
I used walk (short cut) to the University on the rotten iron
plates on one side of the bridge. I stopped this habit when I detected that big iron planks were missing and nobody bothered to repair them. Big risk of falling to the river if I missed one of my steps.
I
can remember I was made to run over these plates by the seniors as a
part of the ragging. I did a sprint and the senior guys took at least 20
minutes to cross it.
I realized these guys were not my heroes. One of the senior guys said are you mad to run like this.
That was the end of the ragging.
Coming back again to floods, one of the books said that the next flood beats the one before by a big margin.
It only happens once only in 100 years.
Now going by 1954 it is 70 years now and current rain in Ceylon epitomizes the said geographical fact.
What I want to highlight is the mapping of the flood planes.
After every major flood it should be mapped to define the extent of the FLOOD PLANE and its devastation.
No construction should be allowed and the flood vplane should be designated as reserved area and for natural habitat.
People
who built quarters within the Flood Plane should be persecuted and
should not be paid any compensations at all, for their residences.
These
are done under the pretext of tourist attraction.
I say tourist should
not be allowed to access the protected areas.
MCC program of the World Bank and I.M. F. have mapped these areas with callous disregard to Environmental Impact.
The bottom line is to protect the flood planes without any destruction in the name of shoddy development.
Our
ancestors had harnessed over 100 rivers, without destroying the
environment and we should make it a point to respect them protect our
country from Mal-designed foreign investment.
Mahaveli River Map
Mahaveli Ruver is known for the scarcity of its proper mapping.
Original Mahaveli River starts from Badulla and drain to the Trincomalay plane.
The original water content is not sufficient for agriculture.
It was supplemented by Kotmalay Oya and Pundalu Oya.
I traced them from the Ceylon Surveyors Map and documented in my book.
Unfortunately, except for it's basin exploited for commercial activities, the river is not properly mapped for details.
This is what I have found.
Nanu Oya.
Puna Oya.
Pundalu Oya.
Kotmale Oya.
Hatton Oya.
Atabage Oya.
Nilamba Oya.
Nanu Oya (Peradeniya)
Alfred Cyclone and My Previous Encounters
I have slept through two major catastrophes and the third one is building up.
I would probably sleep that natural disaster, too.
This is just to say I can sleep well.
The first was in 1988 in UK.
I was about to return to Ceylon and the family was packed home in advance. I had to continue another month or so of my official duties in UK. If I remember right house was, No.1, Sanctuary Close, Dartford.
I had done my night duty and returned home in the early hours for my usual after work nap, around 9.00AM.
At about 1.30PM I heard the rattle on our backdoor which was interrupting my sleep. I put the table top freezer, fridge and the tumbler against the door and went to sleep.
At
about 7 to 8PM the biggest thunderstorm of the recent history in UK hit
the coast ripping trees, power lines and roofs and what not.
I slept through the entire episode and casually gave a call at 1.30PM, why there is no power.
The lady in the telephone exchange said you are hell of a guy and YOU slept through the biggest cyclone.
Open your door and see for yourself, that the front parapet wall made of bricks is ripped off.
The next door neighbor's roof was blown off.
We did not call you since you were up all night, yesterday night.
Have you got any gas?
I said, Yes.
Then boil some water and make a cup of tea.
We got your telephone line working and would get your electricity line up soon.
I politely ask if they need any help.
She laughing said; only if you can climb electric poles and trees.
I said no way but I am available for any emergency.
Within half an hour I got my electricity.
These guys who did emergency and restorative work were the best in the world.
Next episode was in 1994 July, six years later in New Zealand.
Similarly, I have packed our family home and sleeping on a Saturday afternoon. I was thrown out of the bed and I guessed I had a dream and kicked a guy in my sleep and I had fallen off the bed.
But when I looked at the Buddha Image in front of me on the roof, it was tilted and swinging lightly. Then when looked at the pantry, I saw most of the cupboards open and some dangling.
It dawn on me that a major earthquake has hit South Island.
Yes, it was and it was 7.2 Richter Scale and I slept through it.
But the aftershocks lasted 6 weeks.
I was terrified every time an aftershock hit the floor.
I did not sleep well for over 6 weeks with even a slightest of tremor.
I woke up.
Soon after, I left New Zealand, never to return.
It looks like disasters seem to follow me.
Regarding, floods it was frequent in Peradeniya, those days.
Thankfully, we lived on a little hill and water never reached our level.
However,
the road get flooded with even a minor rain. If one is caught during rain, one has
to take off the shoes tie them up with the lace put them on the shoulder and bent the trouser up
to the knee level and wade through the raging water.
One day, when I came down to pick my daughter after school, we were caught in a torrent more than usual. With clever manoering we managed to reach for the crossroad.
I was glad I there when she really needed me.
No schooling on heavy rain was a golden rule afterwards.
Years later much bigger girl was drowned in a canal in the city of Kandy.
When
the Project Maskeliya came in to operation part of water from the
Maskeliya Oya was diverted to Mahaveli River upstream so our flood plane
receded accordingly.
I was very much active discussing the flood problem with Mahaveli Engineers.
All
of them (hired hands) were not provided with regular places in the
Estate Engineering Corporation, after Mahaveli Project was completed.
That was a crime.
They left Ceylon.
We lost them with their talents.
I never saw them, again.
This is a summary for those reading this piece from Ceylon.
Albert cyclone in Australia
It looks like the Albert cyclone soft landed with category 1 but the torrential rain will go on for a week or more.
Hope
floods would not do more damage than the winds with waves over 10 feet
hitting the coast and hindering the flow of water of the rivers to the
sea.
But falling trees are doing enough damage to the power lines causing interruption to electricity in many regions.
Sunshine Coast is relatively safe but Gold Coast is inundated with rain.
Brisbane that was expected to be hit worst was spared by some grace of Weather Gods.
All shops are closed and we are home bound.
I did keep up till 1AM as usual but dropped to sleep eventually.
No dreams.
We had power cut little over 24 hours.
Complete rest for my NUC and cellphone doing the updates.
