Johnston: Probe underway into allegation expressway construction causes floods

‘Yahapalana adjustments to construction master plan may have led to present situation’

Chief Government Whip and Highways Minister Johnston Fernando yesterday instructed his Ministry Secretary R. W. R. Pemasiri to investigate immediately whether there was any truth in claims that some areas in Gampaha were inundated owing to the construction work on the first phase of the Central Expressway from Kadawatha to Meerigama.

Minister Fernando had also directed the Secretary to study the construction master plan and make adjustments thereto if such action was deemed necessary to control floods in the Gampaha area, Ministry sources said.

The Minister issued those instructions during a meeting held at the ministry to ascertain the veracity of statements by some MPs and ministers from the Gampaha District that the ongoing construction of the Central Expressway had blocked waterways in the area and thereby caused the inundation of several law-lying fields. The blockage of waterways had been caused by temporary roads put up in a haphazard manner to transport heavy machinery and construction equipment needed to construct the Central Expressway, the MPs pointed out at the meeting.

Minister Fernando said: “It is said that some have been inundated due to the construction work of the Central Expressway. I have discussed this issue with Gampaha District leader Minister Prasanna Ranatunga, State Minister Nimal Lanza and other MPs including Kokila Gunawardena, Nalin Fernando and Upul Rajapaksa. Gampaha District Secretary and top officials of the Irrigation Ministry were also present. We want to check whether this claim is true. I ordered the Secretary of my ministry to study the matter and submit a report in two days. We are also planning to meet the affected people and listen to their views. We must keep in mind that the highest rainfall in the known history was reported from this area, and that was one of the causes of floods. We do everything possible to alleviate the difficulties and inconveniences faced by the people for whose benefit the highways are being built. We are not a government that runs away, unable to face problems.

We have already initiated a plan as suggested by the officials of the Irrigation Ministry to clear some canals in the area to help drain water from some fields. We know that development becomes meaningless if people, the main beneficiaries thereof, are not happy.

When Basil Rajapaksa was the District leader of Gampaha and Cabinet Minister he not only developed the district but also had a special project to clean and clear the canal network. That good work was suspended after the 2015 regime change. If those projects had been carried out without attaching political identities to them, Gampaha would have been one of the most developed districts in the country today; certainly there would have been no flood problems.

The Yahapalana government had altered some sections of the master plan of the central expressway to help its cronies. “It is laughable that the very same people who meddled with the master plan and created problems are now lambasting us,” Minister Fernando said.