Mahaweli – A spectacular achievement of JRJ regime piloted by Gamini D

Ronnie de Mel’s contribution undervalued, corruption later gnawed at its vitals

Excerpted from volume two of Sarath Amunugama’s autobiography

One of the spectacular achievements of the Jayewardene regime was the completion of the accelerated Mahaweli Development scheme. The Ceylon National Congress and its successor the UNP under the Senanayakes paid special attention to the development of the Dry Zone which was the heartland of the Sinhala Buddhist civilization. Archaeological findings have shown that Anuradhapura from the fifth century BC onwards was a magnificent world centre of Theravada Buddhism.

In addition to the monasteries and dagobas, bigger than the pyramids, the Sinhala Buddhists were heirs to an advanced irrigation and water management system the like of which the world has rarely seen. It was part of a hydraulic civilization which was strong enough to spread its influence throughout Buddhist Asia of the time. However, with invasions from South India and the spread of malaria, Sinhalese kingdoms began to drift south westwards along the rivers and tributaries and by the 16th century finally sought refuge in the hilly fastness of Kandy.

The ancient irrigation systems were abandoned, and the jungle tide enveloped the Raja Rata or the land of Kings. D.S. Senanayake made -the restoration of the irrigation system of the Rajarata the linchpin of his agricultural policy. Step by step he restored the ancient tank and canal system and settled the population overflow from the wet zone in the newly reclaimed areas. These settlements were called colonization schemes. It was an unfortunate use of terminology which was used by the diaspora to allege racial bias.

DS also imbued two of his promising youthful ministers, Dudley and JR with the mystique of the ancient civilization of the Sinhalese. JRJ would, over a brandy after dinner, regale his friends about the trips he made with DS to the Rajarata. The old man, who was a trained planter from the Agricultural School in Kundasale, knew of the value of frequent inspections and easy familiarity with the farmers. JRJ had enjoyed his stint as the Minister of Agriculture in an early UNP cabinet and was credited with the introduction of the Wap Magula’ about which we will narrate later in this book.

The early work on the damming of the Mahaweli ganga was undertaken by CP de Silva during Dudley’s 1965-1970 regime. This was the largest river valley development which could be undertaken in the country because the length of the river necessitated the construction of several dams. With Mrs. B’s victory in 1970, Maithripala Senanayake who was made Minister of Irrigation also supported this venture since as a leader of the Rajarata his dream was to bring Mahaweli waters to his home base.

Thus, when JRJ and Gamini Dissanayake turned their attention to this project they were lucky to find that most of the preliminary work in planning this venture was already complete. One of Gamini’s strengths was that he could get on with a job without starting a ‘witch hunt’ against Government officials. With his ample charms and persuasive skills, he could win over any able civil servant without wasting his time on recriminations.

This was a great advantage since he could build up a team of engineers and officials who had worked on this project under different administrations. I knew personally that he shrewdly flattered Maitripala Senanayake by consulting him and giving him credit for promoting this scheme. Senior engineers like Alagaratnam, Ratna Cooke, Manamperi and Laduwahetty became his chief technical advisors. On the planning and administration side he relied on a senior Civil Servant Sivagnanam who had guided the project under Maithripala Senanayake. This was a strategically wise decision because Siva played a vital role till the completion of the project.

But it was JRJ who gave life to the project. After a thorough briefing by officials, with maps on the table, which the President listened to with rapt attention, he inquired about the timeline for the completion of the project. When told that it would take 30 years, he gave a directive to his stunned listeners that it should be completed in six years. In other words he wanted the Mahaweli headworks to be completed by the end of his term of office.

Few knew that he had spent two days before that, intensively studying all the reports on the Project. How was this telescoping possible? The Mahaweli project was to have five dams – Rantambe, Kotmale, Randenigala, Victoria and Moragahakanda and a gigantic network of canals which would both augment many existing tanks in the dry zone as well as bring new areas under cultivation. JRJ was quite capable of giving such peremptory orders which modern management experts call ‘thinking out of the box’.

Nobody there and certainly not the ambitious Gamini, would think of telling the President that it was impossible. In fact, when they examined the problem they found that it could be done. The success of the Mahaweli scheme was Gamini’s path to fame, and though it drew the envy of others like Premadasa, he became a Presidential hopeful with a solid reputation and a dedicated staff behind him.

The earlier 30-year perspective was based on a sequential building of Mahaweli Dams. The new six-year timeline demanded that at least four of the dams be built more or less simultaneously. This entailed a massive funding and organizational effort on a scale which the country had not witnessed before. With the President identifying it as a lead project, the full support of the Ministry of Finance was mobilized, and though Ronnie de Mel always complained that his contribution was not duly recognized, he played a very important role.

It was decided that the funding and contracting out of the construction of each dam and canal network be undertaken on a bilateral basis under the umbrella of the World Bank. Though there were many earlier misunderstandings, the Bank under its deputy head David Hopper came to recognize it as one of its major global projects.

It must be mentioned here that the reputation of the JRJ government in the west as a pathfinder in ‘rolling back communism’ gave it a favourable positioning when seeking bilateral funding. There was a large component of grant aid in the financing packages while the World Bank ensured that bridging finances were provided at concessionary rates.

Since the Mahaweli scheme made the country self-sufficient in food grains, the net savings in the national budget on rice imports made repayment feasible unlike in later long gestation projects like highways.

The funding of Kotmale [Sweden] Randenigala [FRG] Victoria [UK] was secured on concessionary terms. Contracts were given to major companies like Skanska and Balfour Beaty who built up a local construction industry by subcontracting to local enterprises which today are the front line construction companies in the island. Since these projects were awarded on a `turnkey’ basis they were completed on schedule.

After Mahaweli, Sri Lanka became self-sufficient in food grains. Unfortunately after Gamini’s dismissal from office, successive governments have given this portfolio to incompetent and corrupt rural politicians who have not been able to harness the full potential of this major development project. These ministers were more interested in the lucrative business of awarding tenders and allocating newly opened Mahaweli lands to their kith and kin and political supporters.

It is well known that most Ministers of Agriculture have educated their numerous children abroad with funds provided by suppliers of fertilizers. Today Mahaweli is nowhere near being the game changer of our economy that was envisaged by JRJ and Gamini. It has however closed the chapter on ‘rice politics’ which had been the bane of JRJ’s political career and the linchpin of SLFP’s politics.