The huge cost in delayed issue of Samanalawewa water

Its over a month since the critical need to protect a huge acreage of paddy getting destroyed due to the drought surfaced. The government which is responsible for handling such situations as a cohesive single unit abjectly failed.

It is abundantly clear to the discerning observer that the movers and shakers were treating the institutions handled by one another, which should have been treated as an integral whole, as though it was their private turf where only individuals in charge could only call the shots.

The cumulative effect of this drama was that water was released to where it was needed only on August 8 and the delay resulted in a substantial acreage of paddy being destroyed. This loss, needless to say will not only impact on the farmers already reeling under the GR fertilizer fiasco and the country’s rice availability that would probably compel unffordable – both in terms of rupees and foreign exchange – imports.

Chamal, the eldest Rajapaksa sibling, minced no words in tracing the then and now refering to the late much-respected CP de Silva . He pointed out the chaos that has resulted in not doing the needful in a timely manner. The priority today is big projects on borrowed money, plaques and kickbacks.

Be that as it may, the leader of the NPP/JVP, in his usual studied response, lucidly said that all these agencies constituted the government. When they didn’t work as one unit the result was unmitigated disaster adding to their already dismal governance.

He correctly asked why peasants should pay such a heavy price due to the doings of  poor, substandard, incompetent leaders clinging to power like limpets. While all this is happening, the all powerful unelected leader is talking, talking and talking on all subjects under the sun and asking the hungry people to wait till 2048 for prosperity.

Having heard these stories over the last 75 years, the public takes all that he says with a pinch of salt and resent the huge assault on the democratic rights of the people.

Interested Observer