- The woes of the residents around Deduru Oya
Deduru Oya is an extremely beneficial river, in the sense that it tries its best to eliminate the sorrows of the people in the nearby villages during its journey. Although, sometimes, it acts in contrast to its peaceful manner, and the resulting heavy floods may cause grievances to the lives of people living in the lower river basin. The river, with the sixth largest catchment area in the country, has an area of 2,623 km2. It originates from the eastern rim of the central highlands in Sri Lanka and runs through the Kandy, Matale, and Kurunegala Districts, growing into a huge flow of water. After passing through a length of 115 km, it drains into the sea at the Chilaw Divisional Secretariat Division of the Puttalam District.
The floods in the lower basin of the Deduru Oya are not a surprise to the thousands of people who meet with various repercussions of everyday life. It is actually a part of their life. But the unfortunate situation is that the flooding incidents which happened very rarely in the past are now a common phenomenon that occurs very frequently as a result of a perversion that is unknown to the villagers in the area.
The villagers lament
Justice of the Peace (JP) S.A.M. Keerthirathne (70) is a businessman residing in Laxmiwatta, Mahavilaththawa near the Deduru Oya. According to his recollection of events, after the heavy floods that occurred in 1957, the frequency of occurrence of flooding has increased over time. They have to make more efforts to come back to normalcy as a result of intermittent occurrences of several flooding incidents while being confronted with hardships, as they are unable to maintain their farming and other livelihood activities as usual. Keerthirathne further mentioned that even though the surrounding environment perhaps forecasted about the incidents of flooding in the past, now it has been changed drastically with the ever-changing environment in which such forecasts are impossible.
“Even though the Department of Irrigation makes the people aware of the opening of sluice gates of the Deduru Oya Reservoir, it is not an easy task to comprehend the anomalies of localised flooding situations,” he stated.
In conversation with a driver by profession, R.M. Eranda Sanjeewa (43), who is a resident of the Karambalanda area, told us that he has been in this village for nearly 40 years. “One of the major problems we face is this flooding situation. Prior to 2012, we experienced floods once in two to three years. Even though the excess water ran through the surrounding low land areas and along the streams in such situations, we did not have any damage,” he told us, adding that however, the Deduru Oya overflows annually now.
He also lamented that their lands are also inundated. They experienced flooding twice in one particular month during the last year (2021), although before, it would only take 15 to 20 hours to drain water into this area once the Deduru Oya is overflowed. He noted that when this area is suddenly subjected to inundation, then they don’t have enough time to pack their essentials or to reach a secure place. On top of that, their livelihood in the future is also affected as the water flow damages the rice cultivation in the area.
When speaking to Sri Vajira Gnanaramaya Chief Incumbent Ven. Kamburadeniye Gnanatissa Thera (56), he also informed us that the temperature in the area is increasing fast. From what he observed, the rainfall pattern is irregular so the area is subject to floods very frequently. “The temperature in the area is unbearable, so breathing is also difficult,” he told us, and explained that the deforestation as well as fragmentation of coconut lands is what caused this situation. He stated that this problem is affecting the entire island.
“The Government that came into power by promising to bring those who destroyed forests to book too engage in the very same deforestation. The forest officers remain silent. The people with power destroy forests using their power. Even certain media do not telecast news related to such deforestation incidents,” he opined, urging everyone in power to help.
What is being done?
It is no secret that we in Sri Lanka too face the bad consequences of disasters such as floods, droughts, landslides, storms, etc. The perversion on a global scale is caused by none other than climate change – the same issue faced by the helpless villagers near the Deduru Oya Basin. According to the Ministry of Mahaweli, Agriculture, Irrigation, and Rural Development, the reservoir built across the Deduru Oya currently supplies water to nearly 300 minor tanks in the Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Wariapola, Kotawehera, Kobeigane, and Maho in addition to the Inginimitiya and Magalla Reservoirs. It enables cultivation of more than 30,000 hectares (ha) of farmlands in both the Yala and Maha seasons. In addition, it provides drinking water facilities to 3,000 families through the Deduru Oya Drinking Water Project. We were told that it also paves the way to control the flooding situation. However, the effectiveness of the same to control unprecedented flood hazards confronted by the people in the Deduru Oya lower basin area, remains questionable.
The World Meteorological Organisation also pointed out that severe storms and cyclones are a result of the increased amount of evaporated water in the atmosphere consequent to the increased temperature in the atmosphere due to climate change. There is also evidence to prove that increased speed of air due to rise in temperature of the atmosphere and sea surfaces is contributory towards increased harmful effects of tropical cyclones, it is noted.
These are all natural disasters faced by those who live close to the Deduru Oya Basin, and this increasing disaster can only be related to climate change.
The lack of awareness
What is most concerning about this situation is that people of the island nation are still not sufficiently aware of climate change although it drastically affects the lives of the people. In terms of the data gathered by environmentalist Supun Lahiru Prakash from a random sample population of 146 residents in the villages belonging to Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Chilaw and Arachchikattuwa near Deduru Oya, 77.4% of the residents have already heard of the terms “climate change”. However – and this is where it raises concern – only 54.8% of residents were of the view that they have sufficient knowledge on climate change. Further, the study also showed that only a mere 2% of the sample population had the ability to explain the term climate change in their own words.
We spoke to Centre for Environmental Justice Executive Director Hemantha Withanage on this, who commented: “The major 103 rivers in the country have faced climate change in varying forms. Climate change can be attributed very clearly as one of the reasons for increased incidents of floods in the Deduru Oya Basin.”
Prakash added that when the people in the areas of the Deduru Oya Basin and other different locations in the country as well were inquired on this matter, they all agreed that a change has occurred in the climate. The changes they observed were noted as delays in rainfall, increased dry weather conditions, increased incidents of finding snakes and mosquitoes in areas in which they had not been found earlier, etc. Withanage, commenting on this observation, noted that the villagers lack the climate literacy to attribute such impacts to climate change which has been happening the world over.
We, as a country, have taken several progressive steps forward in terms of raising awareness on many issues, but it is time that we raise our voices to speak for the voiceless – our planet – and take the necessary measures to protect it from further harm.
