Rs. 947 million paid as compensation
By Pabodha Hettige
When the Deduru Oya reservoir project is completed it will benefit 15,000 farmer families and will provide drinking water to nearly 50,000 families while bringing 27,000 acres of land under cultivation, an official said.
"Nearly 55 per cent of the Deduru Oya reservoir project has been completed and the irrigation authorities are planning to complete the whole project by early 2013," Co- Project Director, Construction, Sunil Perera said.
Deduru Oya covers a catchment area of 2,400 square km and once the reservoir is completed it will have the capacity to hold a volume of 75 million cubic meters of water. The reservoir will also have a spill way of eight radial gates along with a powerhouse of 1.5 MW. "The authorities have almost completed the construction of 23 km of the canal of the left bank which goes up to 44 km and two km of the canal of the right bank which will carry irrigation water up to the Inginimitiya reservoir," Perera said.
The irrigation authorities have already paid Rs.947 million as compensation to the land owners for the acquisition of land for the project. "We are also planning to resettle 700 families in the vicinity of the reservoir," he said. Already, 227 families have been resettled in areas such as Telahera, Ganetenna, Ridibendiela and several other areas. The farmer families will get infrastructure facilities such as roads, electricity and schools under the project, which will improve their quality of life.
The total cost of the project is estimated as Rs. 6.2 billion, which is government funded. The contractors have so far utilized Rs. 2.8 million from the total allocation. "Human resources, from the area were being used for the construction which benefits the residents," Perera said.
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