The city of Gampaha was inundated twice in a short period of like one month due to heavy rains in recent days. The Gampaha-Ja Ela bus stand area, Gampaha-Colombo bus stand, Old Police Station, Public Cinema Hall area, Hospital Junction, Gampaha Rest House areas, Gampaha-Minuwangoda New Road and many other areas in Gampaha town were inundated.
There was an unprecedented influx of rain water and floods in Gampaha this time and the drainage was at a very low level.
People blame on the construction of Central Expressway through Gampaha for the flooding. Even some areas that had not been flooded before were flooded this time, leaving people helpless.
The peoples’ anger regarding this has been directed at MPs and Ministers in Gampaha District. The Gampaha District Disaster Management Unit faced all these challenges and provided relief to the people and the rescue displaced with the assistance of the Navy and the Police.
Meanwhile, cooked food was distributed through Grama sewaka and no politician had come to the aid of the people other than Gampaha Mayor Eranga Senanayake.
Anyone who travels from Gampaha to Minuwangoda these days can see the roads built by filling paddy fields. Due to this many canals that used to drained water have been blocked.
The water of Attanagallu Oya flows into the lagoon through Ja-Ela and this time 36 out of 57 GN divisions in Ja-Ela were inundated. Areas such as Kotugoda, Minuwangoda, Muthuwadiya, Kalahapitiya and Maduwa were also inundated when flood recede.
Many people have requested from Disaster Management Center to widen Wattala or Negombo estuary and allow the water to drain. However, the Disaster Management Center did not act to widen the estuary this time. This is because the estuary has already had widen on a large scale and there is a risk of seawater entering the country if it is cut further.
In particular, the floods were caused by the construction of the expressway as well as the unauthorized filling of the Muthuraja Wela swamp. It is said that 750 hectares have been filled up from the Muthurajawela swamp and more are being filling.
Recently, Minister Nimal Lanza had stated that forest Officer Devani Jayatilleke was responsible for the floods in Gampaha. He blamed her for not allowing to remove trees that needed to be removed during the construction of the highway.
But now Gampaha District MP and Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga is telling a different story. He said that this situation had arisen due to the changes in the plan of the expressway which was made by yahapalana government and that government was fully responsible for this situation.
However, due to the strong opposition from the people of Gampaha, the construction plan of the Gampaha District Expressway has been postponed until a final decision is taken after reviewing the construction plan, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said on Monday (13).
But the Secretary of the Ministry of Highways has stated that the statement made by the Minister is false and that has not taken any such decision. According to the Secretary of the Ministry, the Gampaha
floods have been caused by heavy rains exceeding 300 mm in a very short period of time, the canals in the area have not been repaired and the drainage system has not been repaired.
-Shani-
