Development, Politics and Disaster Mitigation: a Case Study of the Moragahakanda Irrigation Project

In Sri Lanka, development projects and their aims cannot be understood in absence of politics. Not only the rationale of the project, but also it’s the process and outcomes are products of the clientelistic politics practiced in the country’s politics since its independence. In that context, examining the process and politics is immensely important to understand the disaster potential of the Moragahakanda Development Project. This project is one of the last components of the Mahaweli Development Program that was designed as a 30-year project. The main objective of the project is to provide irrigation facilities to the existing water scarce farmlands (82,000ha) and also to open up new land (5000ha) for agriculture development in Northern, North Central, and Eastern and North Western provinces. In addition, generating and supplying of 25MW hydro-power to the national grid, increasing inland fish production, provision of potable and industrial water requirements, Eco tourism and effective flood control are also among the objectives of the project. According to the Mahaweli Authority, nearly 70% of the construction work of the Moragahakanda reservoir has been completed and the project is expected to be concluded by December 2017. This paper will be based on the field research that the author is carrying out for his forthcoming publication. Often such mega projects present its objectives loud and clear while keeping pitch silent about its negative effects. This paper, in order to examine the relationship between development politics and disaster mitigation, focuses mainly on the issues that are hardly being discussed. The Moragahakanda project has displaced a total of 5870 people in 1181 families from 11 Grama Niladari Divisions (GNDs). Once the project is completed Six GNDs areas will be totally and six other partially submerged causing more displacement of families. It effect on the environment is also alarming. This paper aims to examine the role of politics in development in relation to Moragahakanda project and thereby study the readiness of such mega projects to mitigate possible future disasters. It is naive to expect development projects to be completely free of consequences on environment and human lives. In addition, one has to completely ignorant of the nature of politics in our society to believe that development projects to be initiated and implemented free of politics and practice of clientalism. Therefore, the strategies for mitigating potential disasters of such projects should also be examined in relation to the politics within which such projects are implemented.