Sri Lanka It's Happening

July 13, 2004

The Daily Noise or to use it's given name the Daily News is a paper that is part of the state media mafia. Because of it's locatation by the once picturesque Beira lake, the organization is also known as the Lake House.

The part of the lake that borders the Lake House is horribly polluted and in dry weather, the stench is unbearable. The staff of the Lake House seem to put up with it remarkbly well. An unkind person might say the stench emanates from the Lake House and not the Lake.

Front page news (?) today is about an attempt to relaunch the Upper Kothmale Project - the hydro electricity scheme that would result in the destruction of the most photographed waterfall in sri lanka; the St. Clair. The Lake House photographers have unfortunately not been able to capture the falls in it's full glory or may be it's intentional as you will soon realize.

The photo on the front page had been taken when the flow had been reduced to a trickle and if the truth be told it does not look like much of a waterfall. Someone who has not seen the St. Clair's fall in all it's glory but only seen the daily noise photo might be tempted to think what all the fuss is about. That's probably the sentiments that the trumpet of the party in power wanted to create to help reduce resistance towards the project.

How can you produce electricity when the flow of water is hardly sufficient to fill a bath tub? We are not talking of a micro hydro power scheme at the cost of a few thousand rupees but a project of Several million dollars.

If the government has the cash to spare (it does not), it might simply dig a hole in the ground and bury the money - it is the same fate that awaits the resovior. The hills in the area are weak and if the dam is ever built it will be buried under a land slide before long.

Posted by raditha at July 13, 2004 2:17 AM