| Now we have water, K.Kandasami (61) a Tamil estate laborer
murmured with utmost happiness looking at the children who are playing splashing
water. The new water tap in his compound pours water on the parched land
making the air smell as if a rain has fallen on the sand. Kandasami, a casual
laborer said that this is like a dream. We never even dreamt of pipe borne
water to our huts, but Gemidiriya made that dream a reality, he said. |
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| We never even dreamt of pipe borne water ……. |
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| Recently the Gemidiriya Community Development and Livelihood
Improvement Project (GCDLIP) opened three infrastructure projects in Gampaha
village in Haldummulla in the Badulla district. Makaladeniya water supply
project is one of them. Makaladeniya is a small hamlet of 67 Tamil families
in Gampaha village where the majority are Sinhalese. In the village both
communities live in harmony. Makaladeniya is the most underprivileged part
of the village where Tamil estate workers settled down two decades ago.
The most burning issue of the people was drinking water and they had to
trek a long way along hilly terrain to fetch water. The rest of the village
is privileged and has a very steady supply of pipe water, which was constructed
many years ago. |
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| When Gemidiriya People's Company, the Gemidiriya Village
Organisation, drew its village development plan, all the people agreed to
give prominence to Makaladeniya water project, because all knew the hardship
faced by the community in Makaladeniya. |
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| The estimated cost of the project is Rs.1,213,269 which
consists of community contribution of Rs.363,980 in cash and labor. Contribution
of the Gemidiriya Foundation was Rs.849,288. |
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| Each family has given Rs.2000 in cash and has worked 29
days to complete the project. Water comes from a spring in a mountain along
600m long pipeline to the storage tank. Nearly 3 km long distribution line
provides water to each household and even huts with polythene or cadjan
roofs now have tap water. |
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| We selected this project because we all knew the
hardship faced by the community in Makaladeniya |
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| Paying Rs.2000 was not an easy task for many of the families
because most of them are extremely poor. K. Pechai (62) said that she had
to mortgage her gold necklace to find money. M. Muthai (59) said that she
had to mortgage her earrings to find money. "However, it is our project
built with our money as well. We own and maintained it. We will save time.
We can earn and get back what we mortgaged" she said. |
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| The sub project committee that was responsible for the
construction of the project has been transformed to a maintenance committee
before the opening of the project. There are water meters and each family
will have to pay Rs.45 per month for normal water usage. The money will
be used for the maintenance of the project. At the "Mahasabaha" or the General
Assembly of the People's Company they have appointed T.Selvaraj as the caretaker
of the project and decided to pay Rs.1000 per month. He is responsible for
regular monitoring of the pipeline and control water waste. Special measures
have been taken to protect the water system from wild elephants. The village
which borders to the Udawalawa National Park is exposed to regular wild
elephant invasions. |
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| Makaladeniya water project would never be selected in
traditional top-down approach in decision making. These people are unable
to influence the bureaucrats. Gemidiriya model paved the way for community
driven development and is now extended to Gama Neguma government's countrywide
program. |
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| Bulathwelgoda road the second infrastructure project benefits
35 families. The road was constructed with Rs.333,778 Gemidiriya contribution
and Rs.142,542 community contribution. |
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| Gampaha Gemidiiya Peoples Company also opened its communication
centre at the company head office building. The communication centre has
facilities for telephone, fax, email, internet and photocopy service. This
is a long felt need of the people. To get these services people had to go
to Wellawaya town, 14 Km away or Beragala junction 20 Km away. |
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| In addition to the communication facilities they offer computer-training facilities for village youth. There are over 10 youth in the village that followed computer courses by obtaining loans from the Gemidiriya skills development fund. They are ready to conduct courses and 89 children have been registered to follow courses. Vindya Madavi, is working as a computer instructor. She has passed her advanced level examination with higher grades and also completed a higher diploma in computer from a private institution. She said that they have only three computers and it is difficult to cater to the demand for the courses. |
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| Addressing the opening ceremony Gemidiriya CEO Dr.Gamini Batuwitage said that to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's) by 2015 we have to give prominence to poor areas and the first priority to the poor people in the development process. "You have given prominence to the poorest people by selecting Makaladeniya, poorest hamlet of your village and set an example to others to follow. Your decision is thousand times practical in building ethnic harmony within our society" he said. |
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