The whole point of a public lecture is to catalyze thought and action. It’s been three months and the first evidence I saw of anything being catalyzed was the phone call I got from Bandula Mahanama, the speaker we invited from Polonnaruwa. He had some plans about reducing risks from the Minneriya reservoir and wanted me to come. He and his colleagues from six farmer organizations wanted a Colombo partner. I went with Lakshaman Bandaranayake the CEO of Vanguard Management who has been our steadfast partner on all dam-safety related projects.
Below is an excerpt from the first reaction piece to the very fruitful meetings we had in Minneriya. Does not address safety issues explicitly, but you will see them between the lines. After all, as I keep telling the people who comment on LBO, I write columns, not dissertations. They have to tell a coherent story focusing on one thing; not cover the waterfront.
We are not utilizing the full potential of the major irrigation works of the NCP and elsewhere; nor are we maintaining them properly– http://lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=764551894 and http://lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1786313422. But that is another (though connected) story for another time. Unless we develop a scalable platform to resolve conflicts over different uses of the reservoirs, we will not be able to utilize their full potential.
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