The Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe - Deputy Minister of Land and Irrigation

¶ 01 Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation, I reply as follows:

¶ 02 (a) (i) Yes. (ii) Yes. (iii) CRIP study reports; and the Gin-Nilwala Diversion Project report. (iv) Under the World Bank–assisted Climate Resilience Improvement Project (CRIP), the Ministry of Irrigation engaged Atkins as the consultant to prepare study reports. The Gin–Nilwala Water Diversion Project study was carried out by China CAMC Engineering. (v) Under CRIP Component 01, 10 river basins including the Gin basin were studied at a cost of USD 14.4 million. For the Gin–Nilwala Diversion Project, USD 29.98 million has been spent to date; 5% of the bond corresponding to this remaining study work has been retained. (vi) CRIP was funded with World Bank assistance. The Gin–Nilwala Water Diversion Project was funded by the Government of Sri Lanka.

¶ 03 (b) (i) Yes. (ii) From 1976 to 1982, with assistance from the Government of China, the Gin Ganga Flood Control Project was implemented to protect 4,944 hectares from flooding in the downstream basin from Agaliya. Flood bunds were constructed on both banks and the floodplain divided into 10 blocks according to topography. Pumping stations were built for each block to pump accumulated water back to the river, using 37 pumps of two capacities, powered by electricity. A rehabilitation project for these pumping stations commenced in 2014 at a cost of Rs. 700 million by the Department of Irrigation and was completed in 2021.

¶ 04 (c) Does not arise.