The Hon. M. Nizam Kariapper, PC

¶ 01 I will take the maximum, Hon. Presiding Member.

¶ 02 Hon. Presiding Member, I am from Kalmunai—my birthplace—a land whose paddy fields fed the nation. We call it Karavakuvattai, the golden fields. As our great poet “Solaikkili” sang, it is “a land where even dust turned to gold.” That agricultural heritage stands me here today as a President’s Counsel.

¶ 03 Karavakuvattai once covered about 3,000 acres of thriving paddy sustaining countless families. But with the construction of the Gal Oya Dam and the reconstruction of the Kalmunai–Chavalakadai Road, the landscape changed. What was fertile and self-sustaining now faces recurrent flooding, loss of irrigation infrastructure and the destruction of natural drainage. Our golden fields have become a watercourse.

¶ 04 Ampara has long been a key grain producer. Even under the British, irrigation was prioritized. In 2012/13, Ampara contributed 3.2 per cent to GDP with 6 per cent annual growth, recording 10.5 per cent growth primarily due to increased paddy and sugar. Over 65 per cent of its economy depends on the primary sector; 32.5 per cent of the workforce is in agriculture. There is a myth that we are merely traders—this is untrue. Agriculture depends on water; without proper infrastructure yields fall, prices rise and families suffer. Average household income in Ampara—Rs. 32,537—is below the national average of Rs. 45,878. These are man-made problems that can be fixed with decisive action.

¶ 05 The losses are stark: - Panrithivu Mel Kandam: 472 cultivated acres; 220 affected. - Panrithivu Kilal Kandam: 492 cultivated; 350 affected. - Kalmunaiar Kandam: 300 cultivated; all 300 affected. - Kudakkarai Kandam (Mel): 480 cultivated; 250 affected. - Sevakapathu Kandam: 602 cultivated; 400 affected. - Iraya Velikandam: 270 cultivated; all 270 affected. - Munaiya Velikandam–Kilal (South): 300 cultivated; 282 affected (90%). - Needa Karai Kandam: 600 cultivated; 480 affected.

¶ 06 Hon. Minister, since you are here, I must say: our greatest challenge is the downstream irrigation of the Gal Oya Dam. While short-term measures exist, a durable solution is to build a secondary dam downstream. With climate change, inflows have increased; once upstream storages fill, excess water, when released, rushes through and inundates Karavakuvattai. After the Kallady Bridge works, flows toward Kittangi have also changed.

¶ 07 When I was Mayor of Kalmunai, a JICA plan recommended a secondary dam: use overflow from Gal Oya/Senanayake Samudraya for irrigation and hydropower, regulate it via a second dam, and during dry periods allow storage to recede and refill in rains. With pumped storage, water could be lifted back for hydropower, or released in a regulated manner to protect fields—enabling two seasons on 3,000 acres now often limited to one due to flooding.

¶ 08 I stand here because my grandfather’s paddy from Karavakuvattai paid for our education; my father became a lawyer from those earnings. This is our economic backbone. Admittedly, this is a multi-billion-rupee undertaking, not a one-day fix, but if we accept it as policy and seek foreign support, we can build resilience against climatic variability. I conclude urging policy acceptance of the secondary dam solution.

¶ 09 Thank you.