ARCHITECT OF THE MAHAWELI DIVERSION SCHEME – C.P. DE SILVA

Prime Minister S W R D Bandaranayake with Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Irrigation and Power C P De Silva at a meeting in Kalmunai.

“Men of an era are rarely born, but once born they live in the hearts of people long after their demise”
King Mahasen who earned the encomium “Mahasen Deviyo” was a king amongst a long line of kings who did yeomen service to the country. In the early 20th Century, heroes like D S Senanayake earned the title “the Father of the Nation” and C W W Kananagara earned respect as “the Father of free Education”.

But universal suffrage from the 1930’s highlighted Ceylonese had short lived memories and react to impulses and surges without logical thought. The shoddy treatment meted out to public spirited patriots like Anagarika Dharmapala, Sir D.B. Jayatillake, C.W.W. kananagara,  E W.Perera, A.E.Gunasinghe and Dr.Ananda Coomaraswamy to name only a few, stands to the eternal discredit of the collective minds of our people. Such ingratitude did not even spare C. P.De Silva - the only known human who earned the encomium “Minneriya deviyo.”

As the youngest Civil Servant absorbed into the prestigious Civil Service in 1935, C.P.De Silva was recognized for his selfless service to the wellbeing of peasantry in Polonnaruwa. He was elected to Parliament in 1952 with just 8 others from the newly  formed SLFP and was appointed a Minister and Leader of the House in 1956. He captured the imagination of his people for his selfless sacrifice, display of humanity and empathy in order to raise the living standards of the marginalised farming community living in the inhospitable jungles of the NCP. C.P.De Silva was Sri Lanka’s embodiment of John F. Kennedy’s celebrated statement “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.      

C.P. De Silva lived through the Malaria epidemic of 1934/1935 before it peaked again in 1967/1968 where 538,000 were affected. Many times, C.P.De Silva was brought to Colombo for treatment only to return soon after recovering from the effects of Malaria

C.P.De Silva passed away on 9th October 1972 at the young age of 60 years, probably due to the long term effects of poisoning which incident took place in cabinet exactly one month before his leader S W R D Bandaranayake was fatally shot in 1959.

C.P.De Silva was a scholar of high repute, but left a potentially comfortable life to dedicate himself to a public service in tireless pursuit of agricultural development to redeem the hapless lives of the down trodden millions of peasantry and emancipate the landless from feudalism.

C.P.De Silva was born to a respected scholarly family from Randombe, Balapitiya. His father C. R. De Silva was a leading Lawyer in the Balapitiya Bar.  C.P began his schooling at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda. 

Educationally promising CP began his secondary school education at the prestigious St Thomas’s College, Mt Lavinia and carried away the coveted Gregory Scholarship and Miller Award for his brilliance in Science and Mathematics in 1927 and   progressed to become the Head Prefect in 1930. He then won the “Exhibition Scholarship” to enter the University College, Ceylon and graduated with a B.Sc degree in Mathematics with First Class Honours. His Professor was C Suntharalingam.  CP was sent by his father to England to pass out as one of the youngest ever Civil Servants in 1935 at 23 years of age. He returned to his country and was promptly sent to Jaffna Kachcheri as a cadet, to the Puttalam District and Kalutara as AGA and found his destiny in the NCP – first as AGA and then as GA. After about 10 years in the field, in 1946 he was appointed Assistant Land Commissioner and 3 years later as Director, Land Development under the Minister of Agriculture Dudley Senanayake.

The British lacked empathy and the drive to fast track reopening the old irrigation systems, until D.S. Senanayake with his trusted public servant C.P. De Silva arrived on the scene in the 1930s. DS as the Minister of Agriculture in 1935 enacted the Land Development Ordinance in 1935. This law targeted food production to offset the effects of the world war, recover farmlands lost to the wilds and settle people from over populated wet zones to the dry zone and start an agricultural reawakening.

D.S Senanayake commenced the Gal Oya  Muliti Purpose Scheme in 1949 by  creating the beautiful Senanayake Samudraya encompassing 7 small tanks and comprising about 30 sq miles and settled about 10,000 families. Connected to this wewa was a Power House. Farmer settlements were established in Kalawewa ( 1939 ) and in Hurulu wewa ( 1949 ).

C.P. De Silva lived through the Malaria epidemic of 1934/1935 before it peaked again in 1967/1968 where 538,000 were affected. Many times, C.P.De Silva was brought to Colombo for treatment only to return soon after recovering from the effects of Malaria. There is no politician or public servant who lived over 30 years in such inhospitable surroundings unfazed due to the immense love he had for people.

Over a policy dispute with Dudley Senanayake - his Minister and despite the Prime Minister D.S Senayake intervening, C.P resigned from the Civil Service in 1950 and took to farming in Thabbowa, Putalam. It was here that  S.W.R.D Bandaranayake after forming the SLFP in 1952, through intermediaries from Hingurakgoda,  persuaded a reluctant C.P to contest Polonnaruwa - the land he loved so much.

C.P.De Silva continued the agricultural renaissance started by DS and continued by Dudley as a politician, by adding value to the restored Minneriya and Parakrama Samudraya, Galoya and Kantale irrigation projects. He was credited with the establishment of Bandiwewa – Kadawlawewa, Galamuna, Buddayaya, Kirimetiya, Ambagaswewa, Meegaswewa, Diyasenapura,  BisoBandara, Bebiyawewa, Jayanthipura in Polonnaruwa District.  He commissioned the Uda Walawe project in 1967 with a reservoir extending to about 8400 acres of water at full capacity with two power plants up to 5.4 MW in the borders of the Ratnapura and Monaragal Districts with ADB aid. The Hurulu wewa was restored in 1958. He created the Rajanganaya settlement – both in Anuradhapura District, to name a few in NCP. 

C.P.De Silva constructed the Chandrika Wewa by damming Hulanda oya, a tributary of the Walawe ganga near Embilipitiya in the Ratnapura District in 1963. The water extent of this reservoir was 1100 acres. There is an untold story how this wewa was named.   

SWRD and CP were known to share a common interest in reading horoscopes. Once SWRD turned up where CP was living with his brother in law R.T. De Silva at Dharmapala Mawatha and after lengthy comparison of views concluded that, his young daughter Chandrika will one day be the Head of State. C.P.did not fail to remember his assassinated leader in 1963 by naming the newly constructed reservoir ‘Chandrika Wewa’ after Chandrika,  who would have been a teenager in 1963. She became the President in 1994.

He introduced the amendment to the Irrigation Act in 1968 and established the River Valleys Development Board ( RVDB ) in  1969. The RVDB facilitated the sugar cane industries in Galoya and Kanthale and later in Pelawatte and Sevenagala.

C.P.De Silva had such foresight that his contribution to education by the establishment of the Polonnaruwa Royal Central College and Medirigiriya Central College in 100 acre blocks of land each with hostel facilities for boys and girls and staff quarters and a fully fledged play ground at Royal Central, must be seen to believe. Even a  new Town in Polonnaruwa was started in Polonnaruwa. 

As a national minded politician, he championed Human rights by spearheading the movement to defeat the Press take over Bill in Parliament on 3rd December 1964. One of the least talked of legislative enactments C P De Silva spearheaded was the Nindagam Bill in Parliament on 25th February 1968. The abolition of Nindagam was designed to free tenant farmers from compulsory services lands owned by Feudal Landlords, throughout the country. Releasing Nindagam lands to the tenant cultivators and freeing them from encumbrances or  settling the peasantry in these lands, resulted in the poor being absolved of social stigma and generated enthusiasm for the proper utilization of paddy fields and highlands.

The last of C P De Silva’s massive multipurpose development projects, was the presentation of the Mahaveli Development Authority Act in February 1970. With it commenced Sri Lanka’s largest ever multipurpose development scheme, initiated by C.P.De Silva. Being a Mathematics Honours graduate, he carefully and meticulously planned to divert the longest river The Mahaweli (206 mls / 331 km long) to the NCP where an advanced civilisation over 2000 years ago had lived and abandoned it to move to the wetter parts of the island. He contracted with the US Operations Mission (USOM) to undertake a feasibility study of the planned Mahaweli development scheme and The Canadian Hunting Survey Corporation to conduct a separate independent survey of the water body of the Mahaweli river and when in Parliament in 1962 The Leader of the Opposition Dudley Senanayake suggested that an overall study of the entire Mahaweli development scheme encompassing land and water resources of the entire Mahaweli river basin which included Victoria and Randenigala, that too was accepted by CP and  The UNDP was contracted to undertake an overall independent study in 1963.

The UNDP “Master Plan” was approved by Parliament in 1968. By then, CP De Silva had resigned from the SLFP and held the same portfolio under the Dudley Senanayake government. In planning, the Minister who had a practical overview of the entire landscape for long years unlike any other, gave his inputs to his officials how and where to demarcate areas for human settlements, schools, hospitals, townships and about deforestation and reforestation and the preservation of Elephant corridors. The Mahaweli diversion clearly targeted all races and was never intended or designed for short term political advantages.

The proposal phased out the development over a period of 30 years step by step, taking into consideration financial resources available to the government and the protection of the fauna and flora in development areas. The Mahaweli would facilitate the development of 364,372 hectares of land out of which 253,968 hectares of new land would receive water for cultivation and 110,404 hectares would receive water for both seasons per annum unlike in the past.                     

  
The Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake with C.P.De Silva laid the foundation stone for the diversion at Polgolla on 28th February 1970 - a mere 2 years after Parliament approved the UNDP proposal. But just 3 months later on 27th May 1970, Mrs Bandaranaike was swept to power with a 2/3rd majority and C.P.De Silva lost his seat to a Communist Party (Peking wing) first timer to the area Ratna Deshapriya Senanayake by 2548 votes. The result shocked the whole country. One year later, the conservative farming electorate of Minneriya, became a JVP hot spot in 1971 in the clutches of a few politically misguided youth.

It took 6 long years for Mrs. Bandaranaike’s government to inaugurate the tunnel for the intake of water into the intake tunnel at Polgolla on 8th January 1976 for which the foundation stone was laid on 28th February 1970.  
It is ironical that a few months after the initial diversion was completed by Mrs Bandaranaike’s SLFP government, her government was badly defeated on 21st July 1977 and reduced to 8 seats (29.7%) with the UNP gaining a 5/6th Majority (140 seats/50.9%)  in a parliament consisting of 168 members. By then, C.P.De Silva was no more. If not, he would surely have completed the Mahaweli project he conceived, as a 65 year old young politician.  

Dr Wijedasa Rajapakse wrote in his book on C.P.De Silva “There are many parties that claim credit for the said project launched by C.P.De Silva. Those who were trying to grab the credit for the project hadn’t the elementary courtesy to mention the name of C.P.De Silva. They were so ungrateful as not to mention the name of the architect of the project C.P.De Silva. In addition to it, people are reluctant to even mention his name even in passing. Our people are ungrateful and hypocritical so much so that they do not appreciate if not for the vision and mission of C.P.De Silva, our country would not be self-sufficient in rice and in many other crops. The same is true to a great extent with regard to Hydro Electricity as well.”