Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-01-10

Providing Relief under Emergency Disaster Conditions to House Holders Adversely Affected by the Water Leaks of the Main Tunnel of the Uma Oya Multi Purpose Development Project

- The Uma Oya Multi Purpose Development Project is being implemented with the objective of providing water to the Kirindi Oya Basin of the Southern Region which suffers from shortage of water. When the construction work was underway, due to the water ingress in the main tunnel of the Uma Oya, several adverse effects such as drying of domestic wells and development of cracks in the houses occurred in 08 Grama Niladharys' Divisions in the Divisional Secretarys' Divisions of Bandarawela and Ella. Due to this reason, damages have been caused to the lives and the properties of the people living in those areas while it has also greatly affected the daily livelihoods of the people adversely. As such, the proposal made by H.E. the President Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment, to mitigate the prevailing disastrous conditions and to construct new houses in place of the completely damaged ones, to bring back normalcy to the day to day living conditions of the affected people, providing pipe borne water connections free of charge etc. and such other reliefs as necessary, expeditiously, was approved by the Cabinet.