{"id":92682,"date":"2013-06-23T00:11:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T18:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=92682"},"modified":"2013-06-27T14:11:18","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T08:41:18","slug":"a-river-for-jaffna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-river-for-jaffna\/","title":{"rendered":"A River For Jaffna"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Thiru\u00a0 Arumugam<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Thiru Arumugam<\/p><\/div>\n

Jaffna<\/a><\/span> Peninsula has an area of 1000 square km and being flat has no rivers and is totally dependent on the annual rainfall of about 1270 mm, of which about 87% falls during the north-east monsoon from October to December, for recharge of the water table in the underground aquifer.\u00a0 In the past, water was drawn from wells for domestic and agricultural use by well sweeps, but from the 1950\u2019s onwards pumps have been used to draw water from these wells.\u00a0 There are nearly 100,000 wells in the Peninsula. This over pumping for agricultural use has drawn down the fresh water stored in the limestone aquifer resulting in sea water percolating into the wells through the fractured limestone, as no part of Jaffna is more than about 15 km from the sea. At present about 30% of the wells in the Jaffna Peninsula are saline. Recent reports from agricultural experts state that more than 4500 hectares of fertile agricultural land have turned saline and have become unsuitable for cultivation.<\/p>\n

Within the Jaffna peninsula there are two large lagoons, the Vadamarachchi lagoon and the Upparu lagoon with surface areas of about 77 and 26 square km respectively.\u00a0 These lagoons were open to the sea and were salt water lagoons but during the north-east monsoon rain water from their catchment areas also collects in them. The total catchment area of these lagoons is about 50% of the area of the Peninsula.<\/p>\n

If we are to increase the availability of fresh water in the Jaffna peninsula we need to look at sources alternative to rain in the peninsula.\u00a0 South of the peninsula is the sea water Elephant Pass Lagoon which\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 has a surface area of about 77 square km.\u00a0 It has a catchment area of about 940 square km in the mainland Vanni, mainly consisting of the Kanakarayan Aru and three smaller streams.\u00a0 During the north-east monsoon these streams discharge the surplus rain water from the Vanni into the Elephant Pass lagoon. From this lagoon this fresh water flows into the sea through the eastern end at Chundikulam and formerly also through the western end Elephant Pass bridge, and is at present being wasted.<\/p>\n

During the 1960\u2019s a scheme was proposed to utilise the monsoon rain water running to waste from the Elephant Pass lagoon, for the benefit of the Jaffna peninsula.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

KEY POINTS of the RIVER for JAFFNA Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

Key points of the scheme and details of the work done in the 1960s are as follows:<\/p>\n