A Cabinet subcommittee has stepped in to find a permanent solution to long-running land disputes faced by residents in the Welimada, Uva Paranagama and Hali-Ela Divisional Secretariat areas displaced by the Uma Oya Development Project.
The subcommittee’s intervention follows objections by affected residents to earlier land valuations carried out at the district level. The government has decided to implement compensation based on a revised scientific valuation process, Ada Derana reported on Tuesday.
In the first phase of the programme, more than Rs. 300 million has been allocated to compensate 246 residents who lost their land to reservoir construction. The subcommittee has not disclosed the timeline for subsequent phases or the total number of additional claimants in line.
The Uma Oya multipurpose project is a major water-diversion and hydropower scheme in the Uva Province built by Iran’s Farab Energy and Water Projects with FARAB-led EPC support. The scheme diverts water from the Uma Oya basin through a 23-kilometre tunnel to drier areas in Hambantota for irrigation, drinking water and a 122 MW hydropower plant. Construction has generated long-standing grievances among upland communities affected by reservoir inundation, drying wells, subsidence and disputed land valuations dating back more than a decade.
Tuesday’s announcement is the first time a Cabinet-level subcommittee — rather than the Divisional Secretariat or the Land Acquisition Board — has been named as the mechanism for resolving the valuation disputes. The “revised scientific valuation” wording suggests the earlier valuations are no longer the baseline.
The minister or ministers chairing the subcommittee were not identified in the announcement, and Ada Derana did not name the next phases or total compensation envelope.
