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Power failure affects 150,000 acres of farmland

10 Jun 2022

  • Irrigation Dept. cites water supply to Senanayake Reservoir, Minipe Canal being cut off
  • PUCSL slams blackout as illegal
  • Engineers slam Kanchana; notes union only protecting competitive tendering
The Irrigation Department has claimed in a letter that due to the power failure that took place in the early hours last morning (9), the Senanayake Reservoir and the Minipe Canal were cut off from the water supply, thus affecting about 150,000 acres of farmland.  “Agricultural work is done under very difficult circumstances during this Yala season. Additionally, the capacity of reservoirs has reduced to 57% due to the somewhat dry weather prevailing near the reservoirs. In this context, the Senanayake Reservoir and the Minipe Canal, which gets water through power stations, were suddenly cut off from the water supply on Wednesday night, which has in turn affected about 150,000 acres of farmland,” the department has informed the Irrigation Ministry through the letter yesterday, as seen by The Morning.  On Wednesday (8) midnight, the Ceylon Electricity Board Engineers’ Union (CEBEU) declared a strike action over disagreements about the proposed amendment to the Sri Lanka Electricity Act, No. 20 of 2009. They had earlier declared that the strike action involved the shutdown of the national electricity grid, which would lead to an islandwide power failure by last morning. Several areas around the country experienced power failures from about 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. yesterday.  At 6 a.m. yesterday, the CEBEU declared that the strike would continue, while preventing a total power failure in the system, as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has assured them that the CEBEU’s proposals to the Electricity Act (Amendment) Bill would be considered during the committee stage of the Bill’s reading in Parliament.  “We received reports that due to the trade union (TU) action, electricity generation equipment was suddenly stopped. We need to be informed prior to taking such actions. As a result of the cutting off of the water supply, the Minipe Canal, which spans about 50-100 km in length, experienced an unnatural reduction in water. Although the water supply was restored at 9 a.m. yesterday, it will take days to bring it back to normal levels. We need to have prior information about such TU actions so that we can ensure a minimum impact on the farmers,” the letter to the Ministry added. Meanwhile, addressing a media briefing held yesterday, Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Chairman Janaka Ratnayake said that the PUCSL considers the blackout illegally enforced and would therefore write to the CEB to ensure non-recurrence. “The PUCSL will investigate today’s incident and take necessary action if it is sabotage. The PUCSL has no issues with the CEB taking union action without disturbing the public. The PUCSL will not tolerate if the public is inconvenienced due to the CEB’s TU action,” said Ratnayake.  The CEBEU’s strike action demands the following: To withdraw the proposed amendments with immediate effect; to stop the handing over of the country’s wind and solar resources to the Adani Group (paying in US dollars) without following the competitive bidding process; to stop driving the CEB towards privatisation under the guise of reform; and to appoint a suitable professional with unblemished character to the post of the CEB Chairman without further delay. Ratnayake yesterday assured that the PUCSL will carefully consider all proposals received for electricity generation in order to ensure that they meet all the necessary requirements.  However, Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera has said that the draft Bill is aimed at expediting the process of adding renewable energy projects to the national grid, which would reduce generation costs and the dependence on expensive thermal power stations. He has further accused a “set of engineers” of having vested interests in preventing this Bill.  In a statement issued in this regard yesterday, the CEBEU condemned Wijesekera’s allegations.  “We have noted with concern that the Minister is spearheading a mudslinging campaign to divert the present public anger on politicians towards CEB engineers, in an organised manner. We condemn the part he played in publishing fabricated salary statistics of CEB engineers and trying to portray the ongoing TU action as one that is fought for a salary increase,” the statement said.  The statement further requested the public to understand that competitive tendering is an essential part of good governance and is by no means a hindrance to developing renewable energy.  “When the whole world is moving towards competition, we question the rationale of moving back in time to renewable tariffs decided by committees, an avenue leading to corruption. We apologise to the public for any inconvenience and appeal to all to understand that this fight is to prevent people corrupting the system in order to receive undue advantages at a later stage.” Meanwhile, the Colombo District Court yesterday issued an enjoining order preventing the CEBEU from disrupting the power supply to consumers due to TU action. Furthermore, the order prevents CEBEU President Anil Ranjith and CEBEU Secretary Dhammika Wimalaratne from engaging in TU action for the next 14 days.  


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