Chairman of Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation (SLRDC) Karunasena Hettiarachchi yesterday confirmed that he had been raising objections with local authorities during monthly meetings and at forums at all levels and was still facing what appears an impossible task halting the flooding in Colombo and the suburbs due to continued encroachment of water retention areas.

He said that despite financial constraints on the deployment of officials to carry out routine checks on encroachments, even the officials dispatched are scared as armed underworld elements as well as powerful and rich persons who are at times backed by politicians at local and National level threaten them with death.

He said that they were doing their best and had filed 191 cases in the Magistrate court last year against those who had encroached flood retention areas in Kotte, Nawala, Kolonnawa and Gothatuwa and some areas of Wattala and Kelaniya.

Hettiarachchi said that this was a general problem for the past 10 to 15 years and this had led to 15 to 20 per cent of flood retention areas in Colombo were illegally occupied.

There are several reasons for encroachment on state lands. Chief among them is the severe shortage of land availability with people displaced as a result of the conflict in the North and East and people from other areas of the country coming to Colombo and suburbs for economic reasons with no place to live.

Some powerful underworld elements encroached flood retention areas to construct houses and sell it to these people. There is also the social problem that these people cannot be thrown out with their family and children.

Another category is the rich and powerful, backed by underworld elements. Politicians persuade authorities to grant them legal authority and they in turn obtain electricity and water supply.