M. S. M. de Silva - Chartered Civil Engineer

 

Karava People of Sri Lanka

June 29, 2022

 

M S M de Silva (1926 - 2006) Chartered Civil Engineer.

වරලත් සිවිල් ඉංජිනේරු එම් එස් එම් ද සිල්වා (1926 - 2006).

Chartered Engineer M. S. M. De Silva

Engineer Muttuwa Sarukkalige Maithripala (M S M) de Silva was a Dam construction expert and has been associated with the design/construction of all the major national irrigation projects of a period spanning 30 years. They are:

වේලි ඉදිකිරීම් විශේෂඥයෙක් වූ මුත්තුව සරික්කාලිගේ මෛත්‍රීපාල (එම් එස් එම්) ද සිල්වා ඉංජිනේරු මැතිතුමා වසර 30 ක කාලයකදී මේ රටේ ඉදිවූ සියලුම ප්‍රධාන වාරි ව්‍යාපෘතිවලට සම්බන්ධ වී ඇත. ඒවා නම්:

Ekgal Oya, Jayanthi Wewa, Amabalan Oya , Namal Oya and Pannal Oya Earth Dams of the Galoya Project; Chandrika Wewa, Earth Dams of the Walawe Project; Bowatenna Concrete Gravity Dam, Maduru Oya rockfill Dam, Dambulla Oya and Ulhitiya Oya Earth Dams of the Mahaweli Project; Rajangana concrete gravity Dam, Mousakelle (Maskeliya) concrete gravity Dam, Canyon Concrete Arch Dam, and the Lunugamwehera Earth Dam.

In 1953, he returned from the UK and joined the Galoya Development Board and by 1959 his fame earned him the position of Director/General Manager of Ceylon Development Engineering Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of United Tractors Ltd. In 1969 he joined the State Development and Construction Corporation as the GM. He was the Technical Adviser of the Planning and Economic Affairs Ministry from 1972 to 1977 and Technical Secretary, River Valleys Development Board from 1977 to 1982.

A site in Huratgamuwa had been MSM's preference for the project which is now at Lunugamvehera. But since preparatory work had already been done at the present site, MSM's proposal had been put aside to avoid delay.

දැන් පවතින ලුණුගම්වෙහෙර ව්‍යාපෘතිය සඳහා MSM ගේ නිර්දේශය වී ඇත්තේ හුරත්ගමුවේ ස්ථානයකි. නමුත් ඒ වන විට දැන් පවතින ස්ථානය සඳහා මූලික කටයුතු සිදු කර තිබූ බැවින්, ප්‍රමාදය වැලකීම සඳහා MSM ගේ යෝජනාව බැහැර වී ඇත.

MSM had also prepared the ‘Southern Area plan’ a proposal to transfer excess water from the SW wet zone to the SE dry zone through a upper and a lower Transbasin diversion canal. This proposal intended to benefit the Hambantota area was recommended by Geologists and other Engineers but it hasn't materialised yet.

නිරිතදිග තෙත් කලාපයේ අතිරික්ත ජලය ගිනිකොන ප්‍රදේශයේ වියළි කලාපයට ඇළ මාර්ගයක් හරහා ගෙන යෑම සඳහා ‘දකුණු ප්‍රදේශ සැලසුම' නම් යෝජනාවක්ද MSM සකස් කර තිබුණි. හම්බන්තොට ප්‍රදේශයට ජලය සැපයීම සඳහා වූ මේ යෝජනාවට වෙනත් ඉංජිනේරුවන් සහ භූ විද්‍යාඥයින්ද එකඟ වුවද එය මෙතෙක් ක්‍රියාත්මක වී නොමැත.

MSM''s father was M S Simon de Silva who owned a factory and lived at "Siri Giri" on Station Road, Gintota. MSM had six sisters and one brother, married late in life and had no children.

එතුමාගේ පියා, ගාල්ලේ ගිංතොට දුම්රියපොළ පාරේ "සිරිගිරි" හි ජීවත් වූ ව්‍යාපාරික එම් එස් සැම්සන් ඩි සිල්වා මැතිතුමා ය.

Information: K de Silva CDN 2016/10/24

#Karava

 Jan 17 at 6:49 AM

M. S. M. De Silva - He made significant contribution to Lanka’s dam construction

Chartered civil engineer M. S. M. de Silva passed away in September 2006 at the age of 80 and on the occasion of his 10th death anniversary, it is necessary to recall the significant contribution he made to dam construction in Sri Lanka, over a period of 30 years, having worked in all major development projects undertaken during that period.

He was associated with the design and/or construction of the following dam projects: Ekgaloya, Jayanthiwewa, Amabalanoya , Namal oya and Pannal oya Earth Dams in the Galoya Project; Chandrikawewa , Uda Walawe Earth Dams in the Walawe Project; Bowatenna Concrete Gravity Dam, Maduruoya Rockfill Dam, Dambullaoya and Ulhitiyaoya Earth Dams in the Mahaweli Project; as well as Rajangana Concrete Gravity Dam, Mousakelle Concrete Gravity Dam, Canyon Concrete Arch Dam, and the Lunugamwehera Earth Dam.

He commenced his engineering career in 1953 in the Galoya Development Board soon after he returned from the United Kingdom, and made a name for himself as a brilliant and dynamic engineer.

His reputation earned him the position of Director/General Manager at Ceylon Development Engineering Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of United Tractors Ltd in 1959.

He served there till 1969. He functioned as General Manager of the State Development and Construction Corporation in 1971/72 as technical adviser, Planning and Economic Affairs Ministry from 1972 to 1977 and as technical secretary, River Valleys Development Board from 1977 to 1982.

Gamini Seneviratne, the then Additional Secretary at the Finance Ministry handling the Accelerated Mahaweli Project, in an article titled Vignettes of the Public Service-The Reservoirs , published on May 10, 2009, refers to the role of MSM as follows: “ The big reservoirs were constructed by foreign firms, i.e., apart from Ulhitiya, constructed by the RVDB, incidentally providing M. S. M. de Silva, that vishvakarma among our civil engineers, an opportunity to demonstrate the efficiency of our public sector in this area vis a vis our private sector: the CDE fell way behind with Ratkinda thereby delaying by a year or more the transfer of water from the Mahaweli to the Maduru Oya basin. MSM got that done.”

It is a little known fact that MSM was not in favour of the present Lunugamvehera site and instead pointed out the advantages of a site at Huratgamuwa but apparently this proposal was shelved on the ground that investigations had already been completed in respect of the proposed Lunugamvehera Project and that consideration of any other proposal at that stage would mean a further delay.

MSM also prepared a conceptual proposal called the ‘Southern Area plan’ to transfer excess water from the southwest wet zone to the southeast dry zone by means of an Upper and a Lower Transbasin diversion canal.

Geologist Dr. Panabokke and engineer Carlo Fernando also suggested the diversion of the Kalu Ganga to the southeast dry zone and supported this proposal but it too did not materialise.

It may still be possible to look into the feasibility of this proposal which was intended to benefit the Hambantota area.

MSM hailed from a well known family in Gintota, Galle and had six sisters and one brother. He married late in life, and had no children.

K. de Silva

CDN 2016/10/24

An Article Written by M. S. M. De Silva on the Samanalawewa Reservoir Leak

Read also https://island.lk/samanalawewa-leaks-and-cebs-losses/

about Samanalawewa 

M. S. M. De Silva married Helen Ekanayake , & had no children.

Family Members of M. S. M. De Silva

A Sister of M. S. M. De Silva

Mrs. Gnana Ratnapala

Gnana Ratnapala

A student of Sacred Heart Convent, Galle, after graduation, she commenced her teaching career in the same school. Here she is seen with some of her students at Sacred Heart Convent Galle.  She later continued her teaching career in Colombo & retired as a Principal.

A Sister of M. S. M. De Silva

Su­mana Siri­war­dena – A much loved teacher

18 Oct 2011, Daily Mirror 

Su­mana, known to her friends as Sue, passed away on Au­gust 19, 2011 at the age of eighty five. Born in Gin­tota, Galle she was a bril­liant prod­uct of Sa­cred Heart Con­vent, Galle. She brought credit to her school at the OL ex­am­i­na­tion by win­ning the all-is­land Pali prize. Her per­for­mance at the Lon­don Ma­tric­u­la­tion exam was out­stand­ing. She at­tended Ananda Col­lege, to com­plete her higher stud­ies in Pali, Sin­hala and English. She ob­tained the BA De­gree from the Univer­sity of Lon­don and was one of the few can­di­dates in Sri Lanka to of­fer this com­bi­na­tion of lan­guages at the de­gree level. She got her first teach­ing ap­point­ment at Sa­cred Heart Con­vent, Galle.

She mar­ried Regi Siri­war­dena her English Lec­turer at Ananda Col­lege, in 1949, She spent the next few years be­ing a house­wife and mother. The love she had for lan­guages mo­ti­vated her to study French in her spare time at the Al­liance Fran­caise de Cey­lan and once again she ex­celled. She trans­lated a well-known French chil­dren’s book into Sin­halese.

Sadly, her marriage broke up and she became a single parent, and went back to teaching English. She first taught at Galle and then at Wolfendall Girls’ School, Kotahena where she was much loved by her pupils. She left government service at the age of 60 and joined Museaus College, Colombo teaching French and English and was deeply appreciated by her pupils.

After over 30 years service she retired from Museaus, but continued to have conversational classes in French at her house. She was interested in music, art and literature and she enjoyed reading and listening to music in her retirement. Sue was a very kind hearted and helpful person with a great sense of humour and will be missed by friends and family.

Dr. Lalitha de Silva

A Sister of M. S. M. De Silva

Mrs. Sirima Weerakoon

Details not known.

A Sister of M. S. M. De Silva

Kusuma de Silva

B. A. (Cey), d. 2017, former Teacher of Sacred Heart Convent (Galle),​ Mahamaya Vidyalaya (Kandy),​ Sanghamitta Vidyalaya (Galle). She remained a spinster. 

A Sister of M. S. M. De Silva

Piyaseeli de Silva

BA (Cey), a former Teacher at .....? who also remained a spinster.

A brother of M. S. M. De Silva
Indrapala de Silva

BSc (Cey), a former Teacher at ..............& a bachelor.

Youngest Sister of M. S. M. De Silva
Dr. Lalitha Weerasinghe,  MBBS (Cey), FRCP (Psychiatry), DPM Psychiatry, Consultant Psychiatrist, UK.

Their parents were M. S. Simon de Silva of Sirigiri,  Galle Rd. Gintota & Nandawathie Wickremasooriya of Kathaluwa.