The Kotmale Project
video (mini-dv, dvd)
duration: 46 min
© Jesper Nordahl 2006


The main part of the video The Kotmale Project is archive material from the early eighties, broadcasted in The Swedish Public Service Television. It also consists of additional material recorded in Kotmale during 2004 and 2005.

The video is one part of series of investigations on the Kotmale hydropower project, which was built by the Swedish construction company Skanska between 1979 and 1985 in Sri Lanka. Since its early days the Kotmale Project received much criticism from different fractions in Sweden. Partly concerning the way it was established, and partly on who would benefit from it. Indirect it also interfered with local politics in Sri Lankan.

The project was an agreement, in the end of the seventies, between the Swedish and Sri Lankan governments and Skanska, who got the contract without any competitive bidding. The Swedish Parliament was informed afterwards and Sweden's aid agency, SIDA, didn't get control of the project until the beginning of the eighties. Ultimately, SIDA handed out grants totalling € 250 million for the Kotmale Project.

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