In 2006, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred in the Indonesian tectonic plate, causing a tsunami in the Asian region leading to Sri Lanka, which destroyed many lives and properties.
Nearly 50,000 people and a large amount of property were lost in Sri Lanka. The most damage from the tsunami hit the eastern and then the southern coast of Sri Lanka. After the tsunami, Sri Lanka received a lot of international aid, and some of it was also accused of being misappropriated.
Helmut Kohl, the former Chancellor of Germany, was at the Galle Talpe Paragon Hotel when the tsunami hit. It belonged to former student of Mahinda College, Galle Nandasiri Samararatne. Mr. Kohl, who currently resides in America, traveled around Galle to see the tsunami devastation.
Mr. Kohl was not only shocked to see the destroyed Mahmodara hospital, but also decided to build a hospital in Galle with the money of his foundation. This is the background for the construction of South Asia’s largest maternity hospital with 07 floors and 600 beds.
A little later, the construction of the hospital started on 04 acres belonging to the irrigation department near the Karapitiya Hospital. It was said that the amount of 900 million rupees received from the Kohl Foundation was spent on the foundation of the hospital itself, stating that there is a big stream under it. But the locals are of the opinion that there is no such stream under that area. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Health, an international company called Sonek was in charge of the construction. The minister at that time was Mr. Nimal Siripala. In 02 years, the construction stopped saying that all the money is over.
But Dr. Ramesh Pathirana and Mr. Wijayapala Hettiarachchi were also interested in the need to continue the work of the hospital. Also, Mr. Mahinda College’s old boy Nisshanka Epaliyana, a civil activist in the area, was also concerned about the hospital as he had connections with Germany and was the one who initiated the construction of the country’s largest pediatric intensive care unit in Karapitiya with German support. Mr. Epaliyana published an article in the Sunday Times with Leon Berenger in 2011 about stopping of constructions of Kohl Hospital.
Seeing this, two heads of the German embassy in Sri Lanka came to Galle and studied the matter together with Epaliyana and Dr. Kapilani Withanachi. At first they were not even allowed to enter the land. The ambassadors also met Professor Malik Gunawardena and then Mahmodara Hospital Director Priyani Senadheera and got details.
Based on the information provided by the German embassy, Germany gave a loan of 28 million euros for the rest of the hospital. In 2018, a group of the country’s opposition also came and submitted a report on the progress of the construction of the hospital. Based on that, the loan was converted into a grant.
Although the journey was slow, the construction of the hospital has been completed by now. A lot of equipment has also been received. The Karapitiya hospital authorities say that the required number of trained employees are also available. Although the required number of beds has not yet been received, it is believed that this can be made available to the people next January.
It is the wish of the entire people of Galle that the “Galle Helmut Kohl Maternity Hospital” which has been crawling for 17 years during the tenure of Dr. Ramesh Pathirana as the Minister of Health, will soon become a comfortable reality for the people.
