Water information system for Sri Lanka
The Water Information
System for Sri Lanka provides facts, figures and maps on trends in water
availability, water use and water quality for the country. The tool, launched
in January 2014, is the first of
its kind for helping scientists and policymakers in Sri Lanka accurately
monitor the dynamics of the country’s water resources. It also provides a
secure platform for cooperation among all the agencies involved in water
management in the country to share their data.
It was developed in
conjunction with several national partners, including the Department of
Irrigation, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board, the Institute of
Fundamental Studies, the Water Resources Board and the University of Jaffna.
While many parts of
Sri Lanka have an abundance of water resources, huge areas experience water
scarcity. This means there is competition for water use for people’s individual
needs and livelihoods, food production, industry, tourism as well the country’s
stunning wildlife. Growing threats from climate change will intensify that
competition, which means that it is more important than ever to manage water
resources efficiently and sustainably. Tools such as the Water Information
System for Sri Lanka play a part in supporting the country’s continued
development, economic growth and future prosperity.
Dams safety and water resources planning project
In a situation of
growing urban and rural demand for water, competition for water among different
uses is immensely increased. This emphasized an urgent need to manage and
allocate the country's water resources efficiently and effectively by adopting
sector wide approach to swapping individual interests to maximize shared
management of water resources.
The Dams safety and
Water resources planning project addresses the above challenges by undertaking
remedial works of critical dams, provision of basic safety facilities,
upgrading hydro-meteorological data collection, storage, management and
dissemination system, enhancing capacity of institutions involved in the water
sector to acquire knowledge and skills in using modern analytical tools and
management practices to undertake sustainable multi-sector planning,
development and management of the water resources in the country. In addition,
project assists to reviewing and exploring the development potential and
feasibility of existing water resources plans, including revised Mahaweli Water
Resources Development Plan.
Accordingly, 32 high
risk dams out of 80 large dams in Sri Lanka are identified to be fully
renovated under the project. All 80 dams including 32 will be provided with
basic facilities for efficient operations and maintenance of such dams.
Irrigation
Department, Mahaweli Authority, Ceylon Electricity Board and National Water
supply & Drainage Board are joined hands to implement the project together
with other stakeholders involved in the water sector. Emphasis is given to
safeguard the Social and environment aspects in the rehabilitation process of
dams together with due consideration on protection of cultural properties of
the dams.
Deduru oya Reservoir the Large Irrigation solution for North
Western Province
The project is carried out by the
department of Irrigation. The Deduru Oya Reservoir is located in Kurunegala
District. It served the lands in dry and intermediate zones of Kurunegala and
Puttalam Districts, where the people are frequently suffering from water
scarcity. Benefits from the Project have uplift the living condition of these
people. The Reservoir has hold 75 million cubic meters of water after its
completion and it has provided assured irrigation facilities for 11,000 ha
(27,500 acres) of paddy lands in the Deduru Oya and the Mee Oya basins
benefitting about 15,000 farmer families while about 50,000 families will benefit
by domestic water facilities, lift irrigation, and extension of inland
fisheries culture etc.
The project envisaged construction of
following reservoir components; Construction of new 2400m long earthen dam,
Constructions of 2 sluice structures, Construction of concrete spill structure
and hydro power station of 1.5 MW, Improvements to minor tanks, which have fed
by RB & LB Canals. The government of Sri
Lanka is giving its best support to these projects to carry on an efficient
water security framework in island wide. These are some examples for the
existing water security practices in Sri Lanka.
When
a country implements an integrated efficient framework for water security
practices there should be some cost which have related with that framework.
These costs should be bear by someone. Here the analysis is going to be done
whether there is a relationship between the cost of the water security
practices and the cost of the agricultural products (whether the farmers bear
the cost of water security practices). The data for this part of analysis is
mainly collected through the interviews carried out with the farmers and
officials in the irrigation department.
According
to the farmers’ statement that they have getting water to use in their
agricultural activities through following sources; wells in their areas and the
water issued from the tanks, ponds and rivers which have maintained by the
department of irrigation, Sri Lanka. When they using the water from the wells
in their areas they have incurred some costs related with the maintenance of
those wells such as electricity, maintenance of pipelines, labor charges and
etc. At the same time, the farmers have to incur some amount of money when they
use the water supplied by the department of irrigation. There is a standard
amount they need to pay. The amount is fixed and charged by the department of
irrigation. The amount is fixed at Rs. 400 Per acre of paddy field for a year
required water supply for agriculture. The farmers add this amount of money to
the final cost of agricultural product as this expense include in their total
amount of expenses.
According
to the statement from the officials from the department of irrigation, the
department of irrigation is the authorized body to supply the water to the
paddy fields for agriculture. The farmers have established agricultural society
in their area or village level. The farmers request to the department of the
irrigation regarding the level of water they need for agricultural activity,
the period (number of days) they need water and other information related with
the supply of water through those agricultural societies. As per those
requests, the department of irrigation supplies the water to the paddy fields. The
department of irrigation charges an amount of money from the farmers for the
water supplies they provided. The amount is Rs. 400 Per acre of land for one
year. The amount of money collected from the farmers transfers to the head
office of the department of the irrigation. This money will spend for the
maintenance of the dams, drainages and tanks which used for the secure of
water. But, the amount of money spending for the maintenance of the dams is not
fully collected from the farmers. The government (treasury department) gives a
large portion of contribution to the department of irrigation for their
maintenance expense. Therefore, the expense incurred for the security of water
sources are bear by the farmers and the government (treasury).
Historically,
one of the fields in which Sri Lankans have displayed rare skills in managing
nature and its riches is undoubtedly in the development of water resources. It
has been recorded that Sri Lanka was practicing irrigation as farback as 500
B.C. A large number of water security practices were developed after the 1950’s
including Udawalawe, Rajangane, kaudulla, Muruthawela, Nagadeepa, Mahawewa and
etc. And currently there are lot of water security practices establish and
maintaineed by the government of Sri Lanka (through relevant organizations
under Ministry of Irrigation and Water Management) such as Mahaweli development plan, Dams safety and water
resources planning project, Water information system for Sri Lanka, Deduru oya
Reservoir the Large Irrigation solution for North Western Province, Development
of ground water monitoring and assessment project and etc. These practices are
carrying with incurring a large amount of money. These costs are bear by the
farmers and government (treasury) of Sri Lanka. The farmers have including
these costs (the amount they paid to the department of irrigation) to the cost
of their final agricultural products.
Therefore, there are some effective and efficient water
security practices available in Sri Lanka. And the cost of the water security
practices has an impact on the cost of the agricultural products.
