-SRI LANKA: Wate Rights Tussle Can Only Get Worse

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Apr 21 1999 (IPS) - Some years back, angry rice farmers forced open the sluice gates of a large reservoir in Sri Lanka directed water to their fields when irrigation officials said the water was only for domestic consumers.

a group of domestic consumers took out a small street protest in Borella town in the heart of the capital demanding that their water supply be increased from the few hours they receive now.

In the southern town of Hikkaduwa, a similar protest took place by consumers, urging water cuts to be abandoned.

Households in the north central town of Anuradhapura have been getting just two hours of water a day for the past decade and consumer protests have been of no avail.

The battle for water in Sri Lanka is growing and experts say r to water problems , electric power, and adequate water for domestic and industrial users and sanitation services are placing increasing pressure on the country’s water resources.

And with industry expanding much faster than neglected farmlands, pressure is also building up on the need to provide more water to industry than to farmers. Irrigation consumes 70-80

about 8-9 percent. The rest is used by industry.

In Sri Lanka, all the river basins in the dry zone are facing a serious water scarcity. In future irrigated agriculture would have to be a lot more efficient and in many cases may have to be reduced to meet other demands for water, says Douglas J. Merrey, deputy director-general of the Irrigation Water Management Institute (IWMI).

“Two years ago in Anuradhapura, I saw this big demonstration by farmers who were not allowed to grow rice using water from tanks which were reserved for city use. In the city itself there are water restrictions,” he said, adding that competition was estic use. “This sik- going
o get worse.”

Experts sasins and annual rainfall amounts to an average of 127 to 132 billion cubic metres of water, according to official figures.

A government document says that though Sri Lanka has an overall average precipitation of more than 2,000 mm per year, the monsoon climate and national geography “create substantial variability in the amount of water that is available both locally and temporally.”

It noted that projections for the year 2000 show tt expected demand for water far outstrips supply, particularly in the country’s dry zone where most of the irrigation schemes are located and “the estimated future annual water deficit is estimated as 2,500 million cubic metres.”

Other studies reveal that at the current rate of irrigation efficiency in Sri Lanka, several local rice-growing districts would face water shortages in the future.

“Some of these districts will be in serious water scarcity conditions that the available water resources may not even be adequate to meet their projected demand,” an IWMI study said.

IWMI, established in 1984 to, has been undertaking global prommes to improve food 
curity and the lives of poonsultation next month to discuss the formulation of a “vision” of Sri Lanka’s water needs into the new millennium.

There has been no national policy for the allocation of water for diverse uses so far, but a proposed National Water Resources Policy prepared by the Water Resources Secretariat – currently being studied by the government – may provide some relief to water users.

The plan, presented at the GWP-SASTAC meeting, lists ou water and allocations and says that the right to uents.

It also has provision for the voluntary transfer of water entitlements between entitlement holders; the development of river basins; a water management cost sharing basis and the t of groundwater resTXACK and the t of groundwater