NARBO workshop participants? study tour to the upper part of Maha Oya on 27th of April 2005 ? Problems in the upper part of the basin

In Network of Asian River Basin Organisations. Second NARBO Training Workshop on River Basin Management and Organisations for Mid-Career Professionals in South Asian countries held at The Beach Hotel, Negombo, Sri Lanka, 24-29 April 2005. Manila, Philippines: Network of Asian River Basin Organizations (NARBO)

Irrigation versus hydropower: sectoral conflicts in southern Sri Lanka

Although hydropower does not directly consume water, its generation frequently conflicts with other uses, notably irrigation, because its release schedule does not always correspond to the timing of water use by other activities. This article analyses a case from the Walawe river basin, Sri Lanka, where economic efficiency can be raised by reducing releases from the dam for irrigation for the benefit of hydropower generation. The tradeoff is analysed in financial and managerial terms and different options for reducing irrigation diversions are reviewed. Although the high level of current diversions for irrigation warrants the possibility of improvement in management, it is shown that finding ways to reduce supply faces technical and socio-political constraints that make the realization of economic benefits costly and difficult

Resilience and prosperity through agro-well driven cultivation in the north central province, Sri Lanka: a case study on its evolution, structure and impacts

Agricultural practices are changing at an unprecedented rate in small pockets of the dry zone of Sri Lanka. Commercial vegetable production is flourishing underwritten by groundwater accessed via agro-wells, increased market access and new business opportunities. Since the early 1990s, small-holder farmers have been excavating agro-wells for highland field irrigation and reaping unprecedented returns. Highland fields were previously subject to rain-fed shifting cultivation with long fallow periods. Water from agro-wells with the addition of chemical inputs, along with the advent of mobile phones, reliable road transport, new markets, greater access to credit and a more secure post-conflict environment, have now made frequent highland cropping viable and profitable. This has ignited the entrepreneurial spirit of farmers whose financial inputs and investments and labour is bringing rapid socio-economic transformation. In a country where the dry zone constitutes roughly a third of the land area, and where many dry zone households lack surface water for dry season cropping, these pockets of groundwater driven dry season production may pose a way out of poverty. While acknowledging the significant impact of agro-well-based farming in lifting farmers out of poverty, the paper ends on a cautionary note. This type of agricultural intensification is predicated on a social-ecological system linked to a specific institutional architecture and an aquifer with highly variable water availability. Current success in poverty alleviation masks an inherent fragility and risk that warrants further investigation before attempts are made to scale out groundwater based dry season farming to other parts of the dry zone

Balancing irrigation and hydropower: case study from southern Sri Lanka

This report analyzes a case from southern Sri Lanka, where the Samanalawewa dam and the Kaltota Irrigation Scheme (KIS) compete for the water of the Walawe river. At the catchment level, it is shown that dam releases are well attuned to the needs of KIS and to the occurrences of natural runoff, and that little of the dam water is "lost" to the river

Ancient small-tank irrigation in Sri Lanka: continuity and change

This paper shows that winds of change are blowing in the dry zones of north-central Sri Lanka, the original hydraulic civilisation of the world. The social organisation of tank irrigation - which for centuries had combined a stylised land-use pattern, a system of highly differentiated property rights, and elaborate rules of community management of tank irrigation -has now been morphing in response to demographic pressures, market signals, technical change and modernisation. What are the lessons for south Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

Balancing irrigation and hydropower: Case study from Southern Sri Lanka

This report analyzes a case from southern Sri Lanka, where the Samanalawewa dam and the Kaltota Irrigation Scheme (KIS) compete for the water of the Walawe river. At the catchment level, it is shown that dam releases are well attuned to the needs of KIS and to the occurrences of natural runoff, and that little of the dam water is "lost" to the river