The water tank system

‘The target audience for the plan is senior government ministers who make decisions about where and how international aid is channelled. Local projects can not apply directly.

You were chosen for this role and you have at least one other equally talented chosen officer in your team. Between you, you have the political grasp of the status quo, the respect and following to step outside the ordinary/ push the boundaries and to push for a legacy in the next 5 years that would make a real difference to the future of people in Batticaloa.’

Sounds good doesn’t it? I am being told that the main problem is the annual flooding. This can destroy harvests.

The infrastructure that stands between an on-going annual disaster and getting to grips with utilising the water that is needed is the tank system (think reservoirs). 12 out of 14 tanks are between 50-100 years old and were not maintained properly for 30 years during the civil war. These tanks need a complete overhaul which will cost billions. At the moment the budget they have tinkers round the edges of the problem. Because they are all the same age they are also all likely to go wrong at the same time.

Maximum holding in the tanks would alleviate flooding, allow more land to be drained for farming, stop illegal inland fishing which occurs when harvests fail and improve access to water in rural areas.

No other problem that they face is as fundamental as this. The Sri Lankan ability to deliver the agenda on water is what defines them as a developed rather than a developing country.

 

The effectiveness of irrigation is vital to the main income generation activities of the District. There is 1 major anicut, and 1 major tank, 4 medium, 17 minor tanks and circa 302 seasonal tanks, feeding agriculture, inland fishery, tourism, scenic beauty, ground water recharge and several other services.  

Issues, Challenges and Opportunities

There is one new tank in the District at Kadukkamamunai that was funded by the Japanese. The rest are between 50-100 years old and were not maintained properly during the 30 years civil war. There is no place in the District to construct new tanks. All the piped drinking water for the District comes from the tank at Unnichchai.

There is an on-going maintenance programme, but the cost of thoroughly overhauling these tanks is so huge that really they are just tinkering at the edges. Beyond the issue of the tanks themselves, there is a need for improvement and maintenance of the channels and field distribution systems. In the case of major flooding the need is for investment in drainage, dredging and stopping the encroachment by farmers of channel reservations.

At the moment there are not enough maintenance engineers and field labourers to carry out the physical works. It takes one man to clear 500 acres, one works supervisor per 2,500 acres and one engineering assistant per 5,000 acres. They have 54,000 acres which requires 108 + 21 + 10 staff in these specific roles and they have c40 staff.

In the rural areas many are labouring on land they do not own, therefore they have less sense of ownership and are unwilling to invest additional time in maintaining channels. Even those farmers who own the land may not be particularly settled there. Lack of facilities, such as electricity for the children to study in the evenings, and access to schools and hospitals, means that families may not live there permanently. This impacts on levels of on-going maintenance that are undertaken.

Batticaloa District Development Plan DRAFT 2013