key water issues of sri lanka
TRANSCRIPT
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A water-secure world
www.iwmi.org
Key Water
issues of Sri
Lanka
M.M.M. AHEEYAR
www.iwmi.org
A water-secure world
Outline
• Background
• Key Issues
– Variability in water availability
– Climate change
– Water pollution and degradation of
watersheds
– Groundwater use
– Water governance
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A water-secure world
Background • Annual average rainfall of about 1,860 mm
• Annual renewable water resources –
45 km3
• Per capita water availability at present-
2,150 m3 per year
• Estimated to reduce - 1,950 m3/year in
2030
• Agriculture withdrawals - 85% of the total
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A water-secure world
Variability in Water Availability (1)
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A water-secure world
Variability in Water Availability (2)
• Rainfall supplies nearly all surface and
groundwater resources
• Water scarcity is major development
constraint in the dry zone- 2/3rd of the
Island
• Supply augmentation to meet the demand
• But there is a limit-Need demand
management
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A water-secure world
Climate change (1)
• Ample evidences to suggest that the climate of South Asian region has already changed
• Number of rainy days has decreased, the total annual rainfall has not decreased-flooding, landslides and droughts
• Annual rainfall variability has increased in almost all over the country, but variability is higher in the dry zone
• Adversely affected the timeliness and predictability of water supply
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A water-secure world
Climate change (2)
• No specific policies, legislations, regulations etc. to address climate change impacts to promote adaptation, low priority for climate change issues
• Absence of policy mechanism to deal with climate change, lack of adaptation strategies, and low level of preparedness among many sectors
• Pre-occupied with other developmental priorities
• link the existing policies on climate risk with development policies and to mainstream climate change adaptation into development planning
• Variations could exceed the adaptive capacity of communities – need well designed policy supports by the government
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A water-secure world
Degradation of the watersheds and
Pollution of Water Resources
• Watershed degradation is a threat to the sustainability of water resources-siltation
• Need to set up standards, rules and regulations to ensure safe disposal of industrial waste
• Sewerage coverage is only 2.3%
• Water quality issues- Fecal pollution, turbid water, eutrophication, organic pollution, agro-chemical, nitrate,
• Agricultural waste pollutes both groundwater and surface water-excessive use of agro-chemicals and excessive use of water
• Overuse, misuse and abuse of pesticides and over application of fertilizers
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A water-secure world
Application of pesticides More than Recommended
Dosage (Nuwara eliya and Badulla)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Potato Bean Leeks Cabbage
48%
38% 40%33%
Percen
tage o
f fa
rmer
s
Type of crop
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A water-secure world
Disposal of Remaining Pesticides in the
Sprayer
71%
12%
3%11%
3%Repeatedly used in the same field
Apply to another crop
Deposited in the field/waterways
Stored for future use
Use all quantity for the same crop
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A water-secure world
Use of Groundwater (1)
• Cheap and easy access-controlled by users-
Availability 7800MCM/year
• Use by agriculture, industrial and services
• Dug wells and tube wells for drinking-53%
Photos: IWMI
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A water-secure world
Use of Groundwater (2)
• 90% of the aquifer is shallow hard rock
• Knowledge of the potential availability and
sustainable extraction
• Over extraction causes many problems
• Bad management- pollution of the resource-
Nitrate, Nitrite, and chloride beyond WHO
limits
• Over extraction Vs underutilization
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A water-secure world
Water governance (1)
• Equitable, participatory and accountable water governance is a key in sustainable water management
• considerable progress in the PIM and water supply fields through FOs and CBOs
• However, there is a need to consider the importance of IWRM to ensure fair and equitable water allocation and management
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A water-secure world
Water governance (2)
• Multitude of water-related legislation, and
inadequate coverage over key issues
• Coordination mechanism to avoid overlapping and
duplication and ensure fair allocation
• No laws governing excessive groundwater
extraction
• Participatory consultative process is required to
assess the current status of the policy, legal and
institutional framework, and provide local solutions
to improve the current situation
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A water-secure world
Thank you very
much