Impact of lrrigation management policy on environment: lessons from Sri Lanka

摘要

Water is likely to be a most critical resource in the near future for agricultural development in Sri Lanka. Sustainable management of water resources is imperative to avoid the envisaged water crisis. Although agriculture sector is main water user of the country, water has many alternative uses and water shortage is increasingly experienced in many locations. In the meantime, 35 percent of rural population are deprived of safe water for drinking purposes. Thus, a sustainable policy for irrigation management seems to be an indispensable component of the national water policy. Participatory irrigation system management policy has been the major irrigation policy in Sri Lanka since 1988. The major objective of the policy was to reduce the public sector involvement in the irrigation management and irrigation manoagement turnover. The paper examines the effect of reduced government involvement in sustainability of irrigation infrastructure and the policy's impact on environment. The results of the study reveal that the current level of resource mobilization for system maintenance raise the question of sustainability of the infrastructure and the policy has not properly been addressed some important environmental issues such as maintenance of drainage canals and physical sustainability of infrastructure. The challenge thus faced at present is institutional that could be solved with a planned intervention providing special attention to the environment.