New project soon to rehabilitate dams

Integrated water use plan for Lanka:

by Gamini Warushamana

A new project will be launched in February to rehabilitate the dams of water reservoirs in the country.

The World Bank funded project aims at dam safety and operational efficiency improvement, develop hydro-meteorological information system and multi-sectoral water resource planning. The project is estimated to cost $72 million.

Director, Dam Safety and Water Resources Planning Project (DSWRPP) Sudharma Elakanda said that according to a recent study, most of the dams of the water reservoirs in the country are dilapidated and pose a risk.

Some tanks are not filled to full capacity to avoid risks and as a result there is a huge cost to the economy.

According to the study the Kothmale, Victoria, Randenigala and Samanelawewa dams have been ranked as extremely high risk dams. Our dams are aging and in the recent past no one has paid attention to this issue. After the tsunami, natural hazards such as landslides are occurring frequently and the threat to dams has increased.

The study was carried out to identify high risk dams on the basis of public safety. Under the project, 32 large dams in the country which have been identified as high risk to public safety will be rehabilitated and 80 dams (including the above 32) will be provided basic safety facilities such as access roads, modern monitoring system of water level and pressure on the dam, rainfall in the catchment areas and the water flow to the tanks.

The 32 large dams to be rehabilitated by the projects are owned by four key institutions that manage the water resources in the country; Irrigation Department (16), Mahaweli Authority (11), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) (4) and Water Supply and Drainage Board (WSDB) (1).

Water resource development in the country is another objective of the project. Elakanda said that according to the estimates, less than 25% of the country's water resources have been developed. Around 85% of the developed water resources are used for irrigated agriculture in the dry zone of the country.

A national water use plan (covering underground and surface water resources) will be developed to facilitate future water needs.

Today we have sectoral water use plans that cover irrigation, power and domestic use. All institutions have master plans i.e. Irrigation Department master plan of 1950s, Mahaweli master plan of 1970s, hydro power master plan of 1990s and WSDB master plan of 2002. Over time sectoral priorities have changed. Under this project a national water use master plan will be developed considering all sectoral needs.

Upgrading and modernisation of the existing hydro meteorological information system (HMIS) is another objective of the project. This will help to forecast and plan the water resource development work more accurately.

Elakanda said that capacity building of the water resource management institutions is also an urgent need. Most of the experienced engineers and experts retired or left the institutions.

A new generation of professionals has to be developed to handle this important sector of the economy. For this purpose, the project will prepare the Mundeni Aru river basin development plan in the Eastern province.

This is a virgin river basin and the preparation of this development plan will furnish knowledge and experience to the staff of the institutions on how to manage water resources in a sustainable manner and to meet the emerging challenges in the water sector, Elakanda said.

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