Water for Dry Zone farmers

Sri Lanka secures first climate finance USD 38.1m:

by Rukshana Rizwie

The Green Climate Fund (GCF), the main international funding body for climate action, last week, during its 13th Board meeting approved a funding facility of USD 38.1 million for Sri Lanka for its proposal on strengthening the resilience of Smallholder Farmers in the Dry Zone to Climate Variability and Extreme Events in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's proposal prepared by the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will enable the Government to implement integrated solutions for water management in the dry zone of the country.

The GCF resources will initially be invested to improve the community irrigation water infrastructure and agricultural practices, scaling-up decentralized drinking water systems and strengthening Early Warning forecasting and water management systems, to enhance the livelihood and resilience of smallholder farmers, particularly women, from climate related impacts.

Vositha Wijenayake, the Policy and Advocacy Coordinator for Climate Action Network South Asia, noted that the variability of the north-east monsoon which supports agriculture in the Dry Zone is evident through the increased number of high rainfall spells followed by longer dry spells.

She says,the rainfall modelling indicated that large areas of the Dry Zone will receive less rainfall in the medium term.

"These impacts have direct consequences on the Dry Zone farmers. They are ridden with hardships due to the lack of water, and the impacts increasing the scarcity create additional pressure on Dry Zone agricultural households, whose lives are already circumscribed by poverty, low incomes, and recovering from three decades of conflict,"she pointed out.

Advocating the need to set up a village irrigation system she says, small reservoirs will provide the necessary water to small holder farmers in that region.

"In the case of a delay in the monsoon, or heavy rainfall during the sowing or harvesting period, there is a risk for the entire crop to be damaged. For farmers who cultivate under village irrigation systems, the crop from the Maha Season (NEM) is often their main source of income and household food.

In the event of crop damage, they would be losing their main source of income for the year,"she explained.

She says, to address the lack of sufficient water for agriculture, the options of adaptive measures should be looked into, through adaptation actions taken in river basins, and providing smallholder farmers in the river basins, water through improved irrigation.

The resources from the GCF will allow assistance to be provided to 910,000 people in three river basins - Malwatu Oya, Yan Oya and Mi Oya - who are vulnerable to climate change. Moreover, around 712,000 people living in the same areas will indirectly benefit from the project.

In a communiqué, President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment, stated, he was well aware of the impacts of changing seasons, increased floods and droughts, varying temperatures and its effect on the lives and livelihood of the poor, conflict-affected farmers in the dry zone.

"I am pleased that Sri Lanka has received this funding so we can take immediate climate related action and support the Dry Zone communities. My Ministry looks forward to working closely with the UNDP and other partners to achieve this goal," he said.

Further to the grant from the GCF, the Government of Sri Lanka will leverage Government co-financing amounting to USD 14 million for this project to address financial, technical, and institutional barriers related to achieving integrated water management to improve agriculture-based livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Dry Zone.

"It is important that the vulnerabilities of those impacted by climate change are identified, and their resilience built. For this, the country needs a grant based financing mechanism which recognizes the vulnerabilities and impacts, and set up concrete adaptation actions on the ground for effective actions to create change and benefit those vulnerable to the impacts of climate change," Wijenayake said.