A national water and agriculture policy for Sri Lanka

The main stay of Sri Lanka’s ancient agricultural civilization was not the large reservoirs, but the groundwater, recharged by thousands of small wewa (tank). They also prevented soil erosion1. Those wewa were built in zones where the soil is less clayey.

by Kashyapa A. S. Yapa-Jul 29, 2018

Jul 29, 2018

( July 29, 2018, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian ) This is a short note towards that goal.

1. We become independent of mother’s milk in about 2 years. But, when can we become independent of water? Well, let’s accept that mother-water nurtures us, our whole life. Then, why don’t we nurture water, as a way of paying her back? Today, she is feeling very sick.
2. When your mother gets sick, how do you cure her? Do you wait for her favorite son to do that? No! All her sons and daughters contribute to that as much as they can, right? Besides, how do you decide the way to care for her? Do you go for a vote, or do you consult everybody and make a collective decision?
3. Then, why don’t we do the same to cure our mother-water? To preserve a stream or a river, all those who gets nurtured by it should participate. Even if somebody does not use river water per se, but captures water within that catchment from rain, springs or mist, he too should take part. Water does not belong to anybody. Nor can anybody sell water. All are water users.
4. The method of conserving a stream should be decided unanimously by all of its users. Those users or officials who know more about such techniques should educate the rest, but the decision-making shall rest upon the water users only. Because, they are the ones who contribute to it, with money, materials and manpower.
5. Similarly, to share river water equitably, they themselves should make decisions based on consensus. Officials can provide the necessary information, but should let the users share the water. Every user should disclose the details of how much water he captures (not just from the river, but also from rain, springs or mist) and the amount and the effort he spends. If he needs more water, he should inform how he plans to do so and the resources he is willing to spend for it.
6. In large catchments, to facilitate such a decision, the users can appoint a committee. It can make a unanimous decision based on technical advice, and then present the decision to the full Catchment Assembly. The government or the courts should intervene only in cases of conflict.
7. Water issues in agriculture can also be resolved using the same mechanism. In that case, the priority should be given not to irrigation water, but to rain, spring and ground water.
8. The main stay of Sri Lanka’s ancient agricultural civilization was not the large reservoirs, but the groundwater, recharged by thousands of small wewa (tank). They also prevented soil erosion1. Those wewa were built in zones where the soil is less clayey. Because there, recharging ground water is easier2. For this purpose, it is essential the conservation of the upper catchment forest and yearly maintenance of the wewa bunds and cleaning of the reservoir bed. If we would allow toxic-free farming in the upper reaches of the catchment during the rainy season, and in the drying reservoir bed during the dry season, accompanied by proper soil conservation techniques, the surface soil will stay loose, facilitating more groundwater recharging.
9. The best solution for the long rainless season in Sri Lanka’s dry zone is the use of groundwater. As water travels slowly inside the soil, only at the beginning of the dry season will the seepage water reach the wewa from the forest and, then the croplands. As many zones of Sri Lanka receive over 1000mm of rain per year, the soil can store water sufficient for many years of cropping.
10. We should re-educate the farmers on how to conserve this groundwater, and also how it can be properly used for cultivation. In croplands, groundwater could evaporate by coming up to the surface through capillary force or by plant transpiration. During fallow season, one can prevent the loss of that water by providing a leaf cover over the soil or by hoeing the weeds and keeping the top soil somewhat loose to break the capillary effect.
11. When cultivating using groundwater, one should place the seeds somewhat apart. Further, the seeds should be planted a few cm deep in soil. If you will not add surface water, seed-roots will travel deep seeking water. For this purpose, it is better to use the seeds already accustomed to that land. Such plants will resist droughts better. Also, those plants can absorb more nutrients from soil itself and additional fertilizer will not be needed.
12. We should encourage farmers to start cultivating with rain water, and use irrigation water only in an emergency. For that, agricultural wells close-by will be more useful. Then, we can break-free Sri Lankan agriculture, currently enslaved to large irrigation systems.
13. As we see it, in ancient Sri Lanka, large reservoirs were built not to facilitate agriculture, but for the benefit of big-city dwellers. When we observe the current disastrous situation of irrigation water-based Sri Lankan paddy cultivation, we can only hypothesize whether such short-sighted governors of yesterday also caused our ancient agricultural civilizations to collapse, from time to time. At least now, we should stop building more irrigation-white elephants that ruin further the country’s dire economic situation, and use existing large reservoirs to only feed small wewa
14. The maintenance and conservation of small wewa systems should only be handled by the catchment assemblies. The main task of wewa should be that of recharging groundwater, not irrigating fields. Additionally, the catchment assembly itself can collect and promote regional traditional knowledge on matters such as, climate prediction, seed conservation and development, crop disease protection and post-harvest storage3. In future, we should select as agricultural advisors only those farmers with experience in such assemblies.
15. These policies can be properly refined and implemented with just the participation of water users and farmers. Along with that, we should develop a scheme to collect locally produced food and seeds, and distribute them around the country at a just price. At that point, the rotten officialdom of the country will vanish. Let’s also hope those responsible for country’s school and university education will understand the reality and take correctional steps.
16. However, only a country and a government devoid of corruption, lying, cheating and terrorism, deserve such a policy. Therefore, our first step should focus on educating the general public in that regard.

PS: I am no specialist of anything. I learned ‘military’ engineering at U of Peradeniya and then participated in the Mahaweli ‘Curse’ for 4 years. After years of devouring more book knowledge abroad, I started learning from people, mainly in the Americas. Now, I am a farmer in Ecuador, learning to produce toxic-free food, while trying to humanize (civilize) the technology, combining ancient and modern concepts of knowledge. In the reference below4, please enjoy what I have learned from them.

1. As far as we know, it was Mr. L.O. Mendis, who first mentioned this, in his paper of 1977 “Some thoughts on technology transfer for irrigation and multipurpose projects in Sri Lanka”, Transactions of the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka, reprinted in Mendis, D.L.O. (2016) “Water Heritage of Sri Lanka”, 3rd Edition.
2. In similarly coarse-grained soil regions of Ecuador, thousands of small lakes were built, as shown in archaeological investigations by Marcos, Jorge G. (2004) “Las Albarradas en la costa del Ecuador: Rescate del conocimiento ancestral del manejo de la biodiversidad”, CEAA/ESPOL, Guayaquil, Ecuador. https://www.thegef.org/project/albarradas-coastal-ecuador-rescuing-ancient-knowledge-sustainable-use-biodiversity
3. මතුගම සෙනෙවිරුවන් (2017) “ගොවිතැනෙහි හෙළ දැනුම”, National Science Foundation, Colombo, took a bold step, compiling a part of that traditional knowledge.
4. Hierro, Lola (2016) “13 Tips from our ancestors for the best use of water”, El Pais, Spain. https://independent.academia.edu/kashyapayapa/Drafts