The scholars in the irrigational dam sector in the country have identified that the ongoing operation and maintenance practises are not in keeping with the international norms which need to be standardised to all dams.
A spokesman of the Irrigation Ministry told the Daily News that the country’s dam network comprises 80 large dams, 270 medium dams and over 14,000 small level dams located within the 103 river basins.
“The dams and reservoirs in Sri Lanka that were not rehabilitated under the previous World Bank funded Dam Safety and Water Resources Planning project (DSWRPP) have now gone into disrepair with many facing various structural deficiencies.
Furthermore, the majority of the canal systems are suffering from many shortcomings such as malfunctioning of regulators and gates, scoring of canal banks etc, he stressed further. He revealed that in 2009-2018 World Bank funded USD 154 million under the DSWRPP to upgrade and rehabilitate 63 dams of the major reservoirs and at present the World Bank has been funding the Integrated Watershed and water Resources management project in consequence to the previous DSWRPP costing 73.5 USD million to be implemented in 2021-2025 period. Under the IWWRM there are four major components such as watershed and water Resources Planning, Infrastructure improvements pertaining to the rehabilitation of dams, Contingency Emergency Response and Project Management.
The World Bank funded IWWRM making provisions for the rehabilitation of civil and electro mechanical works of dams belonging to Mahaweli Authority Irrigation department, Eastern provincial Council and Northern Provincial Council including the rehabilitation of damaged canal systems in selected irrigation schemes.
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