Organizational Change for Participatory Irrigation Management

11. SRI LANKA (2)
INTRODUCTION
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Lokawisthara P. Jeyampathy
Additional Director
(Institutional Development)
Irrigation Management Division
Irrigation Secretariat
Ministry of Irrigation and Power
Colombo
Sri Lanka is an island with a gross land area of about 65,000 km 2 . It is situated between
6º-10º north of the equator. The country is broadly divided into two climate zones, which
determine the characteristics of agricultural production. The Wet Zone to the southwest
quadrant of the island gets an average annual rainfall in excess of 1,900 mm from both seasons.
The Dry Zone which consists of over 65 percent of the total land area in the other three
quadrants has an average rainfall ranging from 900 mm to 1,900 mm, much of which comes
during the north-east monsoon (Maha season) from October to March. The south-west
monsoon (Yala season) brings very little rain to the Dry Zone.
The population of Sri Lanka is approximately 19 million. Three-fourths of the
population is concentrated in the Wet Zone, which is only a third of the country. The rural
population is about 70 percent of the total population.
Historical Background
From early historic times until the 13th century the Dry Zone was the local of Sri
Lanka’s social political and economic activities. In 1815 the country was brought under the
control of the British until independence was granted in 1948. During the early period of
British rule, attempts had been made by the Colonial Government to establish large-scale
commercial plantations through cultivation of tree crops, in the Wet Zone, where the lands
hitherto enjoyed by the rural peasantry.
In 1972, Land Commissioner’s interim report mentioned that preservation of the
peasantry, as a social group should govern the formulation of the land policy. The
crystallization of this policy in to a conceptual and legal framework is clearly seen in the land
development. Ordinance of 1935 displays its bias towards peasant welfare. In the early years,
attempts by the British Government to open up new lands on the Dry Zone did not meet with
much success until the physical and economic environment was ripe enough to attract people
who were ready to venture in to Dry Zone cultivation. The unequal competition between the
plantation economy and the paddy farming still persisted. Productivity in paddy farming in the
country was about the lowest in Asia and the prospects of attracting large private investment
like in the plantations sector were very low. Thus, it was left to the government to take the
initiate to develop the Dry Zone in which the most favorable conditions for paddy cultivation
were found.