Tørke og mangelfuld information fra regeringen skaber vrede og udløser protester blandt Sri Lankas risbønder. Myndighederne formår ikke at administrere landets vandforsyning tilfredsstillende, lyder kritikken.
COLOMBO, 4 June 2014 (IRIN): Angry paddy farmers blocked major roads in the Minneriya and Girithale areas in Sri Lanka’s North Eastern Polonnaruwa region last month, complaining the government had not released enough water for their rice to grow; they claimed they had lost 50,000 hectares of crops, or 1.75 million kg.
Ananda Edirisuriya, who took part in the protests, accused the Irrigation Department of failing to notify farmers of impending water shortages.
“We need to know in advance if there is going to be a drought and how wide the impact is. Right now what we get is that when the drought is at its worst, the officials come and tell us that there is no water,” he told IRIN.
“By then it is too late, we have already planted our crops.”
R M P Karunaratane, deputy director of the Polonnaruwa Irrigation Department, admitted weak rainfall was partially to blame, but passed the buck to reservoir releases, claiming the water shortage was caused when no water was released from the main reservoirs that feed the local reservoirs over which his office has control.
“We also don’t know much about impending droughts because we also don’t get detailed forecasts,” Karunaratane added, explaining that the daily bulletins he receives by fax from the central Department of Irrigation and the Meteorological Department often contain insufficient information to accurately inform farmers about water availability.
Edirisuriya said the bureaucratic hurdles are compounded by hotels in the area using large amounts of water. The exasperated farmer added:
“If there is a drought, then there needs to be priorities, and agriculture should be the top priority.”
In March the Ministry of Agriculture advised farmers to cut the amount of rice planted during the current paddy season – which runs from May to September – by more than a third, and to switch to alternative crops such as onions, potatoes, chilies and maize, which require less water.
Water woes
Farmers, officials, and civil society representatives say current administrative regimes fail to effectively manage the country’s water supply, leading to shortages and potential conflicts in the island nation that depends on water for agriculture and electricity. The current drought is focusing attention on those deficiencies.
“We see lots of tense situations erupting in communities that are faced with water-related issues like pollution and drought,” Kusum Atukorale, chair of the NGO Sri Lanka Water Partnership told IRIN. She pointed to a June 2013 incident in which, according to local media reports, soldiers opened fire and killed three people protesting against polluted water in a village in the Gampaha District – around 40 km northeast of Colombo.
She warned that if the country continues to operate with uncoordinated water administration, chronic shortages and community conflicts could become more common.
“What is needed is an integrated water monitoring mechanism that will bring all sectors and stakeholders together,” Atukorale argued.
Complex, chaotic
Læs hele artiklen her: http://www.irinnews.org/report/100170/sri-lanka-offers-lessons-on-how-not-to-manage-water
