World Bank-backed programme will rehabilitate 296 minor irrigation tanks across Sri Lanka, with Badulla receiving the largest share of restoration work
Far from Colombo’s highways and towers, some of Sri Lanka’s most important infrastructure consists of something considerably older and less spectacular: water held behind an earthen bund.
The Government has begun rehabilitating 296 minor irrigation tanks under a World Bank-funded programme costing more than Rs. 5.8 billion.
The work is being undertaken through the Integrated Rural-Urban Development and Climate Resilience Project and is expected to continue until 2029.
Of the 296 tanks, 290 are spread across 18 districts and were damaged by Cyclone Ditwah. Approximately Rs. 5.58 billion has been allocated for their rehabilitation under the project’s emergency-response component.
Badulla accounts for the largest number, with 97 tanks earmarked for restoration. Ratnapura follows with 29, Mannar with 24 and Kurunegala with 19, while Kandy and Vavuniya have 15 each.
Another six minor irrigation tanks in Polonnaruwa, Hambantota and Jaffna are being rehabilitated at a cost of approximately Rs. 256 million.
The numbers tell only part of the story.
For farming communities dependent upon minor irrigation, a functioning village tank can determine whether land produces a crop, whether cultivation survives a dry spell and ultimately whether a family has an income.
Sri Lanka’s ancient irrigation civilisation understood that relationship remarkably well.
Climate change is now making it important all over again.
Periods of intense rainfall followed by extended dry conditions require the country to become better at capturing water when it arrives and managing it when it does not.
Restoring 296 tanks is therefore not simply another rural construction programme. Properly implemented, it should increase water-storage capacity, improve irrigation efficiency and give agricultural communities greater protection against both floods and drought.
There will be another test.
Rs. 5.8 billion must produce 296 properly functioning irrigation systems, not merely 296 completed contracts.
For the farmers waiting downstream, the difference is everything.
The programme covers 296 tanks and more than Rs.5.8 billion. Of these, 290 cyclone-damaged tanks across 18 districts account for roughly Rs.5.58 billion of expenditure; Badulla alone has 97 tanks scheduled for rehabilitation.
