Feb 2015 – Rural Water Supply Network

Sustainable water resources management in Sri Lanka: present situation and way forward

by Senevirathne, Assistant General Manger (Sociology), Sociology Section, NWSDB

Sustainable Water Resource Management

Sustainable water resource management has become a crucial factor for the socio-economic development of Sri Lanka that faces seasonal variation and competition among water users. One of the biggest concerns for our water-based resources in future is the sustainability of the current and even future water resource allocation. The latter part of this paper describes the current practices taken for water resource management with a view to updating sustainable strategies and putting them into practice.

It is true that making the sustainable development of our water resources is a challenge in Sri Lanka when considering the climatic changes, pressures from economic growth, the rising population, and increasing water consumption. The combination of these factors commonly results in increased water use, competition and pollution. Therefore, attention and concern must be given to collect, compile and gain knowledge from consumption, pollution and generate data of experimental value. This paper describes the main aspects of what has been learned in the process of supporting sustainable water resources management. Continue reading “Sustainable water resources management in Sri Lanka: present situation and way forward”

No crystal ball, but insights on how rural water systems change

water services that last

It’s hard to predict what impact investments and innovations in the water sector will have on citizens’ access to services. Understanding underlying mechanisms and potential bottlenecks of change can help decide how and where to invest resources, while also giving a more realistic picture of the time scale required.

Many interventions do not follow a straight line and have unintended consequences.

Carmen and Deirdre describe innovative work being done by IRC to better understand how water service delivery systems evolve and steps towards developing a bottom- up model that illustrates the potential long term systemic effects of individual level change.

An agent based model shows how individual actions give rise to new macro-level patterns, or emergent outcomes that are otherwise difficult to predict.

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What is the big deal about manual drilling anyway?

Let me tell you a not-very-well-kept secret. My PhD research some 15 years ago was on manual drilling. That was what took me to Uganda in the first place and taught me how to link social science, business development and technology. For those of you who don’t know what it is, manual drilling refers to several drilling methods that rely on human energy to construct a borehole and complete a water supply. These methods can be used in areas where formations are quite soft and groundwater is relatively shallow. And by the way, the “Pounder rig” as we called it worked, but it never took off in Uganda (the details are in my thesis).
Continue reading “What is the big deal about manual drilling anyway?”

Opinion: Failing To Learn From Experience

WaterSan Perspective

Angella Naturinda and Lynna Abaho
January 28, 2015

Weather experts predict a continuation of the current hot and dry weather conditions in most parts of Uganda. This weather condition which started immediately after Christmas has come with several challenges such as food and water shortage, wildfire, siltation, soil erosion, pests and diseases which are causing devastating loss to farmers especially those in south western region.

For several decades now, the South Western part of Uganda has experienced such dry conditions during the month of January that stretch up to March. What is so surprising is that people in south western region are not learning from this annual experience.

Some of the worst affected people are farmers and residents of Kiruhura district found in the Ankole cattle corridor of Uganda.

Most of the people in Kiruhura are pastoralists and therefore the dry spell means that their livestock lack pasture and water…

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