People in wet zone cry for water

By Wasantha Kumara and
Kulasiri Amarasinghe

Kalutara is a wet zone district with 26 waterfalls and streams. But today thousands of people in the Kalutara District are waiting for the water bowser to meet their requirements.

The people in the Kalutara District rarely experienced any drought. Instead, floods devastated the district several times a year. It is said that the people who over exploited natural resources are now reaping the harvest.

The Water Resources Board and environmentalists urge the people to use water from streams and even the wells carefully because most of the water resources in the district are drying up.

There are 26 well-known waterfalls in the Kalutara District. Some of them are Makeliya Ella, Athwelthota Ella, Thambadola Ella, Thudugala Ella, Ginigedara Ella, Ahas Bokku Ella, Thotas Ella, Kapuru Ella, Peelithudu Ella and Raja Meruna Ella. There are 10 other unidentified waterfalls too, which nourish the Kalu Ganga.

Kalu Ganga

In addition to the main river Kalu Ganga, nine sub rivers, namely Bolgoda, Magura, Pelanda, Kukuleganga, Athwelthota Ganga, Benthara Ganga and Panadura Ganga also flow across the district.

There are several forest reserves such as Kalugala, Runakanda and Yagirala which have a wide bio-diversity, but threatened by humans. They are formerly part of the Sinharaja rain forest.

All the streams, waterfalls and forest reserves are now threatened due to human activities.

The Kalutara District was famous for rubber plantations. Even the Sri Lanka Rubber Research Institute is situated in Agalawatta.

However, the Kalutara District has been invaded by oil palm cultivation which dries up the soil.

Illegal sand mining

The Kalu Ganga is severely affected by the illegal sand mining. The river bed has been deepened and the banks have been washed away. This has led to the destruction of mangrove swamps. During droughts, salt water flows upstream about 10 kilometres. The water purifying plant in Kethhena provides water to people in areas such as Kalutara, Dodangoda, and Wadduwa.

Today the residents in those areas are compelled to drink salty water. About 50, 000 residents on the river banks cannot use the water for their day-to-day activities.

Sea water flowing upstream started about 50 years ago, the residents of the river valleys say. None of the efforts taken by the authorities succeeded to stop it.

The District Secretary of Kalutara said 411 water tanks have been put up and water is distributed using bowsers by the Water Supply and Drainage Board to 500, 000 members of 63, 000 families with the help of the Disaster Management Centre and the Army.

Human activities

Environmental organizations say the human activities have led to the drying up of water resources. Replacing rubber with oil palm has also been identified as a reason for drought. Closing the gate only after the horse has bolted, the District Coordinating Committee banned the expansion of oil palm cultivation only last month. However, Apehanda Environmental Media Organization has alleged that the existing cultivation of palm oil is sufficient for drying up the land.

The Secretary of the organization Nandana Ariyathilaka said unregulated sand mining in the Kalu Ganga is a more serious problem than oil palm cultivation.

The Regional Manager of the Water Supply and Drainage Board Kamal Senevirathna said the environmental impact report of a new project to prevent sea water flowing upstream had been submitted and it would be implemented soon.

The river bed deepening of the Benthara Ganga has adversely affected 18, 000 acres of paddy lands in Walallawita and Aviththawa.

Tube wells

It was revealed at the District Agricultural Committee of Kalutara that only one of 25 tube wells dug in the 1980s and 1990s still operate. Two third of the water resources in the district are not registered under the Water Resources Board.

The District Secretary has directed the Grama Niladharis to document the water resources in the remote areas and take measures to protect them.

The Kalutara District was resilient even to six months of drought in the past, but now it cannot endure a week of drought. All water sources have gone dry. But three days of rain will cause floods again.

In all the 14 divisional Secretariat areas – hundreds of acres of paddy fields and marshlands have been reclaimed for constructions. Clearing and plotting of land for sale has dried many lands.

Massive granite mining takes place in areas like Neboda, Matugama, Narthupana and Wellatha areas ignoring the concerns of environmentalists and even law enforcement officers. Most of the quarries are in the mountains which are the water resources.

Dry weather

Meanwhile the tea small growers and planters say the situation has threatened the tea cultivation as well. The District Manager of Tea Small Holding Authority D.M.J. Nakandala said the dry weather had affected the tea cultivation. Temperature of 18-25 celsius is necessary for tea cultivation but the present temperature in Matugama and Agalawatta areas is 32-35 celsius. Nakandala said the trend of increasing temperature would adversely affect the tea cultivation.

Not only humans but also land animals and fish are affected due to the prevailing drought. Many varieties of living beings in the district are now extinct. An environmentalist of Runakanda Bio Diversity Friends Organization Lalith Pushpakumara said the fish varieties known as Bulath Hapaya, Dankola Pethiya, Rathu Waral Pethiya, Hora Pandiya, Gal Pandiya, Puwakbadilla, Iri Ankutta, and Hal Mal Dandiya are already extinct.

Birds like Sudu Redi Hora, Kaha Kurulla, Mal Kurulla, Bata Ati Kukula, Pulli Wal Avic-hchiya, Maha Kerala, Lanka Pilalichcha, and Panduwan Bassa are severely threa-tened. Likewise some animals and plants like orchids are also threatened.

Soon the people will really understand the seriousness of the environmental degradation taking place in the Kalutara District, he said.

Source – 02/03/2017 ,Ceylon Today, See more at – http://www.ceylontoday.lk/print20170101CT20170331.php?id=16269

Agricultural livelihoods in Sri Lanka impacted by salinisation

Agriculture is one of the main sectors impacted by the impacts of climate change and its effects are very much felt due to the dependency on the natural resources that this livelihood has. Among the impacts on the agriculture sector are the impacts of the slow onset events of climate change.

Under the Cancun Adaptation Framework, the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognized the impact of the slow onset events in the context of loss and damage.

The slow onset events formulate part of the climate change-induced extreme weather events that evolve gradually from incremental changes occurring over many years or from an increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. The slow onset events or slow onset processes, hazards or impacts are listed by the UNFCCC as sea level rise, increasing temperatures, ocean acidification, glacial retreat and related impacts, land and forest degradation, loss of biodiversity, desertification and salinisation. Affecting the people over a long period of time, the slow onset events have wide-ranging implications on food security, health and livelihoods of people, particularly in the agricultural sector.

What is salinity?

Salinity is the presence of soluble salts in soils or waters – a natural process which is accelerated and aggravated due to anthropocentric activities and due to the impacts caused by climate change, defined under the slow onset processes. The UNFCCC has recognized two causes for salinisation: the increasing evaporation due to the rising temperatures and the saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifers as a result of the increased evaporation and sea-level rise or flooding.     With the increased accumulation of salt or sodium in the soil and water, particularly in arid environments, salinisation affects the soil structure causing soil degradation, soil erosion and lack of water retention, which adversely affect the agriculture-based livelihoods. Saline soils, which contain large amounts of water-soluble salts, hinder seed germination and plant growth, thereby reducing crop yields.

The coastal areas contribute to the country’s economy and almost a third of the country’s population is concentrated along the coastal belt. With the increasing incidence of extreme and slow onset events such as sea-level rise and inundation, the coastal and low-lying areas are particularly vulnerable to salinisation. The land degradation due to salinity in Sri Lanka is about 223,000 hectares of the total agricultural land area in the country.

Farmer stories from Morawewa

SLYCAN Trust as part of its research work focuses on the areas of Morawewa and Athabendiwewa in the Trincomalee District. During the field visits to these villages, the organisation has interviewed the farmers whose agriculture land is impacted by salinity.  During the course of the visit and in the follow-up interviews with the farmers, it was made clear that salinisation is a real impediment faced by the farmer communities of the region. The farmers we interviewed were mostly dependent on agriculture for livelihood and the land dedicated to paddy cultivation was affected by salinisation.

The farmers also indicated that there were changes in the crop with discolouration in the plants and grains of rice. Many farmers have indicated that even if they are able to carry out agricultural activity on the affected lands, there are other impacts that reduce the price of the crops. Salinisation therefore could be seen as having a major impact on the quality of the crop and the quantity, given the decreased crop yield. Moreover, soil salinity affects the water sources and irrigation system in this area and in turn contributes to the problems faced in agriculture.

Through research conducted in the area, it was also revealed that the crop yield from an acre of agricultural land was affected on an average by a 50 percent reduction of crop yield. The farmers emphasized that the discolouration of the grain of rice and noticeably the lesser weight, result in having to sell rice at a lower price.

What causes soil salinity?

According to the farmers, one of the possible reasons for increased soil salinity is the increase in temperature resulting in higher amount of evaporation and lack of rain resulting in lesser water retention in the soil and also human activity.

One farmer in Morawewa-North expressed that salinity had affected his crop yield as well and that he has used organic fertilizer and seen improvements in the yield of crops. Similarly, the farmers of the area are considering an experimental shift to climate smart agricultural practices, which would lessen the impacts on the natural nutrient of the soil.

Addressing soil salinity

Using local knowledge, the farmers have tried to find solutions to the issue of soil salinity. Some of these include using paddy husks and ginisiriya (Gliricidiasipium) as a way to desalinise the land. The farmers indicated that leaving the residue of the paddy in the field after the harvesting process helped control the salinity problem to a certain extent.

Even though this seems to be a long-term solution, a farmer in the Morawewa North area attested to the use of dried cow dung and paddy husk as a continuous and long-term method of reducing soil salinity. He said that it took him around seven years to tend to a plot of three acres, one acre of which was affected by salinity, in order to render the soil that could be cultivated.

The slow onset events, as seen in salinisation encountered by the farmers in the Trincomalee area, have socio-economic implications on the lives of these communities. With the increasing incidence of weather events such as drought, the prolonged effects of salinisation are aggravated, further affecting the capacity to cultivate these agricultural lands.

Research, resilience building and capacity building in terms of developing solutions to the salinisation issue are seen as urgent action to be taken. The process of developing policy and climate solutions for salinisation should be focused on and such knowledge disseminated among the farmers, so as to help them address the impacts of salinity that create losses and damages to their agricultural activities.

  (Avanthi Jayasuriya works as Programme and Communication Officer at SLYCAN Trust. She holds a degree specialising in English from the University of Colombo and is currently focused on her postgraduate studies in developmental economics. Her research interests include climate change, animal welfare, gender studies, economic development, transitional justice and peace studies)

 source – 15/02/2017 , Daily Mirror, See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Agricultural-livelihoods-in-Sri-Lanka-impacted-by-salinisation-123819.html#sthash.4BejY58V.dpuf