Highlights of Irrigation Sector Revival

It should be noted that the people in Northern Province depend on agriculture and fishing. Irrigation facilities are required to do various cultivation activities in the region. The people of this area did their cultivation with much difficulty during war times. But with the end of war in 2009, the things have changed a lot. People are provided with necessary irrigation facilities. Government has made arrangements to fulfill these requirements.

In Northern Province, agricultural contributions are the major share to national GDP of our country and hence Irrigation sector plays a vital role in the development of the nation. Irrigation has been practiced in Northern Province since ancient times and is almost exclusively used for the cultivation of paddy. Irrigation Schemes in the Northern Province have storage reservoirs which assure supplemental irrigation during dry spells in the Maha season and assure irrigation facilities to limited areas during the Yala season.

54 Major / Medium Irrigation schemes in Northern Province, including eight major tanks are being maintained by the Irrigation Department Northern Province. These schemes primarily provide irrigation water to 69,591 acres benefiting more than 25,000 farming families in this region. Valukkaiaru drainage scheme providing drainage facilities to 2,000 acres, 34 Salt Water Exclusion schemes providing saltwater exclusion facilities to 7,561 acres and Jaffna Lagoon scheme of 20,000 acres are also come under the purview of Irrigation Department, NP.

Until liberation of Vanni area from LTTE, due to the turbulent situation prevailed in this province, satisfactory maintenance could not be carried out for more than two to three decades. In addition to this, severe damages caused by the heavy floods have worsened the situation. As a result, most of the schemes were found to be in dilapidated condition. Since the Irrigation Head Works were in hazardous stage, there was potential threat of failure. Due to the dilapidate condition of channel system, the water losses were very high and hence the resource utilization was well below the designed level. The malfunctioning of Salt Water Exclusion Schemes has caused Salt Water intrusion into the cultivable lands and ground water. The farmers were facing lot of hardships in transporting the commodities to and from their paddy fields due to the poorly maintained channel roads.

In this direction, the government had implemented a 180 days development program under “Vadakkin Vasantham” in May 2009 to support its effort for rapid resettlement of internally displaced people (IDP) of Northern Province. Primary livelihood activity of them is agriculture, it was strongly felt that the revival of Irrigation schemes are also a must for successful resettlement of IDPs in this region. These schemes not only provide irrigation water under gravity and lift but also recharge the groundwater aquifer enabling abstraction of water for drinking, domestic uses and raising cattle. Groundwater augmentation is also important to maintain home garden and perennial trees.