Let us be able to say there’s no such thing as a day without water
Extracts from a talk on ‘ Water Security – Adapting to Changing Contexts’ presented by Jeremy Bird, Director General, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo at the seminar on “A Day without Water: Managing Sri Lanka’s Water Resources” at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies recently
Water security is both evocative and simple. However,underlying it are complexities to consider. Is it just about a physical scarcity of water? Also, what does water shortage mean for different groups of people? I will try to unpack some of these complexities, and then provide examples of how problems with water management have been addressed elsewhere and how they could be addressed in Sri Lanka.
Physical water scarcity is easy to visualize – just imagine a tap in your kitchen that doesn’t flow or a drinking water well that has dried up. Yet, it can also mean having water but of a quality that cannot be used. Imagine now a well full of contaminated water or a stream bubbling black with industrial or urban waste. Alternatively, water supplies that are not predictable, for example, a tap that flows for a couple of hours, but at different times of the day.
IWMI is an international, nonprofit research organisation and a member of CGIAR, an international consortium of agricultural research centres. At IWMI, we differentiate between three kinds of water scarcity --physical, economical and institutional. Physical water scarcity is easily understandable –- not having an adequate quantity of suitable quality water all the time. In other cases, water may be readily available, but economicallyinaccessible. Also, water may be available physically as well as economically, but there are no proper policies, institutions or legislation in place to make it available to all, particularly for marginalized groups in society. This, we refer to as institutional water scarcity.Water insecurity may be caused by varying combinations of all these three factors.
These are the realities facing millions of families, and which lead to health risks and foregone opportunities for earning incomes and securing livelihoods. Therefore, being “without water” has many different dimensions.
The concept of water security is gaining momentum in the international development discourse and is closely linked to food, energy and ecosystem security. Ultimately, it is about human security. UN-Water, an alliance of UN agencies and other partners, launched a proposed working definition of water security on World Water Day in March this year:
“The capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development, for ensuring protection against waterborne pollution and water-related disasters, and for preserving ecosystems in a climate of peace and political stability.”
In this assessment, Sri Lanka has secured a place better than some of its neighbouring countries in South Asia, but gaps remain. In the AsiaPacific region, water plays a much larger role than just being an economic good. It has cultural, religious and many other facets that are important at a local level. It is clear that water insecurity in any of these areas can jeopardise development gains and suppress growth. Beyond the humanitarian case for water, there is also a strong economic case and therefore,a political case for promoting water security.
Sri Lanka, in particular, has a long history of water management. There are wide differences in climate and people have adapted to these in various ways. A classic case is with small tanks.These ingenious tank cascades help people living in the dry zone capture the three months of rainfall to sustain essential water needs.
One of the measures of adaptation to climate change is water storage. The ancient tank cascades serve this purpose and a well-functioning system is equally good at mitigating floods as well as droughts. However, times change and pressures increase, so the real challenge is not just rehabilitating those cascades, but also making them relevantand recognising all the other physical changes that are taking place,including expansion of agro-wells and new settlements. Based on research work carried out on tank systems in both Sri Lanka and southern India, it is possible to identify new approaches, for example, exploring the potential of tank systems for recharging groundwater.
Sri Lanka remains a predominately rural and agrarian society, although this is gradually changing. Sri Lanka has also reached rice selfsufficiency in recent years with the potential for higher yields as new varieties are adopted.The proportion of water withdrawn for agriculture is 85% of the total, of which 90% is used to irrigate rice paddies.
A key challenge now is how to maintain rice self- sufficiency through innovations in crop varieties while reducing water consumption and poorly managed agrochemical usage. This will require careful planning and the introduction of water- saving irrigation technologies.The Government has set a target of reducing water use in agriculture to 60% of withdrawals. However, as seen in India, where a similar saving of 20% of water use in agriculture was announced in the Twelfth Five Year Plan, this will require incentives to bring about the required behavioural change.
We are also now working with the Ministry of Water Supply and Drainage in Sri Lanka on how to safely manage faecal sludge. One gully bowser empties the waste of 5,000 people, often into unofficial dumping sites – streams, landfills and wetlands. Building on our work in Ghana, West Africa, we have developed ways to turn such waste into a productive fertilizer through a composting and pellet-making process. For it to flourish, however, this business opportunity requires policy change, technological innovation and a change of mind- set.
Action to reverse groundwater over-pumping and degradation has eluded many societies. In Sri Lanka, there are areas such as Jaffna, where the only source of drinking and agricultural water is from under the ground. The expansion in agricultural chemical use as well as development pressures in the period of post- conflict rehabilitation pose major risks. A recent inventory of groundwater wells identified areas with salinity intrusion and elevated levels of nitrates. We aim to develop capacity to identify critical areas where conservation measures will be required. As a first step, workshops are planned for Jaffna and Colombo to raise awareness, and help build alliances and partnerships among infrastructure planners and groundwater managers. The first workshop was recently held in Jaffna.
Increasing resilience to natural disasters is another critical area for Sri Lanka. Over the past few years floods have affected more than 1.5 million people on the island. IWMI is working with the Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka on flood-prone area mapping using satellite imagery, which can then be used as the basis for preparedness plans.
To help address water security issues, IWMI launched a new strategic framework for its research programme in Sri Lanka in March this year. The first three years of the strategy focuses on four main areas: Improving agricultural water use and productivity; helping better manage floods, droughts and climate change impacts; aiding the sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems; and developing capacity for knowledge management and sharing.
The image of a “Day without Water” means different things to different people. For many, it would be an inconvenience. For others, it would have a serious impact on their lives and livelihoods. We can be encouraged that some solutions exist and others are emerging. Yet, we need to create the environment for those solutions to be implemented. A key facet behind the success stories that we have witnessed from different parts of the world is that vision and strong leadership brings opposing interests into balance,informs policy making with scientific understanding, and negotiates decisions that are socially acceptable. Only then will we be able to say that there is no such thing as a day without water.