Sri Lanka: “swings and roundabouts” in water policy development

“In recent decades, policy reforms for water resource management nationally -demanded but designed by external actors – have generated intense controversy and become both a tool and a victim of national politics”, says Rajindra Ariyabandu in a new ODI working paper [1]. Ariyabandu tells the “tells the difficult story of a set of Asian Development Bank (ADB) projects in the 1990s which were designed to streamline water resource management arrangements and introduce demand management to the country. In spite of a decade of investment and effort these arrangements have never been implemented. This failure is largely attributable to a lack of understanding of the Sri Lankan context: a multi-party system with governments often held together in fragile coalitions, strong cultural values attached to water, a vocal civil society fearful of water privatisation and a politicised media willing to exploit controversies”. In 2004, the ADB suspended funding to the Comprehensive Water Resources Management (CWRM) project, which it had supported since its inception in 1992.

[1] Ariyabandu, R. (2008). Swings and roundabouts : a narrative on water policy development in Sri Lanka. (Working paper / ODI ; 296). London, UK, Overseas Development Institute. vi, 18 p. ISBN 978 0 85003 890 3. Download here