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Increase forest cover first

The water supply to the Colombo metropolitan area is in danger yet again according to officials of the National Water Supply and Drainage Board. This is because the water levels have dropped drastically in the main reservoirs supplying the city.

Levels in the Kalatuwawa and Ambatale reservoirs are way below spill level and the water of the Kelani River is just a foot above sea level. The Colombo area guzzles 130 million gallons of water everyday, and much of it comes from the Kelani.

Every year when there is rain we experience flooding. And when the rain stops we have droughts, power crises and the attendant diseases. This applies not only to Colombo and its environs but also to the whole country.

We have got so used to this vicious cycle that officers in the country's public service cynically joke that by the time flood relief is distributed to the victims, a drought has set in. Therefore the local politician or worthy who turns up to distribute the relief packages when there is a flood may actually be giving away food parcels that were prepared for last year's drought.

These droughts and floods cannot, and must not be written off as acts of nature over which we have no control. Mankind has unfortunately progressed to the point that it has acquired the power to destroy the environment and distort nature.

That is what has happened to Sri Lanka today. Because we have denuded the forests of trees and overexploited the mountainous central region of the country for plantations the rain is not soaked up by the wooded hills and released gradually into streams and rivers as nature intended. Instead the water runs off quickly, causing floods and landslides.

These torrents carry tons of mud, which choke the rivers and fill the reservoirs with silt, drastically reducing their storage capacity for water.

There is realisation of this problem among environmentalists and planners in this country, but coming to grips with it and finding a solution will take considerable political will.

The country will have to come up with a five-year and ten-year plan to immediately increase the forest cover in the hill-country as a first step. We may have to sacrifice a significant percentage of the acreage under tea to do so. Simultaneously, existing reservoirs must be checked for silt levels and dredging operations carried out. Law enforcement in this area has to be tightened up. Although tough laws have been passed against illegal logging, only a few of the kingpins who probably have the right connections because they have the money have been caught and punished. Villagers who continue with slash and burn agriculture have to be re-educated and alternative forms of agriculture found for them.

This is a problem that needs to be addressed urgently. It needs a whole country approach and a leader with guts and determination to find and implement a solution. Otherwise the drought relief operations will continue to blend seamlessly with the flood relief operations of the same year.

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