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Defeating the drought

Coming at a time when a drought is scorching the dry zone areas of the country, President Kumaratunga's pledge to end the water needs of the people, has the refreshing effect of a welcome shower. Launching the Greater Kandy Drinking Water Supply Project recently, she said that the Government was formulating an integrated national plan to end our water needs.

When it comes to ending our water needs, Small is, indeed, Beautiful. Some past governments spent lavishly on prestigious mega projects with the expectation that Sri Lanka, besides meeting its water needs, would transform into a land flowing with milk and honey. Time has proved them wrong. The dream of an adequately irrigated, luscious, fertile land is yet to be realised despite the launching of giant development plans.

In fact the torment of the dry zone - in particular - could be said to have been further compounded. In the present drought, nearly 200,000 farmer families of the dry zone have been visited with severe hardships, including being squeezed dry by the drought.

Sri Lanka in general is alternating wildly between deluges and droughts, which are themselves the disastrous by products of giant development projects which ran aground.

Therefore, in a sense, Sri Lanka needs to get back to its roots and this is why Government's plans to restore and re-use some 10,000 tanks countrywide could be considered a stitch in time.

Since big development plans have been largely only a bubble, we need to take a peep at our traditional sources and methods of irrigation. The small tanks which once met all our irrigation need and brought us the honour of being the Granary of the East need to be restored and left at the disposal of our farmers in a clear demonstration of the truth that Small is Beautiful.

This is by no means a distant dream. As President Kumaratunga reminded us, we possess all the necessary resources, expertise and mechanisms to put into action an integrated national plan for water self-sufficiency.

We have been hailed as a nation of irrigation engineers who independently and ably saw to our water requirement. Our golden past of verdant paddy fields and luscious vegetation could be our's once again if we adopted a down-to-earth practicality, with less concern for the self-destroying but alluring temptations of unregulated consumerism.

The vast, scorched tracts of the dry zone remind us that time is fast running out. Before long, our dry zone could be a victim of creeping desertification. Therefore, we call on the Government to proceed vibrantly with its ground-breaking tank restoration scheme.

Drought relief

The drought is back. Nearly 200,000 families in Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Badulla, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Puttalam and Hambantota districts are undergoing severe hardships as a result of a prolonged drought, the Daily News reported yesterday.

The Government through the Social Services Ministry and the North Central Provincial Council has taken emergency measures to combat the drought and alleviate those affected. They include the digging of new wells, renovating damaged tube wells and the provision of drinking water through water bowsers. The Government has allocated more than Rs.440 million for drought relief this year.

The worst drought in recent memory occurred in 1996, when a large segment of the population had to face long power cuts and water shortages. Droughts being a cyclic phenomenon, we could be heading for a similar situation this year or in the coming year. Both droughts and floods are forces of nature which we cannot control, but there is no doubt that our attempts to master the environment could be a reason for the ferocity with which these forces sometimes assail us. Last year's floods killed nearly 50 people mainly in the South. Landslides also claim several lives a year.

Environmentalists say that deforestation is one of the chief causes for the drastic reduction in rainfall. Sri Lanka's forest cover had dwindled substantially. Reforestation should be actively pursued to reverse this alarming trend. Global warming is another factor that is changing the environment worldwide. We must evolve solutions to these issues locally and globally to minimise further damage to the environment.

Even as we undertake long-term measures to protect the environment, action must be taken to address the short-term effects of droughts and other natural disasters. Prolonged droughts in agricultural areas adversely affects farming. The shortage of drinking water compounds the woes of residents, most of whom depend on agriculture. The construction of more agricultural water retention systems and tube wells could go a long way towards alleviating their suffering in times of drought.

There should be a national policy to deal with droughts, floods and other such phenomena and enhanced cooperation among the various government agencies handling these. Experts in search and rescue, doctors, medical staff and counsellors can be included in rapid-response teams dealing with natural disasters.

A swift reaction mechanism will be able to minimise the damage while helping the victims faster. Non-Governmental Organisations and the private sector should also be called in to assist this endeavour.

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