Sewwandhi Chandrasekara Research Scientist Foundation for Environment, Climate and Technology

1. Assessment of legislative and institutional mechanism for the river reservations in Sri Lanka:Case study in Geli Oya SewwandhiChandrasekara Research Scientist Foundation for Environment, Climate and Technology 19th Tuesday, February 2013

2. Introduction • Riverine civilization • Availability of water for routine work • Simple governing mechanism to control impacts for the riverine environment • But today, there is necessity of strict governing mechanism to control impacts for the riverine environment • Increase population, urbanization and less land availability for living • River reservation encroachment

3. However • There are adequate number of • Institutions • Legislations • To declare and protection of river reservations • To evict river reservation encroachers • Still river reservation encroachment is present • Therefore this study • Investigate existing governing mechanism to declare and protection of river reservations and evict river reservation encroachers

4. Methodology • The existing legislations • To declare and protection of river reservations • To evict river reservation encroachers were identified and studied to extract important legal statements for the study • A group work • 40 officers • 7 major government institutions in the Central Province • National Water Supply & Drainage Board (NWSDB) • Education Department • Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL) • Department of Health • Provincial Councils • Kandy Municipal Council • Central Environment Authority (CEA)

5. Existing legislations available for the protection of river reservations • State Lands Encroachments Ordinance No: 12 of 1840 • Land Development Ordinance No: 19 of 1935 • Crown Lands Ordinance No: 8 of 1947 • State Lands Ordinance No 8 of 1947 • State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act No: 7 of 1979 • Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka Act No: 23 of 1979

7. Declared width of the river reservation * Land Development Ordinance N0: 19 of 1935 specify the river reservation based on the river width (m) and gazette published from MASL specify the river reservation based on the rived bed width (m)

8. Existing institutions available for the protection of river reservations • Directly involved • District and Divisional Secretaries and MASL • Indirectly involved • Provincial Land Use Department • Provincial Health Department • Central Environment Authority • Education Department

9. Drawbacks for the performances • Some institutions have the information but lack authority to implement • Provincial Land Use Department • Some institutions have the authority, but do not have qualified people to prepare maps/plans • Divisional Secretaries Office • Lack of coordination among institutions • Lack of institutional capacity • Willingness of the officials to perform their mandated responsibilities • Political interventions

10. Conclusions • Existing regulatory mechanisms comprehensively cover all aspects of river reservation protection in Sri Lanka • Mandate are most of the time appears to overlaps among institutions • Lack of coordination among institutions, procedural lapses, political interference, less enthusiasm of state employees to implement rules and regulations were found as main reasons for the inaction of institution to prevent land encroachments along river reservations.

11. Acknowledgement • Crossing boundaries project, PGIA • Villagers in Egoda Kalugamuwa and Elpitiya-Geli Oya • Officials of relevant insitutions • Prof. Nimal Gunawardena, Dr. Dammika Dayawansa and staff at Agric. Engineering Dept. • FECT

12. Thank You