Ancient water tanks of Sri Lanka to adapt to a changing climate
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- Опубликовано: 7 окт 2024
- Director: Marta Baraibar
2D and 3D Animations: Alex Petrovsky
Over 2400 years ago, in Sri Lanka, a tiny country near the southern tip of India, flourished into one of the finest hydraulic civilizations of the world. This country, at the core of the south east monsoon, has 80% of its territory covered by a dry zone prone to water scarcity. Its ancient kings built a sophisticated network of small tanks connected by canals to large reservoirs to collect and redistribute every single drop of rain the land received. The tanks were built in cascading systems, using the natural inclination and topography of the land, full of small watersheds. They kept the natural cycle of water through soil, vegetation and atmosphere. The main goal of the system was to save and re-use water, allowing cultivation of rice in the dry zone. Tanks, paddy fields, watersheds, canals and natural ecosystems were perfectly interlaced.
The cascade system was perfectly adapted to cope with Sri Lanka’s climate, characterized by recurrent droughts and floods. The tanks were equipped with features to prevent floods, preserve water and control evaporation.
Today, Climate Change is exposing Sri Lanka to higher temperatures, heavier and more irregular rains and longer droughts, and most of the cascade systems are in disrepair.
The ancient tank's design and construction sophistication was poorly understood by modern engineers and some key features were dropped. During the colonial era tank cascade systems were neglected and abandoned. Many farmers accumulate debts and hope for the rains to come on time. Kidney disease has become a national problem due to drinking of water, contaminated by agro-chemicals from the fields and compounded by rainfall shortages, adding serious health expenses to already strained rural budgets.
The Ministry of Disaster Management of the Government of Sri Lanka with the support of UNDP is working to adapt to the new climatic conditions.
Ancient kings were visionaries. Their sophisticated system of tanks, canals and reservoirs kept a perfect ecological balance and was able to mitigate droughts, cool down temperature and save water. For this reason, the Government of Sri Lanka and UNDP are rehabilitating 33 tanks that were in disrepair and need upgrading given the new climate change realities that are unfolding in this part of the world. In doing so, the Government and UNDP will also reintroducing ancient elements that have been forgotten over the centuries.
Rehabilitating tanks will make communities more self-sufficient, allowing them to produce a surplus of crops from home gardens and rice, which Sri Lanka’s farmers associate to their very own cultural identity.
UNDP is also supporting Sri Lanka to use geospatial data on disasters, climate change and socioeconomic conditions to identify the most needed interventions. UNDP and USAID are also supporting the publication of a study on the economic cost of climate change.
UNDP’s holistic approach to support Sri Lanka to adapt to a changing climate and its work to revive millenary ecological wisdom has brought back hope to people like Ganga.
Learn more: adaptation-undp...
Great work. Thanks to all who have made this possible.
First of all we have to stop the deforestation happening in Sri Lanka, like happened in Wilpaththu forest. That is the main reason for this climate change.
corruption and political hypocrisy is the reason for the destruction of ELLANGA in my lovely motherland. BITTER but THE TRUTH. Thanks UNDP. What Ganga is saying is true few decades ago. But We like the way she opening her thoughts. Goose-bumped.
Good evening Hana,
Thank you for this story you sent me. It is necessary to take into account the sociocultural reality of the milieu of the actors, to be able to act well on their way of life and their social behavior in order to find reliable answers to their problem. Thank you and see you soon.
Montcho Symphorien GBANOU
The tanks reservoirs of Sri Lanka - Rationale @ conservation in land use practices @ Bethma
Dear Sir, The tanks in the locis are in purposes to irrigate & community water use. The practices with the tanks in the locations ought to be grasped & revived. The land use practices in the irrigation systems in instances of the dry zone are in both the seasons the Maha season & the Yala season & are subject to Bethma in land use practices in the tracks. The clearances for Bethma in the head end & tail end are questioned in the lines of fallow & conservation of the rice lands in the seasons in the tank & reservoir irrigation systems of the dry zone of Island Sri Lanka.✍ The question is also with the salinity @ the head end & the tail end of the irrigation canals for the purposes of rarionalising effective land use practices @ irrigation then for Bethma in the tank & reservoirs based irrigation systems.
Wish you all the best in your endeavours for the future.
Greetings from the Pacific.
Kalaranji Maheswaran.✍🐅🌷💧🌏
☺️☺️🧐🙂🤗
would lpease come ti the gambia w/africa .i well help you .you sent me the request document ,U.N.D.P WELL HELP YOU