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

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

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

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)

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

LegislationMandated responsibilitiesResponsible person/s State Lands Encroachments Ordinance No: 12 of 1840 prevention of encroachment upon state lands Grama Niladari Land Development Ordinance No: 19 of 1935 make regulation for the maintenance of reserves for the prevention of the sources and courses of streams make regulation for the prevention of erosion of the soil Minister Grama Niladari Crown Lands Ordinance No: 8 of 1947 publish and declare the reservations for the protection of the source, course or bed of any public stream Minister State Lands Ordinance No 8 of 1947declare the stream reservations eviction of encroachers from the reservation does not humiliate the rights of the proprietors of the stream banks to use stream water Government Agent State Lands (Recovery of Possession) Act No: 7 of 1979 eviction of encroachers from the reservation state insitutions has power to develop the river reservations Government Agent Commissioner of Local Government General manger of state owned insitutions Fiscal or Police Officer Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka Act No: 23 of 1979 gazette definition for the surroundings or reservations of the natural and artificial waterways Minister Divisional Secretariats

DescriptionWidth (m)*Width of the river reservation (m) Major waterwaysMore than 1560 from each sides Medium waterways5 – 1540 from each sides Minor waterwaysLess than 520 from each sides 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)

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

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

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.

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