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Assessment of legislative and institutional mechanism for the river reservations in Sri Lanka: Case study in Geli Oya

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Title: Assessment of legislative and institutional mechanism for the river reservations in Sri Lanka: Case study in Geli Oya


1
Assessment of legislative and institutional
mechanism for the river reservations in Sri
LankaCase study in Geli Oya
  • Sewwandhi Chandrasekara
  • 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

6
Legislation Mandated responsibilities Responsible 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 1947 declare 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
7
Declared width of the river reservation
Description Width (m) Width of the river reservation (m)
Major waterways More than 15 60 from each sides
Medium waterways 5 15 40 from each sides
Minor waterways Less than 5 20 from each sides
  • 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
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