A rice farmer walks across his field in Sri Lanka. ALERTNET/Amantha Perera
When it is full, the Parakarama Samudaraya irrigation tank in Sri
Lanka’s North Central province is an impressive sight. With its waters
gently lapping the shores, this ancient reservoir –which covers more
than 20 sq km (8 sq miles) - lives up to its name, which means the
Parakarama sea.
But these days, it might as well be renamed the Parakarama puddle.
The failure of seasonal rains has caused water levels to drop so badly
that by the first week of July the reservoir was at less than 8 percent
of capacity, irrigation engineers reported.
Climate experts attribute the country’s wildly fluctuating rainfall patterns to the impact of climate change.
“What we are seeing is the combined effect of regional and global
climate patterns changing,” said W L Sumathipala, former head of the
climate change unit of the Ministry of Environment.
The lack of water at the Parakarama tank is a particular worry for farmers, who rely on it to grow their crops.
“We don’t have water to release for irrigation; we have not released
water for irrigation for about two months now,” said R M Karunarathane,
chief divisional irrigation engineer for Polonnaruwa District, which has
responsibility for the Parakarama tank.
Polonnaruwa is one of the major rice producing regions of this island
nation, and the lack of water is threatening to leave paddy fields dry
and unproductive.
PROTESTS
On July 9 and 10, farmers in the district held protests warning that
as much as 16,000 hectares (40,000 acres) of paddy will be lost without
irrigation water. The Sri Lankan government has already reacted to the
likelihood of a large harvest loss by banning rice exports until the
middle of 2013.
While Sri Lanka’s main rice cultivation period, from October to
March, relies on rain, the secondary harvest between May and August is
almost totally dependent on water from irrigation.
Last year, around 20 percent of the country’s rice harvest was lost due to heavy rains in the early parts of the year, although the same rains allowed for a better harvest in the second season.
The scarcity of water this year stems from the failure of the
monsoon, which means that rivers cannot supply tanks like the
1,700-year-old Parakarama Samudaraya with sufficient water. According to
Sri Lanka’s Meteorological Department, catchment areas like Kukulegama,
Laxapana, Norton and Canyon in the central part of the country, where
large reservoirs are located, had by June this year received less than a
third of the rainfall received in the same period last year.
“It is the lack of rainfall that is the primary reason for the loss
of water; the second is the hot weather,” said Karunarathane, the
irrigation engineer in Polonnaruwa District.
Sumathipala agreed that the lack of rain was worsened by rising temperatures. According to the annual report
of the Sri Lanka Central Bank, average temperatures have increased by
about 0.45 Celsius in Sri Lanka over the last two decades.
Rising temperatures mean that whatever water is available in dry-zone
areas like the Parakarama Samudraya evaporates quickly, according to
Sumathipala.
“What we are seeing is that the dry zone is getting drier, while the
wet zone (in the western
region) seems to be getting sufficient rains,”
he said. But he warned that research has shown that the wet zone is also
prone to flash floods as monsoon rains become shorter but more intense.
POWER CRISIS
Sri Lanka faces a second major threat from the failing rains as well – the loss of hydropower.
“On a good year, we can manage to have around 42 percent of the
electricity generation from hydro power. This year, however, it will be
closer to 25 percent if not less,” said Thilak Siyambalapitiya, an
energy consultant and a former engineer with the Sri Lanka Electricity
Board.
The island’s power generation is currently over 85 percent dependent
on thermal power using oil and coal, which when burned contribute to
climate change. Also, with the rupee falling against the dollar in the
last six months, the more the country becomes reliant on thermal
generation, the higher the drain of foreign exchange and resultant
pressure on the economy.
The cost increases in making up hydropower shortages with thermal
plants are huge. The cost of a unit of electricity generated using hydro
power is around 1.7 Sri Lankan rupees (about 1 cent), but switching to
thermal increases the cost to 9 rupees (7 cents) for coal, 15 rupees (11
cents) for furnace oil and around 24 rupees (18 cents) for diesel. The
government subsidises diesel generation by about 20 percent.
“The cost incurred will either have to be transferred to the
consumers or the government has to absorb it,” Siyambalapitiya said.
Ironically, in 2010 Sri Lanka’s power generation capacity through
hydro increased to over 50 percent due to heavy rains. The same rains
also increased the secondary rice harvest in mid-2011.
The Central Bank annual report warned that the livelihoods of 1.8
million people dependent on agriculture, or between 8 and 9 percent of
the population, were at risk due to changing weather patterns.
“The biggest impact Sri Lanka will face will be from changing
rainfall patterns, because they can have multiple effects, from
agriculture to power to pressure on the currency, but people still don’t
take note,” Sumathipala said.
When the rains that feed the Parakarama Samudaraya irrigation tank
failed, engineers like Karunarathane warned farmers in vain to cut back
on their plantings for the year.
“No one listened,” he said.
Sumathipala believes that such disregard can cause difficulties not only for individual farmers but for the country as a whole.
“There is some recognition on the impact of changing weather
patterns, but we need much better pre-planning now that the erratic rain
patterns have been confirmed,” he said.
By Amantha Perera@AlertNet
No comments:
Post a Comment