Government of Sri Lanka secured financing from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) through UNDP to implement the Climate Resilient Integrated Water Management Project. is a seven-year project (2017-2024) aimed at strengthening the resilience of Smallholder Farmers in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone to climate variability and extreme events.
The Project will benefit 770,500 people living in three river basins (i.e. Mi Oya, Malwathu Oya, and Yan Oya) directly through investments in irrigation, drinking water and disaster risk management. Moreover, another 1.2 million people living in these districts will indirectly be benefited from the project through increased capacities of the Agrarian Services centres and early warning systems. The Project will be implemented in seven Dry Zone districts (i.e. Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Mannar, Polonnaruwa, Puttlam, Trincomalee and Vavuniya,)
The Project covers three key Outputs:
Output 1: Climate resilient investment to rehabilitate small tank-based cascading systems and related infrastructure and facilitate sustainable, climate-proof agricultural practices in targeted areas
Output 2: Investments to increase access to and quality of drinking water in remote and rural areas through a multi-pronged partnership approach that seeks to replenish sources, build storage, purify contaminated water and address root causes of water quality issues
Output 3: Improve community access to timely early warning for flood and drought to avoid losses and impacts on key livelihood assets. This includes the generation, coding, modelling, dissemination and access to weather related data/knowledge including advise and early warning.
The Project implementation modality includes a Project Management Unit established under the Ministry of Irrigation and a field office located in Anuradhapura. The Project entered into partnerships with four leading civil society organizations to assist the project in social mobilization and community awareness. UNDP, as the responsible party for Project assurance, is providing technical assistance to implement the Project through a team of Specialists.