CRIWMP – Past, present and future

Written by Asoka Ajantha and Vajira Hettige

 Summary

The Climate Resilient Integrated Water Management project is now in its fifth year, and two more years to go. This article briefly explained the past achievement, present scenario, and future of the project.

The project has undergone a project restructuring starting on 04^th December 2020. However, on 15^th September 2021, the GCF Secretariat communicated that the Operations Committee determined that the project’s restructuring proposal is a minor change. With this background, the project is now plaining to resume new activities with an expedited delivery mechanism.

This article will explain a) the overall physical and financial progress of the project as of 01 05 2022 and b) the remaining workload of the project for the rest of the project period. For the easiness of the explanation, the remaining workload has been categorized as irrigation, agriculture, drinking water and disaster risk reduction (DRR) subcomponents.

Irrigation subcomponent

Most of the budget has been allocated to village irrigation systems (VIS) upgrading work, which consists of both upstream and downstream development. Initially, it was planned to carry out upstream work using GCF proceeds and downstream development using GoSL funds. However, the project did not receive GCF proceeds during the restructuring process. However, considering the needs of the smallholder farmers, the Government continued upstream development using Govt co-financing available for the project in 2021 while investing in the downstream work.

As of 31 12 2021, the project has completed upgrading the upstream development of 164 VISs. In 2022, the project will complete the upstream work of 108 VISs (58 were initiated in 2021), and the remaining will be completed in 2023. Initially, it was planned to complete both upstream and downstream development works in 2022, but now it spills over to 2023. Therefore, the Government has decided to allocate more human resources to this activity to maintain the required delivery rate. In parallel to the VIS upgrading, the project prepares operation and maintenance plans for each VIS with the respective Farmers’ Organizations.

Agriculture subcomponent

The project will achieve 520,00 beneficiaries out of the 780,221 (as per restructuring proposal) through the agriculture component (Activity 1.3) and Output 03. These two components are critical to reaching the total number of beneficiaries; The project did not start any new agriculture activities during the restructuring period. Still, it continued to provide agriculture extension services to the selected beneficiaries through the government extension services. Furthermore, the project disseminated agriculture technology packages to 459,024, and 17,893 women farmers adopted CSA technologies from its inception. Despite the ongoing pandemic, these measures have enabled farmers to sustain their agricultural livelihoods amidst extreme weather events. Furthermore, the project has planned to implement an expedited agriculture program in the next monsoon rainy season (MAHA cultivation season), the primary cultivation season of the dry zone farmers in Sri Lanka. Therefore, during the PB meeting held on 05^th April 2022, the project decided to allocate more human resources from the Ministry of Irrigation and the RPs to deliver an expedited agriculture programme in the coming seasons.

Drinking water subcomponent 

Initial plan of the project was to construct 35 new rural water supply schemes (NWSS) to assure year-round access to clean drinking. Anyhow, due to limitations of multiple factors such as scarcity of water resources, need for advanced purification technologies, and scattered distribution of households, the project fund is adequate to complete 07 NWSS using GCF proceeds and two more to be completed using government funds. Once this 09 NWSS are commissioned, the project will be able to assure year-round access to clean drinking water for 3,362 households in Kurunagala, Puttalam, Vavuniya and Anuradapura districts. In addition, the project has so far installed nearly 3,250 number of 5,000L rainwater harvesting systems (PE tanks and installation accessories) to collect rainwater in selected vulnerable households to ensure clean drinking water for a dry spell of the year. Further, the project has provided small, advanced water purification units for selected schools and hospitals in Anuradapura, Kurunagala and Vavuniya districts. During the rest of the period, the project will consolidate its interventions to ensure the sustainability of the project’s benefits. Furthermore, the project has planned a series of training programs for the selected water user organizations so that the beneficiaries can apply the gained knowledge to operate and manage their water supply schemes, rainwater harvesting systems and small advanced water filters.

DRR subcomponent

Up to date, the project has strengthened the agro-meteorological observation capacity of the Dept of Meteorology by installing 5 Automated Agro Met stations, 10 Automated Rain Gauges and real-time data transfer mechanism in project river basins. Further, strengthening the hydrometeorological observation network of the Department of Irrigation was supported by installing 23 automated Water Level Recorders in 3 river basins. A data portal and mobile app are available to access project stakeholders’ real-time data of these gauges. The project will support both agencies in conducting operation and maintenance activities and applying gauge readings for advisory generation and application purposes during the remaining project period. Irrespective of the restructuring process, the project continued to facilitate dissemination of the weather and agro met advisories for 459,204 farmers in 69 ASCs in 3 project river basins. During the next two years project will institutionalize this system to co-develop and disseminate the advisories through national and district stakeholders. As of 2023, the project will target 520,000 direct beneficiaries (77 ASCs within project river basins), and 614,523 indirect beneficiaries come under 91 ASCs outside river basins and within project district boundaries. Under strengthening the disaster preparedness and early warning, the project will complete developing village disaster preparedness plans for all the project cascade locations (26 plans already completed) and 25 divisional disaster preparedness plans within river basins. Further, the project will strengthen the flood/water management capacity of drinking water beneficiaries who live both within and outside river basin areas.

Financial progress (as per 20 05 2022) in millions

 Reaching beneficiaries

Table 1.1 below explains the status of Output indicators and how the project will achieve the remaining balance through the next two years. As given below, the project has completed the beneficiary targets in Com 01 and 03. Hence, through an expedited delivery mechanism, the project will be able to reach the Outcome beneficiary targets by the end of the Project period.

Table 1.1: Status of output indicators and planned actions to expedite the delivery