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
19th 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
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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
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
eviction of encroachers from the
reservation
state insitutions has power to develop
the river reservations
Government Agent
State Lands (Recovery of Possession)
Act No: 7 of 1979
Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka Act
No: 23 of 1979
gazette definition for the surroundings
or reservations of the natural and
artificial waterways
Government Agent Commissioner of
Local Government
General manger of state owned
insitutions
Fiscal or Police Officer
Minister
Divisional Secretariats
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)
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 ElpitiyaGeli Oya
• Officials of relevant insitutions
• Prof. Nimal Gunawardena, Dr. Dammika
Dayawansa and staff at Agric. Engineering
Dept.
• FECT