Features

Rainwater harvesting is an essential step to stave off impending disaster

Published

2 years ago

2024/03/17

by ACB Pethiyagoda

Much is being spoken and written about the scarcity of drinking water and water for other purposes as well as it is a global problem caused by rapid population increases. It is made worse by the resulting needs of the people in the production of industrial and agricultural goods which in turn require water for production. This is the second most pressing problem the world is faced with the rising population being the first.

The average person does not give sufficient, or worse still, any thought to the need for conservation of water in the home, in agriculture, in industry or in its other uses. Conservationists say that a dangerous situation is looming ahead of us, individuals, nations and the world itself as the demand is increasing at an alarming rate while water supplies remain near constant. Consider for instance the following recent findings of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF).

By 2050 the world’s population will increase to 9.3 billion from the present 6.1 billion. The increase will be mainly in developing countries where water for all purposes is already in short supply.

To feed the world’s population about 36% of the available fresh water is presently used for food production. By 2025 this could increase to 70% to meet the demands of the increased population.

In 2000, as many as 508 million people lived in 31 water stressed countries and in 2025 there will be three billion people in 48 such countries.

The average person is estimated to require 50 litres of water a day for drinking, washing and cooking.

According to the Lanka Rainwater Harvesting Forum Sri Lanka’s present domestic supply of water was secured by piped water serving the majority of te people, tube well, protected dug wells and served by other means.

The Forum in an article some months ago in “The Island” captioned “Domestic Rainwater Harvesting: An Option to Solve Water Scarcity Problem” states that between 1996 and 2000 the country needed to invest Rs. 8,000 million a year to provide safe drinking water throughout the country by 2010. However, investment fell short by more than 50% each year and one never knows when this need will be satisfied. That being the situation it is up to every right thinking person to conserve water before we find ourselves in a situation from which we cannot escape.

Such conservation is an unquantifiable contribution but it certainly is the right attitude and in the right direction. It will create the necessary awareness by users of water, for whatever purpose, to the danger we are faced with and concerned people need to take steps necessary to mitigate the circumstances.

As far as domestic use of water is concerned one option available is to supplement water from normal sources at household and macro levels by rainwater harvesting as a stand by resource.

Rainwater harvesting is the collection and storage of water that runs off man made catchment areas such as roofs of dwellings or other buildings through gutters into brick and cement or ferrocement tanks built above or underground.

Sri Lanka’s mean annual rainfall is around 2,000 mm with some parts of the country receiving only about 500 mm and when monsoons fail severe droughts are experienced such as that in the Hambantota District recently. In times such as those people need not have had to walk miles in search of drinking water as often as they did if rainwater had been collected in homes and by communities. Roof material of buildings and gutters used for rainwater collection should be hard such as G1 sheets, tiles or asbestos as these could be cleaned periodically. Overhanging branches and trees must be removed to ensure the collection tanks are sealed securely to prevent mosquitoes and other pests from breeding and growth of algae.

In order to encourage rain water storage systems plans for new houses and housing schemes should receive the attention of planners, builders, engineers and architects.

In late 2002 and early 2003 Agromart Foundation’s Production society members in Hambantota, Monaragala and Ampara District built in their homesteads 2,888 rain water storage tanks. Each of these have a capacity of 5000 litres and cost around Rs. 15,000/= each. A single mould costing approximately Rs. 7000/= was used to turn out several tanks. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) bore 75% of the cost while Agromarts members met the balance. At times of low rainfall owners of these tanks found all the drinking water they needed without even stepping out of their compounds so different from the ordeal they went through in the past.

With regard to water conservation in agriculture the main principals of rain water management is to slow down the flow and allow water to seep into the ground. To achieve this stone bunds, drains and trenches on the contour need to be provided. For maximum conservation pits measuring about a foot deep and two feet long should be dug at short intervals at the bottom of the contour drains. In steep land spacing between drains and or bunds must be close and wider in less steep land. These bunds and drains also serve another useful purpose, which is by preventing soil erosion.

Soils must be rich in leaf mould and mulch to absorb and retain water particularly in dry weather and prevent its exposure to the sun. In dry weather, if watering of crops is possible, a thorough drenching every few days is more useful than light watering daily. Watering in the late afternoons is advised to prevent excessive evaporation, during the day.

Waste water from kitchens can be used safely in home gardens where, preferable, the application is direct to the soil avoiding the crop foliage.

Perennial crops such as young coconut and fruit trees benefit greatly in times of drought when earthen pots buried up to their mouths and at a distance of about five feet from their trunks are filled with water as and when required.

Drip irrigation systems, though installation is expensive, are very efficient in conservation of water while at the same time giving excellent returns on investment as water is made available in measured quantities as and when needed by the crop.

Conservation of moisture and build up of soil fertility at macro level can be achieved with agro forestry. This is a system in which trees, preferably leguminous varieties, are planted as a mix with crops. By this system soil is protected from damage resulting from the beating action of heavy rain and scorching by the sun; Nitrogen is added to soils from decaying leaf and small branches from toppings. The force of winds and fast flowing rain water are minimized thus preventing physical damage to crops and minimising soil erosion; the force of dry winds are broken and drying up of soils and crops is minimized.

Fodder, fuel wood, timber, food, and medicinal items are provided by some trees grown with crops. Degraded and marginal lands can be brought back to their earlier productive condition.

An example of an efficient system of agro forestry is seen in Sri Lanka’s tea plantations where Grevillea, Dadap, Gliracidea and Accacia hedges planted from early times act as shade, windbreaks and sources of green manure.

Conservation of rainwater has been practiced in Sri Lanka from ancient times with our Kings constructing those near miracles, the irrigation tanks. King Kasyappa in the fifth century had fountains and swimming pools in his rock fortress. Ancients Rome had an intricate system of harvesting rain water for domestic use. In Australia’s semi desert regions many thousands of homesteads, cattle and sheep farms depend on harvested rain water. Community rain water tanks are common in many parts of Africa.

What we need in Sri Lanka today is to recreate an awareness for the need to conserve water and get about doing it at all levels and spheres because water is precious and has no known substitute.

Rainwater harvesting the best answer to Jaffna’s water woes.The northern Jaffna peninsula, which has traditionally experienced a scarcity of uncontaminated underground fresh water, should consider adopting new rainwater harvesting methods to meet the increasing demand, a German expert said this week in Colombo.

“The Jaffna peninsula receives an average annual rainfall of 120 centimetres which is adequate for its population’s consumption needs if this water is captured, stored and governed correctly,” said Herald Kraft, a consultant for the German Development Cooperation’s (GTZ) Jaffna Rehabilitation Project. “In fact, rain water is the most uncontaminated water source in Jaffna, because there is almost no air-polluting industry on the peninsula and the main cloud masses reach Jaffna having passed over the sea.”

Mr. Kraft was speaking at a seminar held at the International Water Management Institute on the potential of rainwater harvesting in the Jaffna peninsula. The third of a series of seminars on the subject, it was organized by the GTZ Jaffna Rehabilitation Project, which has spearheaded relief and reconstruction work in Jaffna since 1996.

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation & Development, GTZ has been involved in the rehabilitation of the peninsula’s water supply system and the rebuilding of war damaged schools and houses.

Mr. Kraft, who had spent many months conducting a study on “Water Supply, Rain Water Harvesting, Waste Water and Solid Waste Management in the Jaffna peninsula”, revealed alarming information which indicated the gravity of the groundwater situation in Jaffna and the islands. The Jaffna topography is such, that the thin cover of soil over the ground water table, which consists mainly of sandy soil with an infiltration capacity of 50 m/d, provides no protection against pollutants from entering the ground water from the surface.

The sandy soil has very low absorption and therefore a low purification capacity. Whatever is applied onto the soil or buried in the loil reaches down to the ground water. Agricultural fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, as well as solid and liquid industrial wasters, oil, diesel and petrol and the wide variety of domestic and liquid waste can easily pollute the ground water.

The lime stone cover, which is widespread in the Jaffna peninsula, provides almost no purification capacity, permitting all pollutants reaching the ground water to spread far and wide. Salination, along with contamination from the surface, has made it vital for such drinking water from local ground water sources to undergo sophisticated chemical treatment before it can be considered safe for human consumption.

According to GTZ experts, with more and more refugees returning to their homes in Jaffna, the peninsula’s population is likely to increase rapidly, putting additional pressure on this already sensitive environment.

As a means of introducing and popularizing rainwater harvesting, GTZ will launch a pilot project at the Kopay Christian College. The school buildings at this college provide 1,845 square metres of roof surface and will be connected to a cistern of 600 cubic metres. It is estimated that this collection will be sufficient to provide drinking water to the students and teachers of the college for a year.

GTZ experts pointed out that schools, hospitals, and public buildings that have large roof areas, usually covered with clay tiles, are perfectly suited for rainwater harvesting. They hoped the success of the pilot project would encourage many others in the peninsula to adopt this method, which would ensure an alternative source of fresh, uncontaminated water for the people of Jaffna.

(Late ACB Pethiyagoda, a career tea planter worked for Ceylon Tobacco Co. in agriculture related projects post retirement and was associated in several water management initiatives. This article was written and first published in July 2023 in the Sunday Island)

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Features

Recruiting academics to state universities – beset by archaic selection processes?

Published

23 hours ago

2026/03/3

Thilina Walpola

by Kaushalya Perera

Time has, by and large, stood still in the business of academic staff recruitment to state universities. Qualifications have proliferated and evolved to be more interdisciplinary, but our selection processes and evaluation criteria are unchanged since at least the late 1990s. But before I delve into the problems, I will describe the existing processes and schemes of recruitment. The discussion is limited to UGC-governed state universities (and does not include recruitment to medical and engineering sectors) though the problems may be relevant to other higher education institutions (HEIs).

How recruitment happens currently in SL state universities

Academic ranks in Sri Lankan state universities can be divided into three tiers (subdivisions are not discussed).

* Lecturer (Probationary)

– recruited with a four-year undergraduate degree. A tiny step higher is the Lecturer (Unconfirmed), recruited with a postgraduate degree but no teaching experience.

* A Senior Lecturer can be recruited with certain postgraduate qualifications and some number of years of teaching and research.

* Above this is the professor (of four types), which can be left out of this discussion since only one of those (Chair Professor) is by application.

State universities cannot hire permanent academic staff as and when they wish. Prior to advertising a vacancy, approval to recruit is obtained through a mind-numbing and time-consuming process (months!) ending at the Department of Management Services. The call for applications must list all ranks up to Senior Lecturer. All eligible candidates for Probationary to Senior Lecturer are interviewed, e.g., if a Department wants someone with a doctoral degree, they must still advertise for and interview candidates for all ranks, not only candidates with a doctoral degree. In the evaluation criteria, the first degree is more important than the doctoral degree (more on this strange phenomenon later). All of this is only possible when universities are not under a ‘hiring freeze’, which governments declare regularly and generally lasts several years.

Problem type 1

– Archaic processes and evaluation criteria

Twenty-five years ago, as a probationary lecturer with a first degree, I was a typical hire. We would be recruited, work some years and obtain postgraduate degrees (ideally using the privilege of paid study leave to attend a reputed university in the first world). State universities are primarily undergraduate teaching spaces, and when doctoral degrees were scarce, hiring probationary lecturers may have been a practical solution. The path to a higher degree was through the academic job. Now, due to availability of candidates with postgraduate qualifications and the problems of retaining academics who find foreign postgraduate opportunities, preference for candidates applying with a postgraduate qualification is growing. The evaluation scheme, however, prioritises the first degree over the candidate’s postgraduate education. Were I to apply to a Faculty of Education, despite a PhD on language teaching and research in education, I may not even be interviewed since my undergraduate degree is not in education. The ‘first degree first’ phenomenon shows that universities essentially ignore the intellectual development of a person beyond their early twenties. It also ignores the breadth of disciplines and their overlap with other fields.

This can be helped (not solved) by a simple fix, which can also reduce brain drain: give precedence to the doctoral degree in the required field, regardless of the candidate’s first degree, effected by a UGC circular. The suggestion is not fool-proof. It is a first step, and offered with the understanding that any selection process, however well the evaluation criteria are articulated, will be beset by multiple issues, including that of bias. Like other Sri Lankan institutions, universities, too, have tribal tendencies, surfacing in the form of a preference for one’s own alumni. Nevertheless, there are other problems that are, arguably, more pressing as I discuss next. In relation to the evaluation criteria, a problem is the narrow interpretation of any regulation, e.g., deciding the degree’s suitability based on the title rather than considering courses in the transcript. Despite rhetoric promoting internationalising and inter-disciplinarity, decision-making administrative and academic bodies have very literal expectations of candidates’ qualifications, e.g., a candidate with knowledge of digital literacy should show this through the title of the degree!

Problem type 2 – The mess of badly regulated higher education

A direct consequence of the contemporary expansion of higher education is a large number of applicants with myriad qualifications. The diversity of degree programmes cited makes the responsibility of selecting a suitable candidate for the job a challenging but very important one. After all, the job is for life – it is very difficult to fire a permanent employer in the state sector.

Widely varying undergraduate degree programmes.

At present, Sri Lankan undergraduates bring qualifications (at times more than one) from multiple types of higher education institutions: a degree from a UGC-affiliated state university, a state university external to the UGC, a state institution that is not a university, a foreign university, or a private HEI aka ‘private university’. It could be a degree received by attending on-site, in Sri Lanka or abroad. It could be from a private HEI’s affiliated foreign university or an external degree from a state university or an online only degree from a private HEI that is ‘UGC-approved’ or ‘Ministry of Education approved’, i.e., never studied in a university setting. Needless to say, the diversity (and their differences in quality) are dizzying. Unfortunately, under the evaluation scheme all degrees ‘recognised’ by the UGC are assigned the same marks. The same goes for the candidates’ merits or distinctions, first classes, etc., regardless of how difficult or easy the degree programme may be and even when capabilities, exposure, input, etc are obviously different.

Similar issues are faced when we consider postgraduate qualifications, though to a lesser degree. In my discipline(s), at least, a postgraduate degree obtained on-site from a first-world university is preferable to one from a local university (which usually have weekend or evening classes similar to part-time study) or online from a foreign university. Elitist this may be, but even the best local postgraduate degrees cannot provide the experience and intellectual growth gained by being in a university that gives you access to six million books and teaching and supervision by internationally-recognised scholars. Unfortunately, in the evaluation schemes for recruitment, the worst postgraduate qualification you know of will receive the same marks as one from NUS, Harvard or Leiden.

The problem is clear but what about a solution?

Recruitment to state universities needs to change to meet contemporary needs. We need evaluation criteria that allows us to get rid of the dross as well as a more sophisticated institutional understanding of using them. Recruitment is key if we want our institutions (and our country) to progress. I reiterate here the recommendations proposed in ‘Considerations for Higher Education Reform’ circulated previously by Kuppi Collective:

* Change bond regulations to be more just, in order to retain better qualified academics.

* Update the schemes of recruitment to reflect present-day realities of inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary training in order to recruit suitably qualified candidates.

* Ensure recruitment processes are made transparent by university administrations.

Kaushalya Perera is a senior lecturer at the University of Colombo.

(Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.)

Features

Talento … oozing with talent

Published

23 hours ago

2026/03/3

Thilina Walpola

Talento: Gained recognition as a leading wedding and dance band

This week, too, the spotlight is on an outfit that has gained popularity, mainly through social media.

Last week we had MISTER Band in our scene, and on 10th February, Yellow Beatz – both social media favourites.

Talento is a seven-piece band that plays all types of music, from the ‘60s to the modern tracks of today.

The band has reached many heights, since its inception in 2012, and has gained recognition as a leading wedding and dance band in the scene here.

The members that makeup the outfit have a solid musical background, which comes through years of hard work and dedication

Their portfolio of music contains a mix of both western and eastern songs and are carefully selected, they say, to match the requirements of the intended audience, occasion, or event.

Although the baila is a specialty, which is inherent to this group, that originates from Moratuwa, their repertoire is made up of a vast collection of love, classic, oldies and modern-day hits.

The musicians, who make up Talento, are:

Prabuddha Geetharuchi:

Geilee Fonseka: Dynamic and charismatic vocalist

Prabuddha Geetharuchi: The main man behind the band Talento

(Vocalist/ Frontman). He is an avid music enthusiast and was mentored by a lot of famous musicians, and trainers, since he was a child. Growing up with them influenced him to take on western songs, as well as other music styles. A Peterite, he is the main man behind the band Talento and is a versatile singer/entertainer who never fails to get the crowd going.

Geilee Fonseka (Vocals):

A dynamic and charismatic vocalist whose vibrant stage presence, and powerful voice, bring a fresh spark to every performance. Young, energetic, and musically refined, she is an artiste who effortlessly blends passion with precision – captivating audiences from the very first note. Blessed with an immense vocal range, Geilee is a truly versatile singer, confidently delivering Western and Eastern music across multiple languages and genres.

Chandana Perera (Drummer):

His expertise and exceptional skills have earned him recognition as one of the finest acoustic drummers in Sri Lanka. With over 40 tours under his belt, Chandana has demonstrated his dedication and passion for music, embodying the essential role of a drummer as the heartbeat of any band.

Harsha Soysa:

(Bassist/Vocalist). He a chorister of the western choir of St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa, who began his musical education under famous voice trainers, as well as bass guitar trainers in Sri Lanka. He has also performed at events overseas. He acts as the second singer of the band

Udara Jayakody:

(Keyboardist). He is also a qualified pianist, adding technical flavour to Talento’s music. His singing and harmonising skills are an extra asset to the band. From his childhood he has been a part of a number of orchestras as a pianist. He has also previously performed with several famous western bands.

Aruna Madushanka:

(Saxophonist). His proficiciency in playing various instruments, including the saxophone, soprano saxophone, and western flute, showcases his versatility as a musician, and his musical repertoire is further enhanced by his remarkable singing ability.

Prashan Pramuditha:

(Lead guitar). He has the ability to play different styles, both oriental and western music, and he also creates unique tones and patterns with the guitar..

Features

Special milestone for JJ Twins

Published

23 hours ago

2026/03/3

Thilina Walpola

Twin brothers Julian and Jason Prins

The JJ Twins, the Sri Lankan musical duo, performing in the Maldives, and known for blending R&B, Hip Hop, and Sri Lankan rhythms, thereby creating a unique sound, have come out with a brand-new single ‘Me Mawathe.’

In fact, it’s a very special milestone for the twin brothers, Julian and Jason Prins, as ‘Me Mawathe’ is their first ever Sinhala song!

‘Me Mawathe’ showcases a fresh new sound, while staying true to the signature harmony and emotion that their fans love.

This heartfelt track captures the beauty of love, journey, and connection, brought to life through powerful vocals and captivating melodies.

It marks an exciting new chapter for the JJ Twins as they expand their musical journey and connect with audiences in a whole new way.

Their recent album, ‘CONCLUDED,’ explores themes of love, heartbreak, and healing, and include hits like ‘Can’t Get You Off My Mind’ and ‘You Left Me Here to Die’ which showcase their emotional intensity.

Readers could stay connected and follow JJ Twins on social media for exclusive updates, behind-the-scenes moments, and upcoming releases:

Instagram: http://instagram.com/jjtwinsofficial

TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@jjtwinsmusic

Facebook: http://facebook.com/jjtwinssingers

YouTube: http://youtube.com/jjtwins