Water

Country Water Action: Sri Lanka
Water, Health, and Poverty Linkages: A Case Study from Sri Lanka

Water, health and poverty are closely linked to each other. Health and poverty have a two-way relationship. Good health brings prosperity, and prosperity brings improvements in health. Conversely, poor health may create and perpetuate poverty and poverty may, in turn, lead to poor health.

Water is at the center and links to both health and poverty.

The study develops a conceptual framework to investigate these linkages. The framework breaks down the water use aspects into three categories

• for domestic use
• for production purposes
• for environmental sustainability

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• Sri Lanka has experimented with a range of social welfare programs targeted at the poor, some more effective than others but all with many deficiencies in absolute terms. A close analysis of these experiences will enable identification of the weaknesses and their elimination from other targeted schemes for Sri Lanka as well as other countries of the region.

• The emerging water policy initiatives must take note of the need to effectively regulate ground water.

• Irrigation water is often a direct source of drinking water as well a means of recharging ground water. An integrated view needs to be taken in planning these systems as well as managing them.

• Proper management of irrigation systems is very important from a point of view of minimizing degradation of natural resources which affect people's livelihoods, but also from the perspective of minimizing and controlling associated disease causing mechanisms.

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Intizar Hussain
International Water Management Institute
P.O. Box 2075, Colombo, Sri Lanka
E-mail: iwmi@cgiar.org; web: http://www.iwmi.org