The Hon. Sunil Kumara Gamage - Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports

¶ 01 Mr. Chairman, I speak under the Head of the Ministry of Urban Development, Construction and Housing, specifically on the National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB), the sole provider of potable water in Sri Lanka.

¶ 02 Coverage: Since 2014, connections have grown to about 3,150,000. Pipe-borne water coverage by NWSDB is about 45% nationally (overall around 60% including CBOs and others). However, this is not sufficient; we must expand.

¶ 03 Financials (2024): Total expenditure Rs. 84 billion; cost of sales Rs. 38 billion; yielding a gross margin near Rs. 46 billion (~50%). Yet heavy finance costs burden the Board: about Rs. 12.2 billion last year servicing past loans. When gross profit is Rs. 24 billion net of other costs, that finance bill consumes a huge share. The root cause is legacy debt-fuelled projects with weak planning.

¶ 04 Project delays: As of 2024, capitalized assets were about Rs. 529 billion, with ongoing projects worth Rs. 347 billion—24 active projects, 20 of which began before 2017 yet remain incomplete. Examples: - Greater Colombo Water and Wastewater Management Improvement Investment Project, started 2014, planned 5 years; now 10 years and still ongoing. - Jaffna and Kilinochchi Water Supply and Sanitation Project, started 2011, planned 7 years; 14 years on, still ongoing. - Laggala New Town Water Supply Project, started 2016, planned 2 years; now 8 years.

¶ 05 These are not “Aragalaya-stopped” projects; most were started 2015–2017 under unsolicited proposals introduced after 2010, which caused major harm in national capital works. Due to such procurement, NWSDB is saddled with around Rs. 286 billion in debt; annual finance costs (Rs. 12–13 billion) forced tariff increases.

¶ 06 Non-Revenue Water (NRW) is ~27%—over a quarter of production yields no revenue—while about 16% of unit water charges go to finance costs and 21% to staff costs. Politically driven recruitments—e.g., about 500 unnecessary staff in 2015-era decisions, and further hirings later—also inflated costs. Ill-conceived “Water for All/Waterfall” pipe procurements without planning added waste.

¶ 07 For 2025, of the Ministry’s Rs. 95,000 million, about Rs. 49,000 million (>51%) is allocated to stabilize NWSDB, including Rs. 5,000 million for the Jaffna–Kilinochchi project. With capable officers and staff, we will rescue and reform the Board, optimize NRW, rationalize costs, and complete long-delayed projects. Thank you.