The Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe
Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe acknowledged serious difficulties in rural community-managed water schemes, noting that nearly half of the 3,800–4,000 schemes under the National Community Water Department face problems due to the Department’s lack of statutory authority, staffing, and technical capacity. He stated that draft legislation to empower the Department would be brought to Parliament, enabling government intervention in such schemes, and that Cabinet-approved structural reforms are being implemented. He also said an action plan would be prepared within months and committed to revisiting affected districts, including Vavuniya, to develop a programme with local representatives.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Your observations are correct. There are issues in rural water schemes under the National Community Water Department. There are around 3,800–4,000 community-managed schemes nationwide under its guidance; nearly 2,000 face difficulties. A key reason is the Department lacks an empowering Act and has inadequate staff and technical capacity.
¶ 02 We have drafted legislation to strengthen the Department; we hope to bring it to Parliament soon. Once enacted, the Government will have authority to intervene in community schemes. Although funds exist, due to limited technical capacity the Department struggled to rectify deficiencies. We have initiated structural changes and obtained Cabinet decisions, now under implementation. Within the next few months we will prepare an action plan to resolve these issues.
¶ 03 I have visited several districts, including Vavuniya. I will visit again to examine conditions and, together with you, formulate a program.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 7 May 2026 ·No. 23540 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. (Dr.) Susil Ranasinghe. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 7 May 2026. No. 23540. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/3419